Goalkeeping: Captain Marvel?

Can a goalkeeper be a captain? Can a goalkeeper make a good captain? If you are one of the special people whom don the goalkeeper gloves every weekend then you will already know the answer to this…..

YES!!!

If you are like I was as a player, then you knew that you were a leader. You knew that you could get your team to follow you into whatever battle was ensuing for the next ninety minutes; that was the way that I was as a player, I was a winner!

And because of this it may skew my opinions a little, but I had the privilege of being given the arm band at the majority of my clubs. I was always honoured when the manager would pull me aside after training, or call me in the middle of the day to say “I want you to be my Captain”. I loved those moments, as it showed a huge trust in me, not my ability, but in my personality.

I’ve always believed that a Captain should be an inspiration, not necessarily in what he says, but almost certainly in what he does. Actions will always inspire me, as words can be cheap if they cannot be backed up. When things are getting tough, I expect my Captain to lead, to inspire and to change his teams attitude.

A good Captain is worth a host of valuable points each season, a team without this leader has a ‘soft belly’ or an ‘Achilles heel’ if you will. And if that inspiration has to come from the last line of defence, then so be it….

We play football to win, full stop. I know full well that my ambition come quarter to five on a Saturday afternoon was to have those three points safely in the bag. If we’d played well then brilliant, however the three points were always the priority and I think that my Managers recognised that in me.

Whether the goalkeeper is the elder statesman of the squad (Shilton for England or Zoff for Italy) or relatively younger like Iker Casillas of Spain, is all irrelevant as long as they possess the inner spirit to be a winner.

So, can you lead from the back? Of course you can, your body language can be seen from the other penalty area and your voice can be heard from the neighbouring city! When you look across to your bench when you’ve just conceded and you see your Manager with his head in his hands, what inspiration have you just drawn? That we’re beaten, the manager has just given up.

However, you look over and see your manager being proactive, urging you to get the ball out of the net and back up field before issuing instructions to the winger standing nearest to him; you draw inspiration from this. His urgency and body language is all positive – he does not want to be beaten. That is a leader. A man with a Plan A, B and C who will not lay down for anyone. He cannot leave his technical area so therefore cannot directly influence play, but you can…

There are many ways to influence your team mates, maybe it’s a highly charged rollicking delivered directly in the face of your defender, maybe it’s the arm around the shoulder and an encouraging word in their ear but for a goalkeeper captain, it will mostly be through body language; a point of the finger, a thumbs up or a wink. It is the delivery of this that is vitally important, you must know which one to use and when for a 40 yard print across the pitch is never an available option for us!

Never allow yourself to believe that your team is beaten, never allow your tem mates to believe that either for as long as there is air in their lungs, then anything is possible. One goal can change a game, and your whole behaviour can dictate the attitude of your team mates. With or without the Arm Band, you are the leader….and winning feels great!

Goalkeeping: Playing in the Rain

It is fair to say that I am somewhat strange in that I love to train in the rain, but I hate playing in it! This is because in training; I see it as a challenge, different ways to test my ability and to pit myself against the elements. I always liked to push my boundaries in training, attempt things that I may never dream of doing during a game; training was my time for development.

In games however, was a different kettle of fish. Any new challenge was frowned upon by me, I liked my 90 minutes to be uneventful and boring with anything I had to deal with being simpler than simple! I did not want to be pulling out worldies or diving across my goal several times – I wanted to do nothing in games as that would result in a fair chance that we would win the game! Nothing to do = pressure always up the opposing end.

It is a whole new ball game, when the rain is driving down and you have to squint just to try and repel it from your eyes. Every movement feels lethargic as the cold material of your goalkeeper jersey clings uncomfortably to your body, your shorts soak up the water due to the sponge padding and you are constantly making fists in order to drain the water from your latex palms.

Each one of those things has already taken your mind away from the game, and that can automatically result in danger. Playing on a slippery surface requires real focus, and attention to every little development that is happening in front of you. You must concentrate harder and longer as even a long punt forwards can result in your defender slipping over and leading to a goal scoring opportunity.

Firstly you must remember that you cannot take any chances; a shot that you would naturally try to catch, you may very well need to adjust your hand shape so that you can parry it instead. The slightly dragged shot that you would naturally field to safety may instead require you to make the save as the wet surface can alter the destination. The back pass that you would normally strike first time, might just need a touch to settle first….all of these issues fall within your decision making.

Remember that you will slide further when you hit the floor, so any parries must be into a safe zone.

Remember that the ball will happily zip along the surface, and will bounce for longer so you need to adjust your body shape as it travels, in order to master the ball.

Remember that your team mates may not be able to control and turn with your passes as usual; you must use the wet surface to your advantage and aim to hit their movement instead.

There are infinite changes to your natural routine when dealing with any aspect of goalkeeping in the wet, every ball is a whole new challenge and focus is imperative. Here are just a couple of tips that will help your rainy day play:

• Deal with all sorts of varied service in the warm up. Bounces, skidded, flat, through balls – all are of equal importance and you must “get your eye in” on these skills before kick off where possible.

• If possible, get yourself back out at half time and field some similar strikes to the warm up.

• Coating your eyebrows with Vaseline allows the rain to be ‘guttered’ around your eyes (this is also useful on hot days to repel the sweat from your forehead!)

• Don’t panic, every shot can be dealt with as long as your basics are precise. Get into line with absolutely everything during the game, do not break concentration and focus on your technical skill set.

Goalkeeping: Training with an enemy

In every way possible, the lads that you train with are your enemies; however are probably only ever so in a sporting sense of the word. You are all competing for a single position in the team, and there can only ever be one winner.

I was very fortunate during my playing career that away from the training ground, all my competitors were also my mates. I still desperately wanted to beat them though, and I had to be Number One, but we all saw it as healthy competition and socialised to the full as a small goalkeeping group!

As a Coach in the modern game, I have seen petty squabbles amongst my goalkeepers and have become the mediator in the middle of fully grown men acting like teenagers!

It has even happened to me once; a lad that had recently joined us actually rang up the Manager asking if he could train with another goalkeeper coach! It emerged that he did not like my direct approach to what I can only politely describe as his “big time” attitude and wanted instead to work with someone less abrasive!

He left not long after (the manager also told him to grow a pair). It was areal shame as he had bags of ability, but sadly not attitude.

Back onto topic though, and training with someone whom you do not get on with is inherently difficult, especially if you do not have a strong coach. I put the emphasis onto the coach as he is solely in charge of the session.

The squabbles that I have been witness to have resulted in half hearted service, or service that “stitches up” the goalkeeper. One of the worst experiences I had was during a pre-match where Goalkeeper A had just been replaced by Goalkeeper B. Whether Goalkeeper B was involved in the squad or not, he always came and joined in the warm up without fail. His professionalism was unquestioned and, even though it was clear the pair never got on, Goalkeeper B would be fully committed to adopting the correct attitude.

Having been dropped, Goalkeeper A emerged from the tunnel with such a poor attitude coupled with half hearted service that it boiled over and he was politely asked by myself to either “adjust your attitude or please get dressed and go home”. His attitude improved sufficiently to ensure that Goalkeeper B was mentally and physically prepared for his game, whilst Goalkeeper A and I had a good discussion in the equipment room, away from potentially disrupting the changing room.

My advice to him was simply whether you like him or not, you need to learn from him. You need him to provide good service for you to improve from and to do this, he must respect you. It is attitude and actions that earn respect so whether you like him or not, be a professional.

I also remember once saying to one of my Managers “I don’t have to like you to play for you”…………he promptly dropped me into the Reserves!

Personal feelings cannot enter the football pitch, whether it be training or playing. Whilst you have the gloves on, that is the only thing that matters at that time. Accept one another, use your emotions to push yourself on, channel it to become a better player than him if you must, but do not allow this personal situation into your professional mind space.

Goalkeeping: Playing second fiddle

I think that we have all been there at some point in our careers, whether it be for just the one game or an entire season or two – just ask Steve Harper! But the very nature of our isolated position means that one of the squad goalkeepers will be on the bench!

The desolation felt when the manager names the team, and you’re not in it, is second to no other feeling in football – put in simplistic terms it is downright horrible! Even when we are totally honest with our self appraisal and acknowledge that the other goalkeeper slightly has the edge over us, the bitter pill of rejection is still an incredibly hard one to swallow.

So how do we cope with it?

There is no magic wand in football that can help us to push on despite the rejection, no amount of consoling words can ever do justice to the annoyance felt; and often this is compounded by the Manager as sometimes they simply do not have the opportunity nor time to explain why you aren’t involved. If you are involved with full time football then this is inexcusable, however for the millions of part time and grass roots players, they must accept the Managers decision and simply keep their head down, be professional on the Match Day and ask the manager at a convenient time.

I remember well one personal example, and am now embarrassed at my reaction however that was my personality at the time. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and experience has taught me acceptance and knowledge of the position the manager was in.

We’d had a good pre-season, and both myself and the other goalkeeper had been sharing duties throughout, but I had been given the most game time and had been told directly from the Manager that I would be the starter. I had no reason to doubt this so when the first league game came round (bizarrely on a Tuesday night!) I prepared as I normally did….

…and then the Manager ran through the team when we were all assembled in the changing room. BOOM! I am now embarrassed to say that my head went, I felt betrayed and seriously let down by the man I trusted most. I simmered away as I slowly got changed, the slaps on the shoulders and cajoling words from my team mates were of no use, they merely fuelled the fire inside me.

I waited for the lads to all empty the changing room for their warm up and then alone with the Manager and Physio; I kicked off! Let’s simply say that there is a changing room in Norfolk that has imprints of size 10 Puma Kings in the showers!

I had to accept that I had been benched, and had to respect the Managers decision (which I did, just not the way I found out!). I resolved there and then to graft even harder in training than I had ever done before, as there was no way I wasn’t going to compete for my place. If I see things as a personal challenge then I will win, regardless of how long or how exhausting it is, I will keep going until I have conquered the challenge.

As a full time goalkeeper coach, I have worked very closely with lads that have to play second fiddle and my advice is always the same: rise to the challenge, keep your head down and train like you have never trained before. If there is an endurance run then make sure that you are at the front, if you are doing circuits then make sure that you are working the hardest and never give up. Make it impossible for the gaffer to overlook you, and when you do get the chance then make it impossible for him to drop you!

Maintain your professionalism, though there is no harm in showing your emotion (by kicking the shower walls!) but always hold your head high, do things properly and never roll over and accept the decision. See it as an inconvenience and not as an insult and be prepared to take your chance.