Goalkeeping: Playing in a weakened team

It is an inevitable part of football, that at some point or another you will be standing behind players whom are not perhaps the strongest that your Club can field. Unless you play at the Elite level, then it can be rightly assumed that most Team Managers have an idea of their strongest eleven, and use the remainder of the squad for tactical, potentially game changing or support purposes.

When you see the Team Sheet or hear the manager announce the side during the Pre-Match, then it is sometimes hard to prepare yourself mentally, knowing full well that you could be in for an interesting game!

First and foremost, keep your feelings to yourself! It may sound stupid, but people will automatically look to you should you voice an opinion as you are one of the talismans for the side. Any emotional wobble from you now has the potential to undermine your team’s mentality.

Secondly, accept the challenge! There are times when life throws us a curve ball, and it is how we accept that challenge that dictates the outcome – if we cower away from any challenge then it will inevitably beat us, yet if we accept every challenge with vigour then we have the power to dictate the outcome.

Finally, know the weak spots and protect them. Without blatantly exposing your emotions, you need to ensure that any potential weak area has enough protection and support to carry you through the game. Encouragement and positive advice all help to galvanise your side, so ensure that none of your communication, verbal or physical, is defeatist and that you lead your players into believing you are going to win.

In times like this, it is essential that the more experienced players step up and inspire those around them. Even though you are a long way from the majority of the action, how you look and sound will affect your team mates.

Make sure that you know the formation, and that you fully understand exactly what your manager expects from his players at any given time. This will help you to organise from the back and actually to coach during play. Unlike goalkeepers, all outfielders are simple and need guidance(!) so your tactical knowledge and awareness will help to ensure that discipline is maintained at all times.

Stay positive, for when in the face of adversity is also when the greatest results are achieved.

Goalkeeping: When the Gaffer pulls you up

You’ve come out for crosses and got nowhere near them, your kicks were struggling to clear the half way line or you simply were just having an off day…the very last thing you need is to be told how poor you were!

But, that is what the Manager is there for – to manage.

Depends on the character of a) you and b) your Manager as to how he delivers the verdict to you, but it very much depends on the character of you as to how you accept his decision.

I have noticed a very worrying trend in recent seasons that the majority of footballers seem to think the world owes them something. I was beginning to think that this was just my opinion, but after talking to several experienced coaches the consensus is universal across the game. This opinion was cemented in my mind when I saw footage of football legend Dario Gradi, all on his own hauling a goal across the pitch at training whilst the Youth Team Players watched – Gradi was 70 years old at the time!

From my personal experience, as a coach you now have to know exactly how much babysitting these players require. Without wanting to sound like a grumpy old man, back in my day a rollicking was accepted by the players, or if a lad was asked to play out of position then he would do so without argument but nowadays it is very different altogether.

I have yet to meet a Manager or a Coach who deliberately set his team out to lose, so if you do feel the sharp end of his tongue then you have to accept it, roll your sleeves up and be determined not to let him down again.

One of my gaffers was a master at this, he was capable of putting his arm around you and either making you feel like king of the world with his praise, or stonewall make you wish that the ground would open up and swallow you whole! There was one memorable incident for me when I knew I’d had a ‘mare in the first half. When the whistle blew for the interval I stood motionless in my penalty area reflecting on what had happened. I was prepared to stay out there until the second half.

It took the intervention of one of our substitutes to encourage me to make my way down the tunnel and into the changing room. I was met with deathly silence as I opened the door and trudged in….and then the gaffer came up to me, put his arms around me and said “Thank f**k you’ve come in, I thought that I was going to have to put the gloves on!”, and that was it – the ice was broken and it snapped me out of my self-pity!

To be fair to him, he wanted to tear strips off me (he later admitted as we had a lengthy discussion after the game – when he DID tear strips off me!) but this was how he knew that I’d react best to the First Half disappointment. I knew that I’d let everyone down for 45 minutes, and I wholly respect the Manager and Staffs right to pull me up over it.

If you are unfortunate enough to be pulled up by the manager, either publically or privately, then accept the criticism. Do not try to make excuses or point the finger of blame at other players – it is you who is being singled out, so it is you who should accept the criticism and use it to fire your next performance. Prove your ability, to yourself first and foremost, but use the anger inside you to benefit your team. Fire yourself up and take responsibility for your performance – it’s no one else’s fault but yours!

Goalkeeping: When mistakes happen

Like night follows day, and Winter follows Autumn there is another sure fire guarantee in this life – a Goalkeeper will make a mistake!

We put ourselves in a position of zero tolerance where errors are concerned, so it is also a given that we must learn how to cope with them when the inevitable happens.

You will get everybody and his dog come up to you afterwards to say “Chin Up” and “Don’t worry” but these words will make no effect to how you are feeling at that moment in time. If you are like me, then you will seek solace in your own company, reflecting over and over again exactly what happened and tipping yourself into despair once more.

The harsh truth is that life does go on, and in reality no body has died so you must get up, dust yourself down and get on with it. A mistake can focus your mind and ingrain a steely resolve to be the best player on the pitch for the remainder of the game. It is this focus that must rise within you.

A mistake will happen solely because of lack of concentration, so if and when they do, then you must resolve to focus entirely on what is happening in the current time. What is a disaster is when we replay the incident over and over in our head, during live play – we immediately lose focus and instead drift off into our subconscious and history rather than staying in the present. We cannot change the past, but we can affect our future so it is imperative that the mistakes are pushed to the back of our minds until the referee blows for full time.

Allowing any train of thought to carry us away from the present is a real danger to any athlete, but for a goalkeeper can be suicidal. Watch at how many players react to a mistake, I can virtually guarantee that they will then try too hard in the next event. This over-concentration is just as dangerous as the under-concentration that led to the mistake initially.

If you try too hard, then your body is automatically tense and cannot operate as flexibly and naturally as you need to be on top of your game. The mind is what dictates a players performance, not the body, and if the mind is working harder than it should, then the body will behave in the same manner.

It is easy to say, but inherently difficult to do in pushing the error to the very back of your mind and playing in the present. Goalkeepers should be trained in isolating their thoughts; they should be well versed in how to ignore outside influences and therefore can be trained to ignore the internal emotion. If you do not possess the ability to slip into your own personal zone at any given time, then achieving your dreams will become very difficult.

Your Team Mates will expect a reaction, your Coaching Staff will expect a reaction but the Supporters will demand a reaction, and the best reaction is to be human. Kick the post, punch the floor or shout and scream if that is your manner, but as soon as the play is live again then it is imperative that you slip back into behaving like a professional, thinking like a professional and moving like a professional. Get the focus squarely back on what is happening in front of you – that is the only thing that matters at the current time.

Once the game has finished then seize the opportunity to analyse what has happened. I personally would jump in my car and drive, anywhere as it did not matter where, park up and sit there with a notepad leaning up the steering wheel. I’d make notes as to the build up, what emotions I remember, what influenced the error?

I would do this to alleviate my anger for when I got home to see the Wife. It would not have been fair had I taken it all home, though it’s inevitable that some of it would have remained with me as I would not sleep that night, but the main emotion had flowed out of me whilst sitting in my isolation.

This self taught isolation needs to become a goalkeepers best friend, regardless of the environment a goalkeeper needs to have the ability to be on his own

Goalkeeping: Keeping warm during games

We don’t half take a bettering don’t we? Every single one of us puts our bodies on the line for the sake of not allowing the other side to score, and what thanks do we get? The opportunity to be inactive for 80% of the game whilst it’s throwing it down with icy rain! Wow, some thanks!

So what can you do to help keep the chills at bay? Well firstly take a look at what you are wearing….

I know when I was a junior goalkeeper (yes, I really was young once!) I would wear padded trousers on my legs and also T-Shirts under my jersey to try and repel the chill in the air….and needless to say it failed miserably! The padded trousers in particular, just soaked up the rainwater, stuck to my legs and weighed an absolute tonne on my youthful frame! The best thing that I ever did was to ditch the ultra absorbent sponge like trousers during game play, and stuck instead to the team shorts, with cycling shorts underneath. I figured out that should it ever stop raining, my skin will dry far quicker than the padded trousers ever could, and it proved to be one of the best decisions going!

Psychologically though, it was very hard leaving the dressing room wearing shorts instead of trousers!

The same argument can be used for a T-Shirt under your jersey; it simply soaks up any water and holds it next to your skin up until you can jump in the shower at the end of the game! There are plenty of options nowadays for the “Under Armour” type clothing and these have been a real god send since their release. Do not underestimate the value of investing in this type of clothing.

If it was absolutely lashing it down then I would wear a rain top under my jersey (long before Buffon wore his too – yes, I really am a trendsetter!). This was a great addition to my match day attire; it kept me lovely and warm due to reflecting the body heat, and also relatively dry too. The only downside with this was when the padding in my shorts got soaked full of water, they would often slip down due to the slippery material of the rain jacket (not all the way down, just far enough to annoy) but by making sure the drawstring was fastened as tight as it could go prevented this a little!

Aside from the way you dress, you need to make sure you keep the blood flowing. If it’s a busy game for you then I doubt very much that you’d feel the cold however if you are relatively quiet then at some point, that little voice is going to whisper in your ear “I’m freezing!”

Wet goalkeeper gloves do not aid this chill, so ensure you keep making fists to squeeze the water out of the latex and also repeatedly perform the “windmill” exercise with your arms; this will drive the blood down into your fingers and help to maintain their warmth.

Similarly for your legs, bouncing, jogging on the spot, bounding on the spot with your knees to your chest are all ways to get that warm blood pumping around your body – in essence keep active during the game, but never let your attention drift away from the action! If you decide to go for a little jog or a skip, then ensure that you always have full knowledge of what is happening on the pitch.

A final little tip for you, and one that I picked up from a senior pro at one of the training grounds I worked at is……………..VASELINE! To stop that horrible cold toes feeling, then liberally coat your toes with this amazing stuff. Yes, it will feel horrible and ‘squidgy’ but it miraculously helps to retain the heat and has been an absolute blessing of a tip for me over the years and in actual fact, even now, I still use this trick as a spectator!