My answer was simple, “I want to win, so whichever style gives the team the best chance of winning”!
Therefore, I don’t actually have a preferred playing style because at first team level, winning is the priority or in the game these days you will likely be out of the job!
Having also worked in Academy football over ten years, where winning isn’t the highest priority, developing players is, working with goalkeepers in this category is more about trying to improve and give the goalkeepers the best chance to work on all ranges of distribution so they can adapt into different styles of play. However, most academies tend to play out from the back, to get the players comfortable on the ball. The irony is when you get to first team level, especially across the football league, only a small percentage truly do play out from the back, therefore goalkeepers need to be strong on their longer distribution.
At first team level also over ten years and just under 450 games coached I have worked for teams and managers across the National League, League Two, League One, a couple of games in the Championship and in the WSL.
I would say 5 of those experiences were possession based and 4 of those were a more direct style of play so I have had plenty of experience coaching the impacts of the style, on the goalkeepers within those teams.
Possession Based
9 years ago, Pep Guardiola joined Manchester City and since that day I would suggest football style in this country from the very top level right down to grass roots and non-league has changed as people have wanted to copy his style of play and eventually the style of his excellent goalkeeper Ederson!
However, we must remember he is working with the world’s elite players and on elite facilities.
Within a possession-based style, often the attacks start with the goalkeeper and the aim is to retain possession of the ball, building up through the thirds to the opponent’s goal. When in possession, it is deemed the goalkeeper is actually the spare player to have on the ball. The aim is to invite the pressure onto the goalkeeper so they can find a pass as they are pressed, to find what is now the spare player elsewhere on the pitch.
The goalkeeper is actively encouraged by a manager to stay on the ball and almost invite the opponent to come and put pressure on them. At this point there will be movements and patterns from their team mates so that the goalkeeper can find a team mate, to get out and progress up the pitch.
Some fans in stadiums, find this frustrating, they want speed and excitement whereas this can be seen as slow and cagey play with high risks involved.
From a goalkeeper’s perspective they have to be brave mentally to stay on the ball and wait for the right moment to play the pass, BUT they are also now very reliant on their team mates making that movement at the right time and the right angle to receive the pass. This is where it can go wrong and often when it does go wrong, the blame and criticism will often be levelled at the goalkeeper!
Sometimes that is fair and the goalkeeper should have played the pass sooner or later or with more care on the pass, BUT there are numerous times where their team mates have actually timed their movements wrong and this is something I feel doesn’t often get given consideration from managers/pundits/media/fans with the goalkeeper getting the bulk of the blame.
Confidence from players across the pitch plays a big part, whether that is the goalkeeper, centre backs, wing backs or midfielders in particular. When a team are playing well, winning games, players are confident, and will want to show and receive the ball. When a team is struggling, it is often when players start to move less, and don’t really want to receive the ball and risk being the one to make an error, so they hide. This is when the pressure really mounts on the goalkeeper and the goalkeeper can end up forcing passes and mistakes happen more. That then has a knock-on effect and can also affect the other aspects of a goalkeeper’s game such as decision making on crosses and through balls or even types of saves to make.
Obviously when it is done well, it can look an attractive style of play and makes the goalkeeper look good also, but there are high risks involved and the goalkeeper needs to be comfortable receiving the ball. They must have a wide range of passes, even using both feet and being mentally calm to make good decisions. Therefore, this is a far harder style of play for the goalkeeper involving far more pressure on them.
In terms of training as a goalkeeping coach, your sessions will involve, lots of work passing, receiving, putting them under pressure, different types of passes over different distances and making sure the goalkeepers join in the possession sessions with the team to see pictures and build understanding and trust with their team mates. This is before you even worry about shot-stopping, keeping the ball out and dealing with crosses!
Direct Style
The difference I found working with teams and managers who adopt this style of play is that the game for the goalkeeper is simplified and it has meant I’ve been able to spend more time on shot-stopping, crosses etc.
This style of play will involve spending some time in training, working on the longer-range ball striking, off the floor and from their hands. This will involve repetitions hitting balls over distance into certain areas of the pitch. However, there are physical implications so you have to be careful how long you spend on this or risk injury through fatigue.
One manager I worked with actually said to me one day “I would rather the goalkeeper kicked the ball into touch rather than straight down the middle of the pitch”
As mad as that might sound, it stuck with me and I understood what he meant. Unless you are a team who has a big physical target player who can flick things on and a quick player playing off them, I have witnessed often how kicking down the middle doesn’t gain you much success. The ball goes through to the opposition goalkeeper, or the centre back heads it straight back down the pitch at you, or even if your player wins the flick, it goes through to the opposite goalkeeper. It’s not often a long ball down the middle gets flicked on, you run through and score.
Over the years I have often been able to show numerous clips to the goalkeepers where they have kicked down the middle and within 15-20 seconds they have actually been facing a shot on their own goal and having to make a save after the opposition have counter attacked them having gained possession of the ball.
Therefore, through these experiences and conversations with managers I have worked with, I/we have encouraged our goalkeepers to kick to wide areas of the pitch. This can involve delivering onto smaller players on the opposition team such as full backs or wing backs to put them under pressure. Also, it can often result in an opponent heading the ball out of play tight to the touchline and we as a team gaining some territory up the pitch. Also, teams are less likely to break on you from there.
What it does mean though, is there will be times where you over compensate and hit the ball into touch as you simply can’t get it right 100% of the time and you are also relying on one of your team mates to win an aerial ball. It is times like this I have seen or heard fans criticising a goalkeeper’s distribution, but there is less margin for error for the goalkeeper when delivering into wide areas, in their defence. Any goalkeeper could kick down the middle so the ball doesn’t go out of play, but that doesn’t mean your team will actually gain success from it.
Summing Up
As a goalkeeping coach I can honestly say I have never dictated how a goalkeeper / team plays, I have simply coached the goalkeepers according to the style the manager or club want to play.
I would say from a goalkeeper’s perspective, playing more direct is easier than playing possession-based football, it simplifies the game for the goalkeeper, meaning less pressure on them.
The style of football may well change slightly again anyway. Going back to the 2014-15 season when I was at Swindon in League One, we started to play out from the back, and this caught many teams out as they weren’t used to this style of play and we gained good success.
However now that more teams have done it in recent times, opposition teams are starting to press higher, with more bodies, forcing more errors and making it harder and riskier to play out. So now rather than play through a press, goalkeepers may be forced to clip over or go longer naturally anyway so it will be interesting to see what the next few years bring.