The Evolving Role of the Goalkeeper In Possession
This article is a (somewhat) continuation of my previous article, The Evolving Roles of the Defensive Line.
The role of the goalkeeper could be placed into the category of ‘anti-football’. As Jonathan Wilson puts in his book on the history of the goalkeeper, The Outsider, the goalkeeper is ‘an aberration’:
‘His job is to be safe and secure, to stifle the creative impulses of others. He is thus cast as he had been in the very origins of the game as a killjoy’
This has meant that the goalkeeper is often separated from the rest of the team. The level to which they are removed can be seen in how formations are usually presented. 4–3–3, 4–4–2, 3–5–2, the ‘keeper’ often doesn’t even get included in the line up, just with the assumption that they will be there, doing their usual thing.
The goalkeeper is also perceived differently to the rest of the team. Due to the specialist nature of the position (being able to use their hands), they are generally viewed through the prism of whether the opposition score past them or not. Even with poor defenders in front of them, It’s the keeper’s fault if the ball goes in the net.
However, with the change in the back pass law in 1992, the goalkeeper is being reintegrated into the team due to their need to assist their teammates both in possession, as well as the common known ways they support the defensive line out of possession (see ‘the sweeper keeper’).
With that change in the back pass law, where goalkeepers are now no longer permitted to handle the ball when it is passed to them by a teammate, goalkeepers have had to evolve. They now have to be more composed on the ball and more proficient in playing with their feet than ever before. This has developed further, whereas once keepers would be risk-averse, launching the ball forward to avoid making a costly mistake, it is now demanded of them to be accomplished enough to build attacks and help their team maintain possession.
As mentioned by George Berneanou is his interview with The Tactical View, goalkeepers are required now more than ever to use their feet more then their hands:
‘Not more than a decade ago, the goalkeeper was only dealing with shot stopping, crosses and set pieces. Now the statistics reveal that 75% of the goalkeeper’s game actions are offensive. There is a strong emphasis on using his feet, which is turning him into an extra outfield player.’
With coaches continually looking to create superiorities for their team on the pitch, the most recent tactical development (or evolution) for the goalkeeper has been for them to position within the defensive line, acting as an additional player in possession. This has resulted in the keeper increasingly moving further away from their own goal in order to facilitate this.
Viewed through the lens of positional play, the goalkeeper being involved in the build up in this way provides a numerical superiority for the team in possession. Being used in this way provides an additional player, in a sense creating a 11v10, as it’s unlikely that the opposition will bring their own goalkeeper infield to defend. This also creates a level of decisional crisis for the opposition. Should an opposition player put pressure on the goalkeeper in possession, an outfield player is now open to receive ahead of the ball. Should they decide not to pressure the goalkeeper, they are now in a position where they can distribute the ball with relative ease.
More specifically, as put by Fred Jähnke in his article on the ‘false 1’, using the goalkeeper in this way allows a team to maintain specific task and responsibilities. As an example:
‘It allows the team to overload the centre without sacrificing another task like width in the first line. This makes it easier to find a free man in the centre or force the opposition to narrow their press and play around.’
As mentioned in Spielverlagerung’s exceptional piece on Pep Guardiola’s 3–2–2–3 set up for Manchester City this season, moving the goalkeeper up in this way is the obvious solution to create perfect spatial occupation (width throughout the pitch, overload in the centre). The problem they mention is that this however is the riskiest option for a team, and Pep instead had opted to withdraw his centre forward to try and achieve this.
This type of innovation can been seen in numerous leagues around the world, but also at varying levels. The goalkeeper being used outfield isn’t just reserved for the top divisions. Upon taking the reins at newly relegated Hamburg SV back in 2018, Christian TItz began utilizing Julian Pollersbeck, his goalkeeper, as an extra outfield player during the team’s build up. While this was only short lived as Titz was sacked in October 2018, below is an example of how Pollersbeck was used when his side were in possession:
Also, Busan IPark this season (2021) in K League 2 have used a goalkeeper in the defensive line during build up. Ahn Jun-su will take up his position between the two centre backs, meaning they can take up wider positions to give the first line width, whilst allowing an extra player to position higher up the pitch. Here is a comparison between Busan’s build up versus Daejeon Hana Citizen. Daejeon, using a back 3, use three outfield players, whilst Busan using Ahn Jun-su, only require 2 outfield players to create the same situation. I have wrote about this more in detail for K League United here:
Even down in league 2, MK Dons have been using this idea this past season (2020/21). Andy Fisher, who signed permanently at the club in October 2020, is now being used in possession to break the opposition’s pressing structure. Although not as high a position as some of the other examples, his ability to be on the ball in an advanced position and passing ability is able to force the opposition out of their man marking scheme. Dom Corrigan’s excellent video gives an explanation of this versus Sunderland:
At the top level, Pep Guardiola had also been experimenting with the idea. At the end of the 2019/20 season, he began to utilise the idea of having Ederson positioned higher and between the two centre backs. Similar to the Busan example, with Ederson’s positioning, Manchester City can now have an additional player in midfield, but also offer the decisional crisis for the opposition that had been mentioned previously. Not only does it offer the opportunity for City to have an additional player in midfield, but with Ederson’s technical quality can distribute pass with ease:
Linked to the Ederson example is the risk involved with having your goalkeeper positioned higher up the pitch, as Southampton’s goal in that game comes from a position similar to this. The ball is lost cheaply in midfield and Che Adams is able to lob the ball into an empt net.
Often the fear, or drawback, to having a goalkeeper higher up the pitch is the need for almost perfection. If the goalkeeper is that far out of their goal, one, they lose the ability to use their hands, and secondly, if they (or a teammate) give the ball away, who will stop the opposition from scoring should the ball be turned over? This is where the goalkeepers role in possession becomes a fine art of balance. They have such a demanding role in that they are being required more and more in possession, but still hold the anxiety that if not positioned effectively, will allow an easy concession, and shoulder nearly all the responsibility. Regarding this, to quote Johan Cruyff:
‘Above all, you have to learn that the great fear of goalkeepers that they will be beaten by a ball lobbed over their head from the halfway line is not based in reality. If he plays like that, in the interested of the team, then it doesn’t matter […] if once in a while he doesn’t save a high ball.’
Again from ‘The outsider’, Jonathan Wilson makes the argument that although these type of goals (the long range shot lobbing the keeper from a team’s own half) sticks in the memory, in reality they are few and far between:
‘Goalkeeping, like so much else in football — and beyond — is about balance. The times when goalkeepers are lobbed from long range […] stick in the mind, but they do so because they are comparatively rare. Essentially, if an opponent wants to start trying sixty-yard chips, it makes sense for the defensive team to let them. The problem is that when a player does get one right, the goalkeeper tends to look pretty silly.’
The final piece in the goalkeeping puzzle will be when the goalkeeper is fully integrated into the team. Not seen as an isolated position, but as another member of the starting XI. Thiago Motta’s comments whilst Paris Saint Gemrain’s U-19 coach are poignant here. Ridiculed in Italian media for his idea that formations do not really matter and can be interpreted in numerous ways, he suggested that his team’s 4–3–3 shape could be interpreted as a 2–7–2 with the goalkeeper in midfield. What his true intention here was the abstractness of his team’s shape, where really the 2–7–2 is just a 4–3–3, but the team viewed from left to right, rather than from bottom to top:
‘The goalkeeper counts as one of the midfield seven. For me, the attacker is the first defender and the goalkeeper is the first attacker. The goalkeeper starts the play, with his feet and the attackers are the first to put pressure to recover the ball.’
And while Motta’s idea may not actually be as revolutionary as initially thought, what’s promising is that the goalkeeper is being more and more integrated into the rest of the team. The next metamorphosis will be the goalkeeper just being another outfield player:
‘I believe that soccer evolution will appear once the goalkeeper gets involved in the offensive play. I believe we will evolve to have this player. […] I believe that the coach who has the courage to develop this will be the one to attack better in confined spaces.’ — Pep Guardiola