Football is always evolving.
If you could watch a game back in 1900 it would be unrecognisable from a game today. I’m not talking about how the ball has changed or the lack of sponsorship on the shirts, I’m talking about how the game is played.
Tactical developments have had a profound effect on how football is played and enjoyed, but one of the most significant developments in recent times is the evolution of the goalkeeper.
From simply being shot stoppers, the last line of defence, modern goalkeepers have been turned into playmakers, orchestrating plays from the back and even coming forward to serve as an additional outfield player.
It is a much more diverse role than it has ever been before, demanding a lot more confidence on the ball and requiring greater vision, reading, and understanding of the game.
I’m interested in how we got here, so I will explore how and why the goalkeeper’s position has changed over time, starting with the traditional shot stopper.
The Traditional Goalkeeper
According to the 1863 association football rules, any player could catch the ball or knock it away from the goal. The rules changed briefly so that no player could use their hands, then the traditional goalie was added to the rules in 1871. Interestingly though, the goalkeeper could handle the ball anywhere on the pitch!
Here’s how those rules changed in the early days:
- 1871: the keeper can handle the ball “for the protection of his goal”.
- 1873: the keeper cannot “carry” the ball.
- 1883: the keeper cannot carry the ball for more than two steps.
- 1887: the keeper cannot handle the ball outside their own half.
- 1901: the keeper can handle the ball for any purpose.
- 1905: the keeper cannot advance beyond his goal-line when defending a penalty.
- 1912: the keeper can only handle the ball in the penalty area.
You can imagine how goalkeepers may have been used in the 1800s – although back then the most popular formation was a 1-2-7, so it’s more or less pointless covering these early goalkeepers as the game was so different.
What most people would recognise as a traditional goalkeeper developed from the early 1900s onwards. With the goalie restricted from handling the ball outside of the penalty area after 1912, it became very dangerous for them to leave the box.
This was long before the idea of building from the back was dreamed up, so the traditional goalkeeper had a very simple job: stop the ball going in the net.
That was more or less it.
They were the last line of defence and rarely ventured far from their goal, so the most important goalkeeper skills were their shot stopping ability, reflexes and positioning. They could wallop the ball up field but it was the outfield player’s job to do something clever with it.
It wasn’t until the 1950s that things began to change.
1950s: Hungary’s Golden Team
From this point onwards, there is a clear and traceable line from the traditional to the modern goalkeeper, and it all starts with one man: Gyula Grosics.
He was part of Hungary’s Golden Team in the 1950s, and their style of play forced him to do things a little bit differently.
Hungary played a 4-2-4 formation with players constantly switching positions, which was very effective, but it did leave space between the defenders and the goal which could be dangerous when the opposition countered.
Grosics found himself having to come off this line to close down the space and clear the ball before the opposition could get to it. He would also roll or throw the ball out to defenders or midfielders rather than kicking it in order to maintain the team’s possession based style of play.
This was a rare sight indeed in the 1950s, and it caught the attention of several managers, players, and coaches.
Lev Yashin, arguably the greatest goalkeeper of all time and the only one to have won the Ballon d’or, is known to have been inspired by Grosics. Yashin was famous for his willingness to come out and serve as an extra defender when necessary, and for starting dangerous counter attacks by quickly throwing the ball back out when he got hold of it.
So Grosics inspired a new generation of sweeper keepers, and popularised the idea of goalkeepers coming off their line to serve a more useful and dynamic role in the team. Yashin took that idea and blew it up in the 1960s.
Someone else who had been watching and admiring this development, was Rinus Michels.
1970s: Dutch Team and Total Football
Rinus Michels had been manager of Ajax and Barcelona before taking over the Netherlands national team.
In his role at both clubs, he had developed the idea of Total Football.
This approach required players to play comfortably in multiple positions, creating more dynamism on the pitch and opening up a whole new world of tactical opportunities. This extended to goalkeepers, who would need to be more intelligent and technically diverse.
He wanted a goalie who could come out of his box to help in defence as well as stop the ball between the sticks, and even create plays on occasion. He drew particular attention for this in 1974 because he selected Jan Jongbloed in goal over Jan van Beveren who was widely accepted to be the better shot stopper. Jongbloed offered a better mix of modern goalkeeper skills and traditional shot stopping, and with him in goal the team made it to the World Cup Final for the first time.
With the whole world watching the World Cup, and with the Netherlands doing so well, Total Football had well and truly arrived and the sport began to shift into a new era, especially for goalkeepers.
One of Michels’ favourite players – some might even call him a student – was a young man named Johan Cruyff. Cruyff had played under Michels at Ajax and then followed him to Barcelona, and was obviously part of the national side too.
Michels impact on Cruyff was immense, and when he went into coaching himself a decade or so later, Cruyff continued to develop the system he had learned from his mentor.
1980s: Cruyff, Ajax and Barcelona
Cruyff went one step further than Michels, and introduced the idea that a goalkeeper could play a more active role in outfield play.
This was where we first started to see the goalkeeper as playmaker.
Cruyff had Ajax pressing hard which left a lot of space at the back, so he still needed a keeper who could come off his line and sweep up counter attacks, but he also wanted to use him as an eleventh outfield player. He encouraged Ajax’s keeper at the time, Stanley Menzo, to “take risks”. What he meant by this, was he wanted Menzo to take the ball upfield and help build the attacks from the back.
This wasn’t something that was covered in goalkeeper training in those days, so it was new territory for Menzo as well as everyone watching, but it worked.
Ajax won plenty of silverware with Cruyff at the helm, a trend that continued after he left, and a trend that he took to his new role as manager of Barcelona in 1988.
In Spain, he continued to coach in the same style to even greater success, and one of the players he worked with for a very long time, was Pep Guardiola. Pep was just 17 and playing in Barcelona’s C team when football’s living legend took control at his club. At such an impressionable age he latched onto everything Cruyff was teaching, and he too would take things to a different level.
2000 Onwards: Guardiola’s Goalkeeper as Playmaker
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Pep Guardiola changed modern football.
His tactics were so successful that he forced other clubs to adapt in order to keep up, and the landscape of modern goalkeeper tactics changed with them.
At Barcelona, Guardiola had Víctor Valdés playing as an 11th outfield player as much as in a goalkeeper role. In possession he was positioned high up the pitch, he made himself constantly available as part of possession triangles with defenders to relieve pressure, and built play from the back rather than trying long balls that might be lost.
Guardiola took this further when he moved to Bayern Munich, turning Manuel Neuer into the most effective playmaking goalkeeper in the world. In fact, Neuer was averaging more touches per game than any other goalkeeper in history at that time. He was impressively comfortable on the ball and in one on one situations outside the box, and could play pin point accurate long balls on the counter as well as building from the back. He had all the modern goalkeeper skills a manager could want.
It was at Manchester City where Guardiola’s vision was truly perfected though. It could be argued that the ultimate goalkeeper as playmaker is Man City’s, Ederson. He was one of Pep’s first signings at the club and exemplifies the modern goalkeeper. He positions himself to create a numerical advantage during build up phases, can bypass a press with accurate diagonal balls, his passing accuracy is akin to that of midfielders, and he has even racked up a number of assists. This would have been unthinkable in decades past. He holds a club record for clean sheets too.
Since Pep joined Man City in 2016, build up sequences including the goalkeeper have grown by 200% in the 5 biggest European leagues according to CIES Football Observatory. Data from Opta also shows us that the average passing distance of keepers has steadily reduced over time, with a more pronounced drop once Guardiola took over at Man City:
This is because Goalkeepers are increasingly being used in the build up phase rather than going for long balls. More clear evidence that Guardiola’s impact on the role of modern goalkeeper tactics has been monumental, but he was standing on the shoulders of giants.
As I said, the evolution of goalkeepers can be tracked from one person to another over 70ish years from the 1950s to the 2020s. Grosics inspired Yashin who brought wider attention to the idea of goalkeepers coming off their line, then Michels developed the idea and passed it on to Johan Cruyff, who introduced the additional idea of a goalkeeper as playmaker and taught his approach to Guardiola, who perfected it and ensured his number ones had the modern goalkeeper skills necessary to complete the evolution.
The modern goalkeeper is now more important to the team than they have ever been before.
Impact on Goalkeeper Training
With all of these additional demands on goalkeepers, the way they train has completely changed too.
Among other things, a modern goalkeeper is expected to tick all of these boxes:
- Exceptional passing range (both short and long)
- Comfort receiving the ball under pressure
- Quick decision-making skills
- Superior positioning awareness
- Advanced reading of the game
To match increasing expectations, goalkeeper training has had to go through its own evolution to include more footwork drills, lessons on positioning both in and out of possession, and a lot more passing work. Premier League goalkeepers now regularly make 30-40 passes per game, and their accuracy is often around the 85% mark. In the early 2000s they might make 20 passes in a busy game, and the majority would be long clearances – hoofing it up field basically.
A lot of work is also done putting goalkeepers under pressure on the ball. If they are to have the confidence to leave the box with the ball at their feet, they need to know how to keep possession or make timely and accurate passes before they are closed down.
With possession based play becoming more and more popular, training will continue to evolve to ensure number ones have all the modern goalkeeper skills they need to perform the new role the goalie has become.
The evolution of the goalkeeper may even continue further in the decades to come.