EVOLUTION OF FOOTBALL: BALL-PLAYING GOALKEEPER

In this series of articles, I'll be documenting some of the current trends in football, ranging from player positions and roles to referee analysis.

It’s amazing how things change in life and by life, I mean football. We just adjusted to the requirement of strikers and even added a new position on the field called “forward” that’s different from striker, poacher or point man, now we have to include Ball playing Goalkeeper.

So what exactly is a ball-playing goalkeeper? Well, simply put, he’s part of the team. His role isn’t simply to keep the ball out of the net but to contribute in the genral play of the game(both attack and defence).

Purist of the art, from recent and distant past will completely disagree with the concept but just as trends change, it will become a common thing to find goalie’s that are auxillary holding midfielderrs at the back. Let’s look at it critically and here’s why I think it’s a right trend:

FAVOURS POSSESION BASED FOOTBALL

Teams like Barcelona, Arsenal and Manchester City that like to keep hold of the ball for long periods require safe hands and feet at the back. Simply hoofing the ball upfront by the team’s shotstopper is too much of a raffle, so it’s therefpre necessary to have a keeper that can retain possesion and make neat passes around him

FAVOURS COUNTER-ATTACKS

Fluid counter attacking moves usually start from the back, so it is therefore pertinent to have a goalie comfortable on the ball, even when under pressure to make that incisive pass that springs counters, rather than randomly hoofing it forward and hoping his teammate gets there, when under pressure.

IF STRIKERS DEFEND, GOALIES SHOULD ATTACK

It’s a common sight to see strikersfall back to take part in a defensive action, be it a set-piece or in open play and afterwards have to make long sprints to join in attacking moves, so why should the Goalie not be involved in the play? The goalkeeper should be charged with contributing in the offensive moves as well as defending.

There’s no perfect system and everything with a good side often has a bad side and in this case, the downside of it will be the magnitude of the direct cost of errors made by keepers and the potential of keepers losing touch with their main role in the team, but the positive seem to greatly outweigh the negatives. Keepers like Neuer, Victor Valdes, Cech  and Claudio Bravo in recent times have embodied this concept and have been largely successful, though it’s hard to decipher if the reason for their success is down to the teams in which they exercised this form of goal keeping, however, the fact that they combine both feet and hands in healthy proportions as goalkeepers points at a trend that will no doubt be a mainstay in football soon.