Goalkeeper Watch Week Four – Share The Points, Not The Jersey.

Goalkeepers are a funny bunch – often unnoticed, often underappreciated, and often misunderstood. Goalkeeper Watch shines the spotlight – good, or bad – on the men between the sticks.

In the third article of Goalkeeper Watch, the EFL and Premier League fixtures between Friday 4th and Monday 7th December are under the spotlight.

English goalkeeping, specifically the debate over who England’s number one should be, is and has been a contentious topic ever since Joe Hart was usurped from the number one spot by the charismatic (forgive us for want of a better word) Jordan Pickford. 

Despite his heroics at the 2018 World Cup, however, Pickford hasn’t quite maintained the high standards he set himself in both the World Cup and with Everton in his first season there.

In truth, the same can be said for quite a few of the players who were a part of the squad that nearly ‘brought football home’. Eric Dier, Harry Maguire, Keiran Trippier, Jack Butland, and Jesse Lingard, amongst others, have arguably experienced a decline in form and reputation since the tournament. 

However, it’s very much the goalkeeping department that has thrown up the most debate. Pickford has endured a fairly torrid year and a half with Everton. The Toffees were struggling as a team, and Pickford himself was being (perhaps unfairly on occasion) scrutinised for a string of technical errors. Similarly, he wasn’t exactly endearing himself to fans or the media; a perceived arrogance quickly smeared his reputation further.  

Nick Pope is applying a lot of pressure to Pickford’s position as England number one.

28 year-old Pope hasn’t had the easiest of rides in the professional game. He’s experienced being released, infamously working as a milkman, playing non-league football, and suffering a season-ending injury. Yet, somewhat against the odds, Pope had a stellar 19/20 season.

He was part of a Burnley defence that kept 15 clean sheets, and despite the stats not necessarily backing up his perceived quality, Pope brought a calm, assured head to the Burnley backline.

Many in the goalkeeping community have been frustrated by Gareth Southgate’s refusal to give the likes of Pope, Dean Henderson, and others a go for England, opting to stand by Pickford. Yet, on Saturday 5th December, Pope and Pickford cancelled each other out in terms of performance in front of Southgate at Turf Moor.

Both Nick Pope and Jordan Pickford produced at least three crucial saves each to earn their sides a point in Lancashire. And, whilst each stopper only really pulled off one ‘camera’ save, both Pope and Pickford made crucial decisions, solid stops, and arguably got a little lucky to keep the score line level.

Pope’s camera save wasn’t necessarily textbook, but he utilised his physical advantage (height) well.

The top hand principle is wildly misunderstood amongst those who haven’t played in goal. It’s mathematically proven that, in the majority of cases, using your ‘top’ hand – the one that Pope isn’t touching the ball with below – will give you a better chance of making a save from a long range shot.

This is because the goalkeeper firstly isn’t having to fight gravity as they are with the bottom hand (rather cut across it ), and secondly because one gets more reach, albeit taking a goalkeeper longer to reach the ball.

This cut in hand movement time is compensated for as the shot producing a top hand save is, simply, from further out, and therefore the goalkeeper has the time to get his or her top hand ‘over and across’.

Pope has opted to use his bottom hand here, which wouldn’t necessarily be the recommended technique. However, Pope knows that he has greater reach than most goalkeepers due to his height, thus meaning he doesn’t particularly need the added reach from the top hand.

Similarly, unlike from situations such as free kicks, Pope was centrally positioned as the shot was struck and therefore minimised the distance that he had to reach.

Also, Nick Pope is 1.91m tall. An 11-a-side goal is only 2.44 metres wide. Pope standing centrally + a jump = well, you can do the maths…

Pickford made a good one v one save from Chris Wood, and did well to close the space to make the save.

As per the photo below, Pickford is in a good starting position. He’s not too high, but high enough to rush the attacker should the through ball be played. The ball was played, and therefore Pickford (an athletic goalkeeper anyway) could effectively close the space, putting the onus on the striker. He was also still deep enough as the ball was played to retreat into the goal should a shot have been taken.

Pickford actually used a sub-optimal technique as Chris Wood took the shot. He was somewhat lucky that Wood didn’t hit the ball any higher, as Pickford was leaning backwards and also turned his shoulder – criminal behaviour in the goalkeeping 1v1 rulebook. However, the save was ultimately made and thus Pickford got away with this technical defect.

A save is a save, as they say. 

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