Most of you see just the final moment of a goalkeeper’s job – the intervention. For a long time, that moment was the main focus of training, regardless of whether the keeper was 12 or 30 years old. Goalkeeper training was based on managing randomness and being physically prepared to react to shots. Today, I want to draw your attention to what happens at the end of an action – but more importantly, to what many still fail to notice earlier. It’s obvious that modern goalkeepers are involved in all five phases of the game: offense, defense, transition to defense, transition to offense, and set pieces. It’s beyond debate that this position has undergone the greatest evolution among all sports in the last couple of decades. In what other discipline have we seen such major rule changes affect the very core of the position during the careers of top players? Goalkeepers who once excelled at saving shots suddenly had to learn how to attack.
So if the position itself is evolving this rapidly, why does the training still look like nothing has changed?
In my opinion, many head coaches and sporting directors still fail to unlock the full potential of the goalkeeper – often because they lack the tools to properly evaluate goalkeeper training. These days, it’s rare to meet a head coach who wouldn’t love to have a “Neuer” in their team – a goalkeeper who understands the game, manages space, and supports their teammates throughout every phase of play. With this article, I want to spark curiosity and start a conversation: there is a huge opportunity to evolve the way we train goalkeepers. And the act of saving a goal is just one example to help illustrate what I mean.
Let’s start with this: When working with goalkeepers, we must deeply understand what kind of goalkeeper we need. What kind of goalkeeper does the head coach want? What kind does your team need? Can you recognize that? This is a crucial step before designing the training process. A completely different type of goalkeeper is needed for a team that plays in a deep defensive block with quick transitions to attack, compared to one that dominates possession and plays with a high defensive line. And of course, league characteristics and the level of competition – whether it’s academy or professional – also matter.
Why is this so important? Because these different profiles of goalkeepers can process different types of information. They require different tasks, and they develop optimally through specific, targeted training. We can no longer afford to train all keepers the same way. Just like head coaches and fitness coaches have long understood the need for specialized programs, goalkeeper training must follow suit. 1. 2. 3. 4.
I could talk about the world of goalkeeping for hours – which is why I’ve chosen just one topic as an example to help you grasp the bigger picture: goalkeeper shot-stopping. My 16 years of experience as a coach have allowed me to create a training system that I’ve implemented at both youth academy level and top professional clubs in Poland. Everywhere I’ve worked, I’ve helped goalkeepers earn international transfers. So I’d like to share just a few thoughts with you, based on this single element: “the save.”
Why the phrase “the era of the monkey in goal is over”? It’s a metaphor that compares training a goalkeeper to react like a monkey catching a flying object – purely motor, no analysis, no understanding. It reflects a type of training that only focuses on building physical reactions to the ball using goalkeeping technique.
As a player, I spent years in a training system that never asked “why.” I wasn’t taught to analyze situations or decisions. My only job was to react to the ball and ensure technical quality. I always wondered after training – why do I only train with a stationary ball? In a match, that only happens during kick-off, free kicks, corners, and penalties. The rest of the game is dynamic. Match effectiveness is about positioning in motion – it’s about timing.
So I developed a training system that, in the defensive phase of a goalkeeper’s game, breaks down every situation into four categories, each with four distinct phases. Only once these are identified do I select the appropriate technique. I teach keepers to concentrate more broadly within a situation, to understand the stages of action that increase their chance of success.
When analyzing a conceded goal, I always rewind through those four stages to understand what went wrong.
- Starting Position – Where was the goalkeeper when the final pass before the shot was played?
- Movement – Did the goalkeeper use the time from the pass to reposition effectively, using proper technique and awareness of the ideal space?
- Set Position – Was the timing and choice of stance correct? Different situations call for different set positions.
- Intervention – Only now do we arrive at the actual save, the part most visible to fans.
Thanks to this breakdown, I can identify where the main issue lies in a keeper’s performance. I can train each stage independently. I can help the goalkeeper understand their role better.
The above is just a general outline – each type of pass, zone of the pitch, and opponent strategy introduces new variables. You need a plan, backed by analysis and evidence, to convince a goalkeeper to train this way. We must understand that goalkeeper saves come in two types:
- Reactive (decisions before the shot)
- Decisional (decisions after the shot).
There are countless components that form an effective training system and deepen a keeper’s understanding of the game. I’ve only scratched the surface with one example here.
My goal with this article is to inspire you to ask more questions – to recognize that goalkeeper training must evolve to match the growing demands of modern football. Today, we need keepers who can understand the game, anticipate, organize, and think. The era of keepers whose training focused only on physical preparation and reaction speed is over. We must help them unlock their potential to thrive in a sport that leaves less and less room for randomness.
