You may remember that when Pep Guardiola first came to this nation as a club manager, in the dim and distant days of 2016, there was a fair deal of scepticism about whether his philosophy would work in England, not least the way he coached his goalkeepers to pass out from the back. “It won’t happen.” “It’s a recipe for disaster.” “Keepers need to kick it long or they are inviting trouble.” Those were some of the more measured responses.
I remember going to watch Manchester City in those early days and the fans hadn’t yet made the psychological adjustment. “Get rid!” reverberated around my area of the stand when Claudio Bravo got the ball, along with collective agitation whenever he dared to play a short pass. The guy next to me said something like: “Stop faffing around,” although with slightly different words.
I think it’s probably fair to say that City fans ― and the rest of us ― have a different perspective today. Bravo certainly made his fair share of howlers and City were much improved by Guardiola’s bid for Edison, then at Benfica, but the basic insight (which had also been part of his approach at Barcelona and Bayern Munich) has been vindicated. Teams play better, particularly at the highest level, when a goalkeeper has the poise and technical ability to join in with the outfield play. Indeed, it can be transformative.
And this, I think, is one of the joys of football, the way that a simple game involving rules that have scarcely changed for more than a hundred years, is constantly finding new ways to evolve. Visionaries such as Guardiola and the likes of Johan Cruyff, Rinus Michels and Helenio Herrera have been able to find new permutations, new formations, new methods. Indeed, one only fully appreciates the speed of innovation when looking at a match from a couple of decades ago. It’s like comparing dial-ups with 5G.
I was thinking of this in the context of Mikel Arteta’s evolving ideas around competition for the goalkeeper spot. I’m guessing most of us would instinctively regard this as flawed, or at least questionable. The conventional wisdom is that it is crucial for goalkeepers to feel secure so they can act as the foundation for the team. As Peter Schmeichel recently put it: “It’s the one position that you want to be steady. The worst thing is when a goalkeeper tries to do something and it goes wrong ― every time it’s a goal. You’re much better having a No 1 who thinks he’s a No 1.”
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But I wonder if this might, one day, change. Arteta’s attempts to foment competition between Aaron Ramsdale and David Raya is definitely having teething problems, in part because it feels unfamiliar for players used to the status quo. But perhaps goalkeepers, like outfield players, do benefit from competition. Perhaps great goalkeepers can learn more when they train alongside equally impressive substitutes. Perhaps ― if a manager can persuade both to say long enough ― it creates a hub of innovation that can help everyone.
I use the word “perhaps” because I am speculating but, at the same time, it is easy to get tired of criticism that so often condemns managers for trying anything new. When it comes to change, isn’t it a bit easy to stand on the sidelines and mock the innovator, a problem that has (if we are being honest) been all too common in English football over the years? The consequence of this mindset is that nothing ever changes ― and you get overtaken by other nations.
Going back to Guardiola, it’s remarkable to look at the stats since he arrived in English football. In 2016, about 75 per cent of passes by goalkeepers in the Premier League were long ― whacked over the halfway line. This is the “get rid” philosophy in action. Since then, it has dropped to under 45 per cent ― a stunning decline. This has also had a knock-on effect: there has been a similarly dramatic fall in the Championship with less pronounced drops in Leagues One and Two. Youth team coaches tell me the same is happening there too.
Of course, there are many variables at play beyond the influence of Guardiola: one thinks of the back-pass rule (which was introduced in 1992 and has cumulatively changed the game), the role of other managers and the improved quality of pitches, etc. But it would, I think, be churlish not to acknowledge the influence of Guardiola, a changemaker, a man who shook things up, took a fair bit of stick but who ultimately changed the paradigm.
I don’t think it is coincidental that Arteta, his apprentice, is seeking to travel a similar path. A few weeks ago, he claimed to have used 36 structures against Fulham and 43 against Manchester City ― leading to an explosion of derision on Twitter. Some have suggested that the Spaniard was kidding around but, even so, this hints at a man willing to challenge convention ― and not just in the context of goalkeepers. Certainly, he seems to be a coach who understands that taking risks will mean making occasional mistakes but this is OK, too, so long as you learn.
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And one hopes this might have a wider impact. In a piece earlier this month, James Gheerbrant chronicled the dynamic mindset of a new generation of English managers; people like Plymouth Argyle’s Steven Schumacher, Oxford United’s Liam Manning, Leyton Orient’s Richie Wellens and Notts County’s Luke Williams.
“Many of the coaches who now sit in the dugouts of lower-league teams were young and impressionable men, starting out in their playing careers, when Guardiola’s Barça were in their pomp, and winding down or taking their badges by the time he arrived in Manchester. To lots of them, he is their inspiration and model,” he wrote.
In the end, all complex systems evolve faster when people take risks and make changes, not because these changes always work but because the system as a whole always learns. As the great philosopher Thomas Kuhn put it (in the context of science rather than football): “[Innovation emerges from people] who, being little committed by prior practice to the traditional rules . . . are particularly likely to see that those rules no longer define a playable game and to conceive another set that can replace them.”
