Returns from Different Game Formats - Talent Development Girls (Goalkeepers)

3v3, 5v5, 7v7, 9v9, 11v11. How often have you considered the format your team plays and the opportunities this provides them with? Adding variety to your players’ games programme will provide so many benefits!

No matter the age and stage of the players you coach, helping your players to become more skilful should be at the top of your coaching priorities. Being skilful is not pigeonholed to just the forwards and midfielders in your team. Your defenders and goalkeepers can be skilful too! We can help our players become more skilful, through understanding which core skills they can perform well, and which ones they need some further help with developing.

We can measure goalkeeper on the ball and off the ball actions pretty easily, through observing them being attempted in training and in games.

Goalkeeper Core Skills

In a recent FA case study, we observed two games from teams across the female talent pathway at U11, U12, U14 and U16 age groups. For the two U11 games, the girls played 7v7 on a 60x40yards pitch, which was increased in size to an 80x50yards pitch for the two U12 games, when the girls played in the 9v9 format. For the two U14 matches, the pitch size was 90x55yards and once the girls reached U16, they were playing on a full sized 11v11 pitch (100x60yards). In simple terms, the older the players, the more players on the pitch, the bigger the size of the pitch, and more importantly for keepers, the bigger the size of the goal! So, how do these different game formats allow your players to hone in on the core skills we spoke about above?

Goalkeeper In Possession Actions

The real stand out from this data, is the opportunity goalkeepers get to play out with their feet within the smaller game formats. Encouraging this from an early age, can help produce more technically efficient goalkeepers. Most teams now look to play out from the back, and in order to do this, goalkeepers need to be calm on the ball when a striker is pressing them quickly and be able to pick out a pass to a teammate to start an attack. Goalkeepers can improve on their distribution, if they are involved more within outfield player sessions.

Adrian Tucker, FA National Goalkeeping Coach, went into detail on this in our recent Virtual Conference. “Within training, the integration between GKs in team play and team practices is vital. Especially at grassroots level, if you only have one or two sessions a week, and the goalkeeper is separated from the team, the only time they are going to have an integration with the team is the game at the weekend. As a coach, it is important to encourage integration of the goalkeeper within the practices as much as you can, so they do not become separated, they become part of it. The social and psychological aspect of that integration within the team and the environment...it is a better learning environment for the goalkeepers to experience match situations throughout the week, not just on the weekend.”

The receiving stats here suggest that there is not too much difference between game formats for what opportunities the goalkeepers get. However, there is a definitive difference between that receiving opportunity when comparing the U14 games we observed to the U16 games. Players had less opportunities to receive the ball in build up from their teammates in the two U16 matches compared to the two U14 games. But with both formats being 11v11, could this be down to team philosophy in the build phase? How can we best support goalkeepers, to encourage them to be confident when receiving the ball in our build phase? How can we help them to create good angles to receive the ball from their teammates? Opportunities to practice this, will go a long way to helping.

Goalkeeper Out of Possession Actions

Mary Earps is the name on everyone’s lips after her Euro 2022 heroics, as she was named Goalkeeper of the tournament as England brought it home. She is a keeper that is a great player in possession, but also very skilful out of possession. She excelled at commanding her area when defending crosses, and also showed fantastic reflexes to make some close-range reflex saves. For our goalkeepers to have the same opportunities, they need to be given the same exposure. In our previous blog, which focussed on outfield players within the girls talent pathway space, we highlighted the amount of opportunities a player has to finish in front of goal. The female players had more opportunity to attempt this core skill in the smaller formats, so this of course means the GKs have more opportunities to defend the goal and make saves.

It is not very often in games that our goalkeepers have to act as ‘sweeper keepers’ and defend the space in behind their defence. Nor is it very often that our goalkeepers have to perform in a 1 on 1, as the striker is bearing down on goal. But when it does happen, it can be the difference between winning and losing the game. If we ask our defenders to play a higher line, this may give our GKs more opportunity to act as a sweeper keeper, and therefore more opportunities to also receive the ball! Player larger formats, where the pitch space is bigger and longer, leaves more space in behind the defend for the goalkeeper to operate and work on these out of possession core skills.

Coaching Considerations

SPACE – think about the size of pitch you are using in your practices and on matchday. Smaller pitch size may give your players more opportunity to receive the ball in tighter areas, more opportunities to turn in smaller spaces and more opportunities to make challenges. Bigger areas will allow your players to strike the ball over larger distances, as well as more opportunities to move with the ball across a bigger area.

TASK – consider the rules you set your players and the environment you want to create. Are certain players given different challenges to help get the best out of them, and to expose them to more of the core skills? Do you encourage your team to play out from the back and involve the goalkeeper, or are you more direct?

EQUIPMENT – think about how you can vary the type of goals you use in your training and games to improve your players’ finishing techniques. How do different sized balls affect the strike of a ball or the decision to pass. And how do different surfaces change how your players might challenge for the ball?

PLAYERS – lastly, and probably most importantly, it is vital to consider your players! What do they need? How can you vary their diet to help them to improve and become the best player they can be? How do different game formats get the best out of your players?

Interested in this blog? Check out our look at Game Format Returns for Outfield Players within the Girls Talent Pathway https://community.thefa.com/coaching/b/insights-analysis-blogs/posts/returns-from-different-game-formats---talent-development-girls