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The super keeper in Football Manager is as old a theory as the corner exploit and the fact that the AI is always against us. But nevertheless what makes a super keeper is not the AI but the attributes that they hold. The goalkeeper can save you nearly 15 points a season as the last line of defence, so what makes a super keeper?
What all goalkeepers should have
You want your shot stopper to be as agile as a cat and to have ball magnets in his gloves. Any goalkeeper should have good attributes in handling and reflexes. These might be the obvious foundations of any keeper. You want the keeper to be able to get to react quickly to unexpected shots and not to drop it in front of the opposition striker.
If you ever watch the TV pundits, often they will talk about a goalkeepers positioning if he does not start in the right place he won’t be able to get to the ball, especially when he has little cover around him. Good positioning will mean that he won’t give too many gaps around the goal for the striker to aim for, the space behind the defence will be better managed and the keeper is in the right place to make his reflexes count.
The biggest bug in the latest build of the match engine (10.2) is that one-on-one’s are occurring too much. The fine balancing act that the game has to perform is between the quality of the defenders and the quality of the striker. But nevertheless at the moment the goalkeeper will see alot more of the striker. Therefore one-on-one attribute will help your keeper combat this bug.
You will want your keeper to have the ability to command his box especially during set pieces, aerial ability can be vital in these situations, but this has to be coupled with strength and jumping ability in the box for the best results. This way your goalkeeper will be able to muscle his way to knocking the striker out of the way to the get to the ball and able to compete with the tallest of strikers, even if he is 5’10”.
The Sweeper Keeper
The decline of a libero or a sweeper playing behind the back line, has grown the popularity of the goalkeeper fulfilling the role instead. Good sweeper keeper can have huge advantages, attempt to be at the ball much earlier then the striker, even if that means that the goalkeeper has to use his feet to do so. He will start your attacks on the counter.
A sweeper keeper will need to be fast with acceleration and pace to beat the striker, he will need to be more intelligent to make the right decision on whether to actually run out or hold back so that he isn’t being beaten or left stranded from rushing out. The keeper needs to be organised and lead the defence, giving him the advantage over the attack. Communication and command of the area will be advantages to help organise the men in front of him to help co-operation so he other know what they are doing, vital as you defender will need to know when to get involved and what position they should be in.
The complex role of the sweeper keeper therefore makes it such a difficult role to fill and the wrong man for the job can see you leak goals as the keeper will look isolated and stranded when the ball gets behind the defence. But if you do have the chance of getting a sweeper keeper he can help clear up chances before they happen and act as a quick release when getting the ball back and countering supporting the attack right from the back.
What do you think of the sweeper keeper, does it give you a good enough advantage to risk or would you prefer a keeper to do his one job? What success have you had with the sweeper keeper? Please leave a comment in the section below!
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You forgot an important physical attribute: agility. Otherwise I think that the other considerations are correct. I would add that a keeper with high mental attributes can be a great asset to the team, he could be more reliable. From what I’ve seen in my game Sergio Romero is a very good sweeper keeper, I use a high defensive line and he did pretty well in covering behind the back four.
.-= Johnny Karp´s last blog ..Swindon Town: 2012/2013 Pre-Season =-.
Thanks Johnny your right, to go with the reflexes you do what an agile keeper whose agility is able to get to those low shots. I think high mental skills I have found more and more are so important for any of the important positions on the pitch, so for players through the spine of the side. I always aim to have an intelligent side.
Having a high defensive line, it can be really beneficial for you to have a sweeper keeper to deal with any balls that go into the space, you want the keeper to reduce the gap quickly instead of giving the striker plenty of time to run at the keeper.
I always look for a sweeper keeper as I too use a high D line in order to play the game in the opposition half. Another attribute you overlooked for the sweeper-keeper is rushing out. Having said that, I’m never really sure exactly what that attribute adds to a keeper who has pace/acceleration and good decisions.
I think I am as unsure as you are really. One of the reasons why I didn’t include it. Because my thought maybe is that it was linked to the mental decision making of how good or when they should be rushing out. Maybe it is the likeliness?
I wonder if anyone else can put us straight to what that actually does?
For me, ‘rushing out’ seems to work little like a PPM. If it’s low, the keeper will tend to stay on his line and vice versa if it’s high. As I say, I employ one who has high RO and decent pace/acc for his level. Thing is the level is tier 10 and his decisions is awful. Sometimes he rushes out, gets to the ball ahead of a lone striker, then stands there thinking what to do whilst the opponent nicks the ball off him and rolls it into an empty net. But to address the general point, I think for a sweeper-keeper it’s an essential attribute; low means he won’t do the key feature of the role.
@phnompenhandy: I will do a revised post at some point adding the information that is overlook, might get onto one of the guys at SI and actually see what the relationship between all these attributes are or as our very good friend Gareth Millward if he knows.
But what you talk about in the striker nicking the ball, is this the same thing with 10.3 because that sounds like a vital flaw, you wouldn’t expect a goalkeeper at any level in FM to get to the ball first and to dangle on the ball. He would on most accounts hit it away or pick it up, depending on his position and the pressure being applied by the striker. I have also seen this happen a few times to me but I havent seen it on 10.3 just yet, although I haven’t played a huge amount.
Any input from millie would be brilliant. I’m on 10.1, managing in tier 10. The cock-up doesn’t happen often enough to suspect a bug IMO, and perhaps I should have said he dithers outside the area as he attempts to control the ball rather than actually freeze. I should add I have the gk and all but the 3 most offensive players on ‘hold up ball’ (patient, possessive football). These were all instructions that worked brilliantly in my previous campaign with world-beating players; now I’m seeing how they translate with players without footballing intelligence. I would expect to see a clear difference – and I do!
I don’t know the full ins and outs of of the player attributes with regard to keepers, but I would say a high rushing-out stat would help as he’ll be more inclined to come out of his box.
As for the dithering, that could just be down to how crap players are at Tier 10. Not sure which attributes would cause that necessarily, but clearly decisions is one of them.
.-= Gareth Millward´s last blog ..How To Make Friends and Influence People in Football Manager =-.
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