Not every football stars who had the opportunity to play the game at the highest level can claim to have revolutionized their position or brought about a new way to turn around or understand the game better, but some great football stars do comes to mind who surely revolutionized their positions like, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and all.
Therefore, we can say the German’s career so far since he moved to the Bavarians side justifies placing him into the same bracket with the aforementioned players even though they ain’t playing the same position, Manuel Neuer is one goalkeeper between the stick who has changed the face of goalkeeping.
Managers often talked about what they wanted in a goalkeeper and how much the art of goalkeeping has evolved over the years, gone are the days when the likes of Fabian Barthez, Peter Schmeichel and Oliver Kahn of Germany fit perfectly into their respective teams during their playing days. However the question remains, can the aforementioned legends fit into today’s fast, more technical, and well-grounded role of goalkeeping in terms of how they build up from the back today? the answer is debatable.
Just like we know how important distributing the ball is nowadays to all managers and their teams, it’s important that when the keeper has the ball, they must be close to be a genius in between the stick for the team and be able to pass and distribute the ball as swift as possible, even better than their teammates who play from the midfield.
Manuel Neuer came to limelight with the Schalke 04 team where he won the DFB Pokal and the DFB LigaPokal, having impressed many in the league, he caught the eyes of Bayern Munich and he moved to the Allianz Arena in 2011 where he has been since joining the Bavarians winning 18 trophies, including seven Bundesliga titles and a UEFA Champions League.
Since the German joined Bayern from Schalke, he has redefined the role of goalkeeping and the No 1 position, the 34-year-old has always single-handedly turned from manning the goal-post into been an outfield player as much as a sweeper.
READ ALSO: Top 10 Goalkeepers With The Most Goal In Football History
Neuer has instigated a revolution with solid techniques and has always been among the world’s elite when it comes to goalkeeping, who dominates his area, as such Germany goalkeeping coach Andreas Kopke at some point said “he’s never seen a better sweeper than Neuer“, and the Bayern shot-stopper has shown is sweeper prowess in many matches till date.
The former Schalke 04 shot-stopper has a unique natural athleticism which helps him in making good saves and dominating his box, as well as throwing opponents attackers off guard, he also confirmed his prowess in making good saves in 2014 when he said: “A lot of players didn’t want to go into the one on one situation with him because he’s big”.
One unique thing about great goalkeeper is that they rarely make mistakes, although they surely have their off days too, in the case of Neuer he rarely makes mistakes because he’s excellent grounding in the goalkeeping art has made him immune to mistakes on his day, but that can’t be said of his early days back in Schalke.
Some other areas the German has improved greatly is on his positioning, concentration, and shot-stopping both on the field of play and the training ground, another area in which he performed excellently is in saving penalties, which is somewhat important for every goalkeeper to be good in that art, however not every goalkeeper can boost of the intricacy of saving a penalty.
Over the years, Neuer quality has made him command respect from teammates and opponents alike, and that isn’t a surprise because what he has achieved for the national team and his club is worth celebrating, no wonder he said in a statement that “He’s a little bit risky, but he offers security and protection to his team” with that kind of mindset it won’t be out of place if he keeps getting the respect.
What also makes Neuer’s intelligence afford the national team and Bayern to play the high line and press high in their respective matches is the fact that he has the confidence of receiving the ball and use it to completely change the opponent effective plans in attacking his team, and rendered them useless feeling like they’re a man down.
The conservative pattern within football sees the reliance on a sweeper-keeper as a sign of weakness. The high defensive line and the involvement of the goalkeeper appear to be the last move of a desperate manager with nothing left to throw at the opposition. Perhaps the tactic has this reputation as it is only used in the dying moments of matches.
If anything, the use of the goalkeeper in the sweeper-keeper role is the opposite of desperation. Utilizing the shot-stopper is a tactically intelligent innovation that is becoming more and more popular in the beautiful game of football, such as Barcelona goalkeeper Andre Ter Stegen is following the footsteps
His intelligence isn’t synonymous with many goalkeepers, even when they tried to be like him but always find it difficult which shows the German is one great modern goalkeeper who has revolutionized modern goalkeeping with his talent which only a few shot-stoppers has been successful in emulating his artistry in between the stick.
The German shot-stopper was so good that he could play in the midfield, due to his brilliant passing prowess, such quality can be traced back to the days of Lahm who also did well in the mid of the pack when he was moved into the midfield by Pep Guardiola because of his awareness and intelligence.
In other words, converting a goalkeeper into an outfield player rarely happened in football, but when such happened it is not a defensive move but the beginning of an attack only with a team that has the knack for pressing up high the field to make their opponent lose shape.
The football goalkeeping position arguably represents a unique role in a team, despite its highly complex skill demands in always providing a top-notch performance, Manuel Neuer has been able to turn around goalkeeping position in a way that every manager now wants their goalkeeper to be proactive in intercepting, ball playing, ball distribution, sweeping up, aggressive positioning and great athleticism.
