Foxes shot-stopper Kasper Schmeichel joined iconic goalkeeper Peter Shilton on a video call for an extensive discussion about the advancements in goalkeeping since the 1960s.
Last week, the duo conversed about the physical challenges goalkeepers must contest, how they must possess the attributes of their outfield team-mates, and pre-season running under different managers.
Training techniques were also on the agenda in the second part of Schmeichel Meets Shilton, as both ‘keepers provided their thoughts on developments in the sport.
On the changes to balls and gloves…
Peter Shilton said: “When I started out, leather footballs [had] the laces and cannon balls. Initially, we didn't wear gloves when it was dry and, when it was wet, I used to go down and get gardening gloves, which were string gloves, and that was it, really. But I think Gordon Banks and Peter Bonetti brought out a cotton glove. I didn't get on very well because it was very thin, and mud used to stick to it, whereas I felt with string gloves you could rub it off and, even when it was wet, you could get water out, but that was the limit and your fingers knocked up, your wrists, that sort of thing. A lot of, you know, swollen fingers and what have you, but it’s gradually improved and I think these days... I've not actually played with the balls you play with but they're obviously a lot lighter and do do a little bit more through the air. But people say to me, well, ‘is that why the goalkeepers don’t catch it?’ and I say: ‘well, to be fair, when we went to Mexico in the World Cup, shots from 30 yards were like shots from 20 because of the altitude’. But when you trained for a month before the tournament, you got used to it. You know, you got used to it, you had to have to expect a shot from sort of even halfway through your own half. I think it is something you get used to, I don't know what you feel."
Kasper Schmeichel said: “I haven't played with balls with laces in. But, yes, the balls have changed a lot and the one we have in the Premier League at the moment is probably the best ball I've played with, it's the most true ball and it's got a great weight to it, it's good to strike, it's got good grip on it. We now have so many options when it comes to what type of gloves we wear. I was going to ask, you obviously wore, at the end, Latex gloves, didn't you? When did you first try, you know, your first type of real football gloves?”
Peter Shilton said: “I'll be honest with you, they got a bit better. When I was playing for England I brought out a string glove with a bit of elastic in the wrist and dyed it black and I was playing for England in the early ‘70s with these gloves and that was it, I put them on the market, but eventually, I think when I was at Forest, for example, we had a thinner, foamy-type glove and they progressed. I just remember in Germany, in particular, they were always well ahead, like Sepp Maier, who played for Germany in ‘74 World Cup when they won the World Cup, his gloves I mean they were like twice as big as his hands, they were unbelievable.”
On all-white goalkeeper kits…
Peter Shilton said: “I got involved with a sports company called Admiral that were in Wigston, in Leicester. I got involved with them and they brought out a goalkeeping strip. It was a white jersey, white shorts and white socks, like Real Madrid, and I thought it's something new, because all you had in those days was plain green jerseys or plain colours. You weren't allowed any, you know, not like the patterns you have these days. I brought a jersey out… I was one of the, you know, I could see a bit of marked inside and I put a jersey with some stripes under the arms, white stripes, two white stripes so when you dived, you actually look quite, you know, spectacular. The Football League at the time and the chairman at Leicester was Len Shipman, who was my chairman, they banned it because it had got motifs which were just, I mean, it was just unbelievable. When I wore this all-white one, it was brilliant because Real Madrid wore it. I thought, ‘why not? A goalkeeper in all white’ but then, you know, on them muddy pitches, if you had made a couple of dives you would have looked like rubbish, you know. It was just a marketing point, but that's how it was in those days. Now, as I say, some of the kit, and you have the same bit of kit for every game, is that right?”
Kasper Schmeichel said: “The way it works at the moment is you have to have three strips sent to the Premier League for approval at the start of the season, and then I think basically on the Wednesday or the Thursday before the game the Premier League send an email to the Club of what strip you're meant to wear. So, we don't even have any choice in it like when we were playing in the Championship you could kind of choose. If you swap your jersey and stuff like that then yes, there is. But then again you still have to pay for it all. If you give your shirt away, they're not free. How many games you play, you play 50 games a season… a shirt at £50, that’s a lot of money, you know. So, the Club aren't obviously going to fork out for every player to be able to do that so, if you're swapping shirts obviously, you're going to have to pay for them. In my young days, I wish I had kept it, I had my debut shirt and I wish I had kept it because, again, you only got one shirt.”
Peter Shilton said: “Another story about the days when I brought out a jersey it had a zip like that, and then it went like that it had two buttons so you could actually wear it as an open shirt in the summer, but if it’s a windy day, you could have it as a roll collar, so I thought I’ll a little motif on it, nothing like this was around at the time, and it got banned by the Football League because the zip was too dangerous, alright, okay? But, in those days, you played on very frosty ground because you don’t have the winters now that we did, sometimes football matches were postponed because of the snow… frosty grounds, you still played on them, so of course, under your jersey, you put a tracksuit top, with a zip, on, [and] put your jersey on top. That was fine, you could play like that, I could have a jersey with a zip on.”
On high intensity training sessions…
Peter Shilton said: “I looked at quite a few videos of training sessions and what have you on the internet, am I right in saying a lot of training now is very sort of up and down and sharp, from here and there and back again, all of that sort of quick movements. Is that what most of the training’s like?”
Kasper Schmeichel said: “Yes, I think it comes down to your coach. For example, when I train with our national team, it’s very, very technical, very specific, very controlled kind of movements… getting used to very specific techniques and getting into very small details, whereas with other coaches, like Mike [Stowell], who has been amazingly good for me, it’s very much about match situations. Everything is at match pace and the way we work at Leicester, I love the way we work, because we’ll have all the goalkeepers, from the oldest right down to the 15-year-olds… We can be eight, 10, 12 goalkeepers sometimes in one session, but that also means you have rebounders everywhere, you have people, left footers, right footers, to shoot, to cross, to head, to do all these different [things], so Mike’s brilliant at utilising all the different aspects of the game and making everything match realistic. So, you will be moving quick if you don’t catch the ball, or dispatch the ball for a corner or for a throw-in, because in a game, that’s exactly what’s going to happen, so it develops over time. Obviously, when you’re young, you need to have the very technical coaching, you need to get the techniques right and you need a lot of repetition and when I was young, it does get boring, it does get tedious, but it’s every day. Every single day, [I had] at least 100 volleys up against the wall, just catching, just practising just the same, same, same again, so it becomes muscle memory and it just becomes ingrained in you. The same thing… we’re just catching, diving, catching, diving… all these different things, over and over again, so that it just becomes second nature, but I suppose it was kind of the same thing with you, wasn’t it?”
Peter Shilton said: “Well, that’s the reason I ask because I liked to do pressure work, where you’ve got to be here, there and around, you’ve got to be sharp in match-time situations, but I also liked to slow things down a little bit and set up little exercises where you just concentrate on, like you just said, just doing the same thing, getting your mind right, like little one-on-ones. I’d just set up a little exercise where I’d get, if you’re working with the ‘keepers, the ‘keeper would come and you’d gradually come forward, but you’d always be balanced, and when it got to a certain point, you could either block it or take it off his toe, but it was all a little bit more controlled; getting your technique right, getting your mind right, getting your timing right. And then we’d do the up and down quick stuff from A to B and back and all that. A lot of the training I notice, just on the internet, a lot of it is very quick, rapid stuff, where you don’t always get chance to just think about the right technique, it’s all very up and down and that sort of thing.”
On the value of consistent goalkeeping…
Kasper Schmeichel said: “It’s about consistency because good goalkeepers aren’t the ones who make all the great saves, they do the basics well. They do the fundamentals really, really well and then everything else on top of that is a bonus – they’re reliable. A lot of the time what we have to tell the youngsters is to walk before you can run; learn the steps, learn the real basic things… the boring things because they do become tedious when you have to do them 100 times a day, but they’re the ones that are going to help you progress to making the great saves, to make the match-winning situations and also, mentally, they’ll prepare you because you know you’re solid, technically. So, when it comes in again, you have full confidence that you can deal with whatever comes your way.”
Peter Shilton said: “Yes, I agree with that. I think at the end of the day, you judge a goalkeeper – I do anyway – not just on great saves, but more so on the amount of mistakes they make because all goalkeepers make great saves, but if you start making a high percentage of mistakes, or goals you think: ‘I think I should have had that’, it’s keeping the mistakes down, be solid, but then make the great saves at the right time I think, the most important thing; is being consistent and also, the great ones are brilliant as well.”