The sweeper-keeper is redefining soccer’s sense of risk

Johan Cruyff believed soccer was too obsessed by obvious mistakes, by what looked embarrassing. What did it matter, he asked, if his goalkeeper was caught out of position a couple of times a season if the risk of playing a long way from goal contributed to a better structure overall? It was a line he used repeatedly to defend Stanley Menzo, his goalkeeper when he was Ajax manager in the late 80s, at a time when sweeper-keepers were still rare.

The change in the backpass law in 1992 meant that goalkeepers had to improve with the ball at their feet and, as more and more teams began to use a high press, it became almost essential for elite-level keepers to be comfortable operating outside their box, not only protecting the space behind a high line but also being able to initiate attacks. That’s the orthodoxy, and nobody would doubt that keepers like Ederson (Manchester City), Alisson (Liverpool), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich) and Marc-André ter Stegen (Barcelona) have been vital to their clubs’ successes in recent years.

Nobody even really criticises goalkeepers for mistakes in playing the ball out from the back any more; that’s seen as an inevitable consequence of the default style of play. Brighton and Liverpool’s 2-2 draw in the last round of Premier League fixtures was thrilling, a game of obviously high level. The constant activity in the technical areas indicated something extremely high-level was going on with pressing patterns, although in all honesty sitting in the stadium it was difficult to discern what they were. The reaction of both managers, though, suggested how much they had enjoyed the challenge.

And yet one goal each came from goalkeeping errors. Alisson was out of position as Simon Adingra, having