David Preece – Goalkeepers are Different

David Preece played in goal for Darlington, Aberdeen and Silkeborg amongst others. Since he hung up his gloves in 2013, the Sunderland-born keeper moved into coaching and media work. His specialist analysis on social media caught the eye of many pundits leading to them asking his advice. Despite this, goalkeeping analysis by pundits and commentators continues to be a frustration.

Specific Skill Set

As the title of Brian Glanville’s 1971 novel suggests, ‘Goalkeepers Are Different’. The book may be over fifty years old, but the title penned by its famous football writing author is still as true today as it was then.

Despite the specific skill set required of the position, the analysis of it hasn’t moved on since Glanville’s book first hit the bookshelves. It’s something that has been a bugbear of Preece’s for some time. “I think if you are going to put so much responsibility on a position, then you need to give us more in-depth information when analysing it.”

To understand the importance of goalkeeping to David, you need to go back to where it started for him.

Earliest Memories

“I only became a goalkeeper because my dad was a goalkeeper. My dad has been with my mam since he was thirteen and they got engaged at sixteen rather than him move away from her to pursue a career in football. He got a bad tackle in a game and got a badly broken ankle. He was always one who would volunteer to go in goal if a team needed. Every team has an outfield player that fancies themselves as a bit of a keeper. After the ankle break, he ended up becoming a goalkeeper and as it turned out he was decent.

He played at a good level as a semi-professional in the north-east. A few years down the line I came along. My earliest memories are of going to watch him play and being around dressing rooms. I must’ve been about four or five.

There was a place called Tunstall Hill in Sunderland not far from the coast. It’s probably the highest point in Sunderland and there are quite a few pitches up there. It was always raining and windy and horrible there which probably put me in good stead for when I moved to Aberdeen.

I just wanted to be like my Dad and luckily for me one of the teachers in Primary School, a guy called Ian Swan, used to run the Sunderland school’s team. I must’ve been about seven and he had said that he heard I played in goal and asked if I would like to come along to training.”

Massive Changes

The game has moved on since Preece’s formative years between the sticks. In terms of individual positions, the role of a goalkeeper has probably changed more than any other. The back pass rule required keepers to have better ability with the ball at their feet. More is required of modern goalkeepers.

“It’s changed massively, especially in the last seven or eight years. You see the influence that someone like Pep Guardiola has on the game. How he uses the keeper as an extra outfield player. It’s been thirty-two years since the back pass rule came in. At the time when I was playing in England and Scotland things hadn’t really developed much. When Guardiola came in, he just accelerated the process.

Back pass rule

“Jim Montgomery was my youth team goalkeeping coach when I was at Sunderland. At Darlington I was asked who I wanted as a coach. They got Monty in there as well. I remember having conversations with him in the first few seasons of the back pass rule coming in. We talked about being that extra outfield player and making little triangle with our defenders. At that time as a keeper when the ball came to your feet all you could see ahead of you were backsides as nobody wanted to take the risk of taking the ball short. You had the whole defence running away from you up the pitch and a massive striker closing you down.

I never felt a change in that approach until I went to play in Scandinavia. The thing Guardiola does is accept there will be mistakes and it can go wrong. That totally alters how a keeper is coached. Now you try and create a more organic approach where keepers are the first point of the attack. If the goalkeeper can’t play out the whole style falls apart.”

Specialist insight

The goalkeeping position has changed markedly but is largely commentated on in the same way as it’s always been. The referee now gets their own analyst in the television studio to give specialist insight into their performance. Why shouldn’t the goalkeeper should be given the same?

“I’ve been banging on about this for a good ten or more years now. When I started writing, I was writing about all sorts. I did articles for Top Man’s fashion site. I wrote about Danish design furniture and all sorts. One day I couldn’t think of what to write about and my missus just said, ‘why don’t you write about what you know’. It might seem stupid, but it was a bit of a light bulb moment that I hadn’t thought about.

I started focussing on the rhetoric around the goalkeeper like ‘the keeper should do better there’. What pundits’ thought was the keeper’s fault and what wasn’t. I think if you are going to put so much responsibility on a position, and I do think it’s the most important position on the pitch, then you need to give us more in-depth information when analysing it. Even if you had a goalkeeper on as a pundit there was an old-fashioned approach to it. The keepers would still reaffirm the old tropes like ‘you shouldn’t be beaten at your near post’.”

Massively valuable

Preece not only writes well but he is able to articulate his analysis in equally eloquent fashion. His social media analysis caught the attention of some pundits who were keen to tap into his expertise.

“Once I started to get into a decent position with my media work, I started making calls to people at Sky or BT Sport. I asked them to look at having that goalkeeping expert role. I knew I didn’t necessarily have a big enough name to do it. It was something that I proposed and pushed. After six or seven years it’s still something that doesn’t happen. They do similar in cricket where they’ll have someone to give expert insight on the fine details of what a batsman should or shouldn’t have done. It’s telling people something they don’t know, and I think that’s massively valuable in educating people who watch the game.

There are a lot of good pundits out there who do a lot of research. The likes of Jamie Carragher and Ian Wright. Ian has been unbelievable to me. A few years back when he was working at a summer tournament, he would often talk about other pundits’ opinions. He would say to me that I should be on to explain why they were wrong in what they were saying. He has just been a huge support to me. Jamie Carragher often does goalkeeping research. He’s not just got in touch with me, but I know he has featured a goalkeeping analyst during his coverage. Mark Chapman mentioned me on Match of the Day too so there are people seeking out that specialist goalkeeping opinion.

Gap in the market

There is no doubt that Preece has identified a gap in the market. Despite his opinion that he isn’t a big enough name, he would be the perfect man for the job. It’s not just other pundits who get in touch with the ex-goalie about it either.

“You get the Ref Watch show on Sky Sports so that’s the type of channel where they could make time for it. There is a lot of content there and it could be EFL games as well as Premier League or Champions League. It’s educational and even if they did it for one season and got it out there on socials the clips would go around.

“Every time something happens in a game like the keeper getting beaten at his near post, I get messages on social media pointing out that the commentator has said it. They’ll say it shouldn’t go in the near post, but they never explain the why and how important the pace and angle of the shot can make it impossible. There are so many technical aspects they could go into but don’t and just stick to the stereotypical goalkeeping comments.”

Until such time that Sky or another broadcaster commission a show or give Preece a seat on the panel for live matches, he continues to coach.

Bangalore

When we spoke, he had just finished the season in India coaching with Bengaluru FC. It was an experience which the former Sunderland coach clearly enjoyed.

“I just finished my first year in India. I went there with Simon Grayson, but he left as manager half-way through the season. There are a lot of foreign managers in the league there and they usually bring their own team. Simon moved on and they asked me to stay. It really was going into the unknown. I had spoken to an ex-teammate Jamie McAllister who had been out there, and he loved his time there. A few other people told me the same. I really like being in Bangalore, the weather is great and it’s a good place to be. The staff there are all unbelievable too, we got on well and socialised a lot together. It couldn’t have been a better fit for me after leaving Sunderland. It dented me leaving there after just one year and India was exactly what I needed”.

Keep up with David’s work on X. https://twitter.com/davidpreece12?lang=en