Masterclass: Goalkeeping

Our position-by-position series starts with Manchester United’s Danish goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard offering advice on what it takes to be a top pro…

“The key attributes to being a good goalkeeper… it’s having calmness and there are a lot of physical abilities you need to have too. A lot of people say that God’s gift to the goalkeeper is a physical height. I guess there’s some truth in that. But having calmness, a good eye for the game, they are important parts of being a goalkeeper.

It's a more mental game at United. It's much more difficult to be accepted as a good goalkeeper at United than it is at a smaller club. It's easier for a goalkeeper at a club lower down in the table because there is much more to do. At United, you're only going to be called on ten times in a game. Seven of those might be passes, two are catching a cross and one is catching a ball straight at you - you can't hide.

What advice would I give to young goalkeepers? Looking back, for myself I was looking at some of the great goalkeepers in the history of football while I was developing. I was looking a lot at Edwin van der Sar. His whole aura as a goalkeeper, how he positioned himself on the pitch… a lot of it is about looking and learning to copy these things into your own game.”