✍️ Lukasz Fabianski signs

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snooperpooper
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by snooperpooper »

telegraph.co.uk
Behind the scenes at West Ham: How goalkeeping coach Xavi Valero keeps 'two number ones' happy
Jason Burt, Chief Football Correspondent 28 December 2018 • 11:44am
8-11 minutes

Xavi Valero likes to play chess. “From a strong position, you can control everything,” he says. “The same principles apply to chess as to the game of a goalkeeper.” The Spaniard is West Ham United’s goalkeeping coach.

“I don’t worry about saves,” Valero says. “The most important thing is consistency and you have a better chance of that if the goalkeeper’s positioning is strong. That is the key to everything, positioning.” Hence the chess, played on his laptop.

Take a “one v one” situation; a striker clear on goal. “If all I do is worry about making the save that’s already difficult because he has the ball and I don’t so he has the advantage,” Valero explains. “But what if I say, ‘okay, I don’t need to make a save, all I need to do is have a strategy to put pressure on you? I’m not going to move, I’m not going to dive, I’m not going to guess’. Meanwhile, the striker doesn’t know who’s running behind him. You can then have a clear mind and be in control and from a strong position you can do anything. Not just in football but in life.”

Valero, 45, has a stunning CV – Liverpool, Inter Milan, Real Madrid – and has allowed Telegraph Sport unique access into how he coaches West Ham’s goalkeepers; the analysis, getting into their minds, their relationship, and what it is like to have two experienced “number ones”, in Lukasz Fabianski and Adrian, who are both desperate to play.

“Obviously you do not expect the one who is not playing to be happy and sometimes that anger is good for everyone. He feels he should play,” Valero says.

Having lost his place to Fabianski, Adrian admits he has felt “that anger”. Telegraph Sport has also interviewed both of West Ham’s goalkeepers and they talk candidly during a day spent at the Premier League club that starts at 8am when Valero arrives at the training ground. “All of us want to play, we have egos,” Adrian says. “But the competition is good, you have to be ready, you cannot drop your level because if you do there is another player waiting. Lukasz knows because I am pushing.

“We deal with that situation the best way possible. We work hard, even harder than we used to work before. You can hide as well, like a rat, and say you are not ready for it but I think that goalkeepers are the strongest people mentally on the pitch.”

Fabianski agrees. “I know, like, for fans and for the media you only look at the final product – the save – but there are so many things that happen before that,” he says, ahead of training which also includes West Ham’s highly-rated third goalkeeper, the England Under-20 international Nathan Trott.

“Yesterday I had a funny chat with one of the players before we started a small-sided game in training and he was in goal with someone shooting,” Fabianski says. “I just said, ‘do you want to swap today, I can play out’ and he said, ‘no, no, no, it’s too much pressure’.”

Adrian explains that pressure. “If a striker misses a goal then it doesn’t matter, there will be another chance,” he says. “If a midfielder loses the ball he can get it back, if a defender makes a mistake the goalkeeper is behind him. If the goalkeeper makes a mistake... there is only the net.”

Fabianski signed in the summer. Swansea City were relegated and the Polish international arrived for £7 million. “It’s tricky because obviously when you join a new club, from the very first day, everyone looks at you and tries to see if you are good enough,” the 33 year-old explains. “That’s more or less what you have to go through. Then the other thing is that when I signed for West Ham nobody told me I was going to be number one.

So he did not seek any guarantee?

“No, no, no. It’s never like that,” Fabianski says. And when Fabianski was handed the shirt, for the first Premier League game of the season, what did Adrian think? “It was a very disappointing moment. I can say it now, because I am used to playing,” the Spaniard says. “Last season I had the competition with Joe (Hart) and at the end I was playing and obviously I expected to keep playing because we had been playing well. But it’s the manager’s decision. He (Manuel Pellegrini) told us the situation – that we are two good goalkeepers and he wanted that because it was healthy and professional.

“It took a few days to accept and a few days in which I was angry with myself, also, because, I don’t know, maybe I had done something wrong. After this you have to think – you are the only person who can change the situation, to get back playing.”

It obviously helps that the pair are older, have faced each other many times, get on and have that mutual respect. “There’s a different way of thinking because to know more about being a goalkeeper you have to experience being a goalkeeper,” Fabianski says. “When there is, I don’t know, some kind of situation when the striker has a go at a goalkeeper and in our minds probably nine times out of 10 we think, ‘you don’t know what you are talking about, you have never been in that position’.”

But how do they work and prepare for a Premier League fixture? For every game Valero starts with an hour-long “package of clips” of the opposition compiled by West Ham’s analysis team. “I try and reduce the amount of uncertainty for the goalkeeper,” he says. “It’s a fine line between that and just guessing because the moment you gamble, you’ve made a mistake. You have to make the right decision from a good position and to be in a good position you have to read the game so quickly.”

On the day of the game a presentation of no more than nine minutes is made to the goalkeepers, all three of them, away from the rest of the squad. “How we are going to play, how the other team is going to attack, what kind of attackers they have, which are the best positions to deal with them – where should the goalkeeper be should this or that happen,” Valero says.

“Then we go into more detail on set-pieces – they are, in terms of importance, 50 per cent of modern football now - and every player of the opposing team who could be a threat to our goalkeeper. That includes what they are like in a one v one, or attacking space, their movement and what they will do.”

The movement of every player? “Yes,” Valero says. It is that detailed and Fabianski welcomes it. “I don’t want to look back and think, ‘I could have done that’,” he says.

Valero adds: “I think goalkeepers need to be very stable and able to manage their emotions. It’s different – a goalkeeper maybe has time to think during 60 per cent of the game. If you are running, moving, then you do not have that time. The goalkeeper can make a big mistake and could have a long time on the pitch to think about it. So you need to have the right mental skills to control your thoughts because sometimes you have too much time to listen to yourself during a game.”

Fabianski agrees – but he has his own technique. “I think that’s the worst thing that can happen, when you start thinking too much,” he says. “I don’t like that so I just talk to my players because then you do not have time to think. Try it – try and talk and think at the same time. Try it.”

Unsurprisingly Adrian, 31, is thinking of becoming a goalkeeping coach when he eventually retires. “I would like to do that,” he says. “Now I have a different role. When you are playing you don’t always see everything that is happening in a game but when you step back you see the other side. You can see more things.

“Also the goalkeeper position is changing a lot. Before there was never any training with passing or playing like an outfield player. It was just, ‘stay in goal, save the ball, kick the ball away as far as you can’. Now you have to be the most complete player because you have to play with your hands and with your feet.

“It’s the hardest position to play. Not just because the model of the modern goalkeeper has changed but because you are alone. You can be the hero or the villain. You have to be ready and know that football is a game of mistakes but you have to avoid them as much as you can. Many people say goalkeepers are crazy but I think we are more objective. We see football from the back so have a different view and we try to organise from our position.”
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by Ozza »

Great read thanks, I think Adrian comes out of it well as well
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by prophet:marginal »

^Thanks for posting, Snoop :thup:
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by Loftyhammer »

Burnley Hammer wrote:Nice article and interview here with our goalkeepers and goalkeeper coach:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/20 ... keeps-two/
Really good read that :thup:
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by GPP »

Poor yesterday. Really not confident whenever corners and crosses come into the box with any pace on them. Kicking very poor too.
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by SullySpecial »

Any keeper playing behind Ogbonna would lack confidence.
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by Marky »

Worst I have seen him play for us. I put It down to Ogbonna
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by Jumby »

Marky wrote:Worst I have seen him play for us. I put It down to Ogbonna
Getting a taste of what Adrian had to deal with week in week out.

I think Fabianksi has been brilliant for us so I'm not going to criticise, I'll always believe Adrian is the best keeper we've had this century but I can have no complaints of what our Pole has done in goal, in the grand scheme of things. We need Diop and Balbuena in front of him though.
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by Colours never run »

Jumby wrote:
Marky
Worst I have seen him play for us. I put It down to Ogbonna


Getting a taste of what Adrian had to deal with week in week out.

I think Fabianksi has been brilliant for us so I'm not going to criticise, I'll always believe Adrian is the best keeper we've had this century but I can have no complaints of what our Pole has done in goal, in the grand scheme of things. We need Diop and Balbuena in front of him though.
Absolutely spot on.
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by Cuenca 'ammer »

why blame Oggie - who wasn't brilliant all game but he didn't cause Fab to mis-punch that corner right back into the heart of the attack...........

he's been bloody good no doubt, but don't let's make excuses when he does cock up..he get plaudits for playing well, he should rightly get bollocked when he doesn't.

no one else gets a pass....or should....
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by stu1 »

Cuenca :thup:

Fab was poor against Brighton and it had very little to do with Ogbonna.
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by Colours never run »

It's not excusing Fabianski as he has indeed made some glaring errors recently. However it's of no coincidence that the Keepers poor form coincides with the reintroduction of Ogbonna. It shows that no one really feels comfortable playing near him. He was once again running around like a headless chicken with the urgency and awareness of David Blunkett.

There's a reason why a bottom 3 Team in Series A Bologna are in for him and the sooner it happens, the quicker everyone can get back to shoring up the defence and not look so disjointed at the back.
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by thejackhammer »

Jumbo, you can't honestly believe Adrian is better than Fabianski?

Statistically the best keeper in the league over the first half of the season.
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by Burnley Hammer »

Am I the only one that thought he was a little unlucky with the punch? He got a decent distance on it. Just a shame that it happened to fall so nicely for them.
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by WebmasterFF »

Burnley Hammer wrote:Am I the only one that thought he was a little unlucky with the punch? He got a decent distance on it. Just a shame that it happened to fall so nicely for them.
I'm with you on this one. He pretty much had to try and get around two players (his defender and a striker who would have been first to the ball had he not got a fist to it) which wasn't easy. The rest of the time his handling and commanding for crossed was pretty good
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by HammerAl »

I really like Adrian. He's been a great servant but Fabianski is much, much better.

If Fab didn't get to the ball first, Locadia would have just headed it in anyway. Could probably blame the defence more for A) not being in front of Locadia & clearing the ball clear first, and B) not getting to the second ball on the edge of the box.

And I couldn't care less whether his kicking is that good or not. I want my keeper to be good with his hands. He stops the ball from going in more often then not, he doesn't make mistakes and he's very calm & collected.

We should feel lucky and proud to have such a class keeper.
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by Crouchend_Hammer »

I like Fabianski and I was an advocate of signing him

He is a great shot stopper, very good at one on ones, does very well with low crosses and also very good at coming through players to collect floaty crosses from deep areas

However, he is not the tallest or broadest of goalkeepers and his one relative weakness is commanding his area from corners [he was known as Flappyanski for a reason]

If you punch the ball you have to clear the area, and i thought he could have come and got the second corner as it was within the area of the six yard box

Adrian was also pretty crap at this, and so was Jussi, and Robert Green. We have not had a proper 'commanding' goalkeeper since James

In truth, their are not that many really commanding goalkeepers about any more as the emphasis seems to be on ball playing

Brighton had their reserve keeper playing on Wednesday, but their first choice is very good IMHO and could be a longer term replacement for Fab. I also like the Huddersfield keeper
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by The Gibbins »

We have conceded a lot of goals this year so whether its Ogbonna or Balbuena in front hasn't really mattered. I think the criticism on Ogbonna is a bit harsh to be fair and like Balbuena, hasn't been afforded the time to get a partnership going. Fabianski has been very good, and i think the defence has been a work in progress but there are still silly errors here and there we need to iron out. If it wasn't for some basic errors we would probably be 7th this year as some of our conceded goals have been very basic...but then i guess a lot of teams can say that about errors.
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by Colours never run »

Another thing I've noticed about Fabianski amongst a lot of good work he has got through, is that he has an issue guarding his near post. He's conceded a few soft ones in that scenario which really should have been stopped.
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Re: Lukasz Fabianski signs

Post by The Gibbins »

I would be interested to hear a goalkeepers view on near post efforts, as I'm not convinced they are always as easy as they are made out to be. I think the second goal at Burnley was avoidable but Chris Wood's effort was decent and i look at the Aguero goal last night which im sure some critics will blame the keeper for but sometimes when a shot is blasted in from point blank it is just difficult to react.

Just opening a can of worms on a Friday really, and this is from someones who is absolutely **** in goal :D
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