IT may have taken him several months to master it and he may have had to endure the indignity of being dropped during that time, but Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon has fully embraced his new role this season.
The same, however, cannot be said of many of the Parkhead club’s supporters.
Gordon still senses the trepidation in the stands whenever he passes the ball out to his defenders while they are under pressure from the opposition, as he has been instructed to by his manager Brendan Rodgers, instead of, as he would have done in seasons gone by, shelling the ball upfield to safety.
The 33-year-old fully appreciates the brand of football that Rodgers wants his side to produce now depends on them retaining possession and building attacks patiently from the back and understands he has a crucial part to play in that. He is hopeful the supporters will come around to the new way of thinking in due course.
Read more: Craig Gordon: I feared my Celtic career was over after Brendan Rodgers axed me
“We want to play in a better style,” he said. “It’s a skillset the goalies have to learn more and more. All the big teams play that way. At Kilmarnock last week I had 45 touches with my feet and only six with my hands so that shows you how it’s going and what you have to concentrate on.
“The manager isn’t worried about the reaction. He wants me to do the things he wants regardless of how people react. Listen, the crowd have been brilliant to me since I came to this club, but they have to get used to the new way.
“It’s not the way it’s always been and the natural reaction is to get anxious when the keeper has the ball, but we’re trying to change that. We are playing good football and we have to try and make it even better.
“I think at times there are quite a lot of passes coming from the back and the fans don’t realise what we are trying to do and what the reasons for that are. If there are three, four, five passes when I get the ball back all the time it can cause a little bit of unrest with the supporters, but that’s what the manager is asking us to do and there’s a reason for it.”
Read more: Craig Gordon: I feared my Celtic career was over after Brendan Rodgers axed me
The calibre of player around the world who has assumed the ‘sweeper keeper’ mantle in recent seasons has certainly helped to convince Gordon that it is the right way for both him and Celtic to go.
It was certainly how Barcelona goalie Marc-Andre ter Stegen performed in the Champions League game at Parkhead on Wednesday evening. Despite having Scott Sinclair and Moussa Dembele bearing down on him at times, the German continued to supply Javier Mascherano, Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba ahead of him and kept a clean sheet in a 2-0 victory.
“Bravo, Ter Stegen, Neuer and Buffon are all good at it,” said Gordon. “Buffon had to adapt later in his career and he’s done it as well. They all do it slightly differently and it’s about adapting to the keeper, the players you have in front of you and the strengths you have in the team. There are differences, but these are guys that I have watched.
“It is quite complicated now, but that’s better. The days have gone, well certainly here, of just standing around and kicking the ball up the park. When I was younger, you just kicked it into an area, everyone crowded into that area and then you fought for the second ball.
“That is still a tactic which is used at times. But here there is a lot more to it. The manager is so in-depth with the movement he is looking for off the ball, getting people into different areas.
“It’s something I’m looking for now. You have to get the chemistry right with the outfield players as well. They need to know what I’m capable of and what I’m looking for, so they can make the right decisions.”
Gordon’s top priority, though, will always be to keep the ball out of his net. He is doing that rather well at the moment too having not conceded a goal domestically since the Ladbrokes Premiership game against St. Johnstone at Celtic Park on August 20.
The Scotland internationalist is looking to extend his clean sheet record to nine and a half games – he came on for Dorus de Vries at half-time in the Kilmarnock match at Parkhead on September 24 – in the Betfred Cup final against Aberdeen at Hampden on Sunday and help Rodgers lift his first trophy as a manager.
Read more: Craig Gordon: I feared my Celtic career was over after Brendan Rodgers axed me
“The manager’s never wanted me to compromise my goalkeeping for playing out at the back,” he said. “I still do things I’d normally do in training, but a lot more possession based games. From that point of view training has been tougher for me as I’m with the outfield players, but I’m getting to a new level and that’s good.
“We’ve had such a good start to the season, everything has been so positive. But you want to win medals and this game against Aberdeen is our first chance to do that this season. It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be tight. We will need to play really well to win the game, but it’s one we’re looking forward to. We want to get the first silverware in the cabinet.”
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