BENGALURU: In the Spanish style of football, attacks are built from the back. Goalkeepers play an important role, not just under the sticks but also in starting attacks. This is how Spanish goalkeeper Victor Valdes became an important cog in Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona.
He was known for his distribution and passing skills than his acrobatic saves. Back in India when Albert Roca tried to follow the same pattern at Bengaluru FC, he wasn’t successful initially. His primary roadblock in implementing such a style was India No 1 Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.
The former Stabaek custodian was great under the posts, pulling off some fantastic acrobatic saves. But his style was primitive. Like most goalkeepers in the world, his first job was to save goals, kicking the ball long as soon as he could. Good distribution was not something he would have included in his resume either. It was evident during his first few days at Bengaluru. Roca would scream his name from the touchline as if he had done something wrong.
Two years later, Sandhu has improved, becoming Bengaluru’s first line of attack, holding the ball and passing it with a decent degree of success. In the recently-concluded Indian Super League, he played 365 passes and had 826 touches — most among the goalkeepers with a 57.53 per cent passing accuracy. Only two other keepers – Francisco Dorronsoro (241, Delhi Dynamos) and Amrinder Singh (206, Mumbai City) – had played more than 200 passes with the former having a better accuracy (64.64). Goan keepers – Mohammad Nawaz and Naveen Kumar played little less than 200 passes with over 80 per cent accuracy.
“Paaji (Sunil Chhetri) knows that I am not great at passing the ball from the back, but as a player, you want to take that challenge and improve as per the coach’s vision. The kind of football that we play here has helped me improve. There are times when I have not been able to do it correctly, but I try my best,” said Sandhu.
The Punjab native also has had a memorable season under the sticks. He won the Golden Glove award with six clean sheets, conceding a goal every 96 minutes, least among the keepers in the league. But Sandhu also had to take flak for his howlers, especially in the match against Delhi. Yet, he came back strong and pulled off some good saves against Goa at home.
“Forgetting things very fast was a trait I had to develop. It does not help if you keep thinking about those mistakes. Those were disappointing, but I had to see what I did wrong and that helped later.”