The death of the long ball has been frequently pronounced as football has evolved in the past few years.
Playing out from the back has become the standard. Direct teams are the anomaly rather than the norm.
The logical tactical evolution after that was the rise of the high press, followed by attempts to deliberately lure the press to exploit spaces in behind those opposition players doing the pressing.
During that time, teams have been playing shorter passes from the back. Goalkeepers are no longer habitually launching long balls as far up the pitch as they can. Instead, they play a key role in their team’s build-up phase, a trend best illustrated by the decline of the long ball in Europe’s top leagues, especially the Premier League.
Goalkeepers in England’s top flight have been playing fewer long balls. Since the start of the 2018-19 Premier League season, the percentage of goalkeeper passes played long — defined as balls that travel at least 32m (35 yards) — has been decreasing year on year, dropping from 69 per cent to under half in that six-year period.
The move towards playing shorter passes means ’keepers have increasingly been required to possess a different skill set. Technical ability on the ball has become a necessity, leading to a focus on developing goalkeepers who are good with their feet under pressure.
This increased technical quality of goalkeepers, and the rise of aggressive pressing, have led to teams maximising long passes to exploit spaces upfield.
“When you play teams against man to man, the man free is the ‘keeper,” said Pep Guardiola after his Manchester City side’s 3-0 away win against Burnley at the start of last season. “That’s why you have to use this alternative.”
In the second half of that game, City exploited Burnley’s man-marking by isolating striker Erling Haaland and using goalkeeper Ederson to play long passes to him. Ederson completed 16 of his 28 long passes at Turf Moor that night — his highest Premier League tally since 2018-19 — and one of those led to the free kick through which City scored their third goal.
Similarly, visitors Brentford tried to press City man-to-man in their Premier League match last month. Again, the City players dropped deeper to drag Brentford defenders out of position, creating space for Haaland to attack and for Ederson to send long passes into.
In this example, Jack Grealish and Savinho retreat to move their markers forward, Sepp van den Berg and Nathan Collins, and isolate Haaland against Ethan Pinnock.
Once the City players attract Brentford’s defenders higher up the pitch, Ederson plays a long ball towards Haaland, who beats Pinnock to score the winner.
“When you isolate Haaland against a central defender, with the quality that we have with Ederson and (backup goalkeeper) Stefan Ortega, it’s a weapon that we have to exploit,” said Guardiola after City’s 2-1 victory that day.
This season has been the third in a row in which City have used Ederson’s long balls towards Haaland to beat man-to-man pressing schemes. Considering the qualities and profiles of the two players, it’s a golden solution.
On the other side of Manchester, Guardiola’s United counterpart Erik ten Hag was never lucky enough to see Andre Onana’s long balls towards Diogo Dalot result in a goal.
Since the beginning of last season, ’keeper Onana has been trying to find Dalot’s runs behind the defence, whether the Portuguese full-back was starting from a narrow infield position or a wider one.
The idea is to wait until Dalot has curved his run beyond the opposition back line before the goalkeeper plays the long ball into space with the other United players vacating that area.
In the 2-1 home win against Brentford this month, Dalot snuck behind Kevin Schade — after Marcus Rashford’s narrow positioning dragged Kristoffer Ajer infield — to attack the space beyond the defence.
Onana perfectly times his long pass, with Dalot still onside…
… but the full-back shoots straight at Mark Flekken.
Liverpool have also been using their goalkeepers’ long-range distribution to execute a specific move.
Alisson and his backup Caoimhin Kelleher have been playing long balls to Mohamed Salah to start an up-back-through passing pattern down their right wing.
Liverpool’s third goal in a 4-1 win against Sevilla in pre-season is an example of how the move works: Alisson goes direct towards Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai makes a third-man run into the space the Egyptian winger has vacated, even before the latter gets the ball back to Diogo Jota, who then finds the Hungarian midfielder’s run.
Salah has received 42 per cent of Liverpool goalkeepers’ completed long passes in the Premier League this season, a stark increase compared to the previous six campaigns. New head coach Arne Slot is turning him into a direct outlet.
It’s important to remember that this is not just a case of goalkeepers launching their kicks forward with no purpose. The idea is to have a specific routine that maximises your chance of scoring a goal.
Arsenal’s David Raya has played 56 per cent of his passes long in the Premier League so far this season — only Nottingham Forest, Everton and Wolverhampton Wanderers’ goalkeepers have gone direct more frequently. But Arsenal aren’t just lumping the ball forward for the sake of it. Raya’s long passes are mainly targeted towards Kai Havertz near the right touchline, with the other Arsenal players in position to try to then win the second ball.
Since Raya and Havertz joined Arsenal in summer 2023, the Germany forward has received as many of the Spain goalkeeper’s completed long passes as the rest of the team combined in the Premier League (102 of 204). The next highest receivers on the list are Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli, with just 17 each.
Football’s evolution in recent years has turned goalkeepers’ long balls into a tool to attack space and progress up the pitch.
More emphasis on build-up play has favoured technically sound ‘keepers, while also leading to the rise of aggressive pressing and higher defensive lines. Goalkeepers can target specific areas and team-mates to bypass that press and attack the space it inevitably creates.
Numerically, long balls played by ’keepers are in decline but tactically, they are more important than ever.
(Top photo: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)