‘Don’t forget, a keeper’s job is to make saves’
MAARTEN Stekelenburg was schooled at Ajax, grew up admiring the tenets of ‘Total Football’ but gives the impression that, if a ball bounced in front of him and Luis Suarez, it would be met with rather more force than a prod of the right instep.
Sweeper-keepers are all the rage – or enraging if Claudio Bravo’s antics for Manchester City against Barcelona are anything to go by – but Everton’s No1 has a more streamlined view of his role.
“Basically, the main priority for goalkeepers is saving balls,” says Stekelenburg, below, whose side face Burnley at Turf Moor today.
“I come from the Ajax youth academy, I’m used to playing with my feet. I don’t have any problem with that. But people don’t have to forget that the main thing for a goalkeeper is saving balls and then everything you do extra to help the team is a bonus.
“It started when goalkeepers couldn’t pick up the ball any more when the defenders played it back.
“These days, goalkeepers have to be all-round. They have to be good with their feet, high balls – the basic goalkeeping stuff.
“We want to play out from the back but we don’t want to put too many risks in it because then we will concede goals.” Stekelenburg speaks from a position of strength, having helped establish Everton as the second meanest defence in the top flight. It is seven days since he left Pep Guardiola nursing his first headache of the week, plunging to his left to deny Kevin De Bruyne from the penalty spot, before repeating the trick to foil Sergio Aguero, as Everton draw at the Etihad.
At 34, the Holland international arrived at Goodison Park perceived as no more than back-up. He had worked under Ronald Koeman at Ajax and last season on loan at Southampton but a permanent move from Fulham to Merseyside appeared to offer no guarantee of regular starts. Yet Stekelenburg’s standards have been so suitably high that he caught the eye even forced a 1-1 before last week’s heroics that spared the blushes of captain Phil Jagielka, who had conceded both spot-kicks. “I have saved one in a match before but never two in a game,” says Stekelenburg. “He [Jagielka] said thank you – but I’m still waiting for dinner.
“The key is just to wait as long as possible. That is what I do. You don’t want to make it too easy for the taker.
“Almost all goalkeepers will agree that if you go too early, you make it easy. They will just pass it to the other side.” Stekelenburg does not even regard those stops as his best in the game but rather the repelling of a thunderbolt from De Bruyne that he pushed on to the post.
“It was the last one, the shot from De Bruyne,” he says when pushed on his favourite save.
“Was it the game of my life? Not at the moment. If you stop two penalties in a game and you get a result it is always different. When it wins you a point it is nice, especially there, because I don’t think many going there will take points.”
If his form in the short term persuaded Everton to ditch their interest in Joe Hart, then Stekelenburg cannot help but look to the long term.
His career has been increasingly nomadic since he was beaten by Andres Iniesta’s precise volley in the World Cup final in South Africa in 2010; time at Fulham, following a spell in Italy, initially failing to live up to expectations as managers came and went at Craven Cottage.
“I don’t have to talk too much about Felix Magath. Let us say we were not friends,” said Stekelenburg. “That happens in football. It is bad luck as well. I had to see a way out. I went to Monaco and had a good year. I stayed fit and became stronger and then Ronald gave me a call when Fraser Forster was injured and I played a lot of games last year.
“Then Ronald asked me to come here. He’s a little more relaxed now than his Ajax period. That’s with experience. I really like him as a manager. I moved five times in six years. When you have kids it is difficult. I have signed a three-year contract and hopefully I can stay here for a long time for my family but also for me as a No1.”