DON’T MAKE A LOT OF SAVES
Big Nev told me the No.1 rule of being a good keeper...
CHRIS MAXWELL revealed chats with legendary keeper Neville Southall transformed his entire view of his position.
The on-loan Hibs man learned his trade under the former Everton hero when he coached the Welsh national team’s junior ranks.
And it was during those lessons that Maxwell learned an insight that has become a guiding principle of how he approaches the game – if a keeper is saving lots of shots he’s not doing his job properly.
Maxwell, who’ll be hoping he doesn’t have a save to make at home to Ross County today, said: “Goalkeeping is about more than just saving shots.
“I’m lucky enough to be from the same area of Wales that Neville Southall is from.
“And he told me as a kid, ‘If you’re saving shots then you’re not doing your job properly’, and I asked why?
“He said, ‘If you’re organising the boys in front of you, you’re taking crosses, you’re keeping the ball and you’re sweeping up behind then you don’t have to save shots. And if you’re not saving shots they’re not scoring goals.’
“It was as simple as that. Every month 20 keepers aged 15 and under would go down to Cardiff and he would work with us there. “He was a real hero of mine. He was unorthodox in the way he did things and he had a massive work ethic, something I have always looked up to. “If you can stop it at source and you’re not being bombarded by shots every game then you’re not going to concede as many goals. It’s as simple as that.
“You can see everything on the pitch and something I really believe in is communication and organisation with the players in front of you.
“As a group we’re doing really well defensively. I’m not having to make a lot of saves so something’s going right, something’s working.”
Which makes Hibs’ run of eight league games without a win all the more frustrating as the team languishes in second bottom of the table. But Maxwell said: “The team is doing well. I know it looks bad on paper when you see we’ve taken the lead in five games out of seven and not won but the manner of the goals we’ve conceded has been tough.
“It’s not as if players have been making mistakes.
“Hand on heart there are no boys in our dressing room who believe we’re on a slippery slope. We all believe we are turning it around and one win will sort it out.”