MARTIN KEOWN TALKS TACTICS: Goalkeepers are now the key players in every Premier League team… but it is not necessarily for their keeping!

• Goalkeepers are now integral to meeting the needs of modern-day coaches 
• Teams throughout the league use keepers to kickstart their build-up play
• But it only works if your keeper has variation to his passing and plenty of options

Goalkeepers are becoming the single most important players on the pitch in meeting the modern-day needs of Premier League managers.

They are instrumental in how their teams play — the one who kickstarts the masterplan to move the ball from back to front, along the carpet, and through each compartment of the team. Manchester City’s Ederson is the ultimate man for this, and Arsenal are still deciding if David Raya or Aaron Ramsdale is best for the job.

But this tactic is not only reserved for those at the top of the table. It is happening at the bottom, too, with Bournemouth’s Neto and Burnley’s James Trafford trying to develop play from their own six-yard line.

I agree this approach is the best way forward. Playing out from the back draws the opposition on and, once you beat their press, you have more space higher up the pitch in which your attackers can do damage.

But it only works if your goalkeeper has variation to his passing and plenty of solutions from team-mates when in possession. In the case of Ederson, he can send passes long and like an arrow, behind the opposition’s defence, centrally into Erling Haaland, or gift the ball to his nearest defender.

Keepers are instrumental in how their teams play and none are better than Man City’s Ederson

Arsenal are still deciding who out of David Raya or Aaron Ramsdale is the best man for the job

The problem for Trafford, despite being a student of the Manchester City academy, is Burnley’s defenders are passing the ball back to him and he is inviting the opposition to close him down before he releases. There are a multitude of factors involved here — the timing of the midfielders’ movement into a pocket of space is key to give the goalkeeper an option in central positions, for example — and it strikes me that this is an area in which Burnley must improve.

Last Saturday, we saw how self-destructive this tactic can be if not applied effectively. Burnley’s 3-0 defeat at Brentford involved Trafford continually trying to pass around the opposition’s high press — even after the Clarets went down to 10 men — and he came close to conceding more than one goal in doing so.

Likewise, Bournemouth had gone down to 10 men when Neto — who is injured for Saturday’s visit of Burnley and will be replaced by Andrei Radu — surrendered possession in front of his own box to gift Wolves their 88th-minute goal, resulting in a 2-1 defeat.

Teams at the bottom are trying it but Burnley and James Trafford are struggling to execute it

Bournemouth’s Neto was guilty of surrendering possession to gift Wolves their winning goal

It must be obvious now, not least to Neto, that he should have pressed the eject button to relieve the pressure by playing a long pass from that goal kick.

There comes a time when playing out from the back is only asking for trouble. It is now a part of the theatre of football — you can sense the supporters’ hearts in their mouths when their goalkeeper is trying to play this way — but Saturday’s game between Bournemouth and Burnley is not about style of play. It is about securing the win.

A brand of attractive football is nice. But winning games is a must, especially when you are engaged in a battle at the bottom.

These two teams have won only once between them in 18 Premier League outings and tomorrow it will be intriguing to see how strictly their goalkeepers adhere to their managers’ philosophies after recent scares.

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