Goalkeepers experience a level of isolation. Unlike their outfield teammates, who are required to press opposition players, maintain tactical shapes, and instantaneously receive the ball anywhere on the pitch, goalkeepers can view the game with, at least to some extent, clarity.

 

Goalkeepers, of course, are not exempt from these responsibilities. The modern game places more emphasis than ever on the goalkeeper’s role beyond shot stopping, with their contributions to build-up play pivotal to helping their team up the pitch. Nonetheless, the relative separation goalkeepers experience from the rest of the play enables them to perceive the game more clearly than their outfield counterparts. 

 

For this reason, the communicative abilities of goalkeepers are fundamental to maintaining defensive shape as they relay advanced tactical information and motivate teammates.

 

Communication within football’s elite level, where squads consist of various cultures, languages, and personality types, is a more intricate, complex art than is credited for. 

 

In the eyes of elite coaches, goalkeepers should be able to relay advanced tactical knowledge to their teammates, irrespective of their ability to fluently speak the team’s language or fully understand the patterns of play, trained over several years.

 

Dino Zoff, one of the few goalkeepers to embark on a career in football management, emphasised:

 

“A goalkeeper must have authority. He must be able to communicate, organise, and direct.”

 

This summer’s transfer window has seen six goalkeepers join new Premier League clubs, creating, in each case varying, communicative barriers that will need resolving to enjoy fruitful periods at their respective new clubs.

 

Few, if any, goalkeepers in the Premier League will have to overcome greater cross-cultural communication barriers than Nottingham Forest’s new £3.4 million goalkeeper, Carlos Miguel.

 

The 25-year-old Brazilian goalkeeper has never played in an English-speaking country previously and conducted his obligatory introduction video on the Nottingham Forest YouTube channel in Portuguese. 

 

With presumably, at best, limited familiarity with the English language, understanding messages reiterated to him in team meetings and then applying them during Premier League matches represents several difficulties for the towering 6ft8” goalkeeper.

 

There is hope for Miguel, though. Nottingham Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo, a native Portuguese speaker, can communicate with Miguel with cultural efficiency, even if English-speaking team meetings go over his head. 

 

The goalkeeper will also have several Portuguese-speaking teammates, including fellow countrymen Murillo, a highly rated 22-year-old centre-back, and Danilo, a 23-year-old defensive midfielder who arrived in January 2024, who he can communicate easily with on the pitch.

 

It is not rare for goalkeepers to communicate with defenders in a non-English language during Premier League matches. Ederson, who has since gone on to be regarded among the highest-performing goalkeepers in Premier League history, bellowed on-pitch instructions to former Manchester City defender Nicolas Otamendi in Spanish when he first arrived in England. 

 

Speaking to Manchester City’s official website in 2017, he said: “Obviously, communication is key. In some games, I speak a little bit in Spanish with Nico, but I’ve learned a bit of English and that has helped me a lot, too”

 

Meanwhile, Chelsea’s new Swedish-born goalkeeper, Filip Jorgensen, a £20.7 million arrival from Villarreal, is the only other stopper set to start the new season without previously playing on English soil.

 

Jorgensen, as with many Scandinavians, is fluent in English. In theory, the switch to West London should be relatively seamless – after all, he told Chelsea’s official website the transfer was a ‘dream move.’ 

 

The goalkeeper has a Danish father and Swedish mother; he spent his formative years playing in Spain and has four languages at his disposal to communicate with Chelsea’s various new signings. Something that should hold him in good stead ahead of the upcoming Premier League season.

 

But Jorgensen and many of his Chelsea teammates will experience their communicative barriers at Stamford Bridge. Effective on-field communication is developed through repetition, consistency, and a strong culture, enabling relationships and compatibility to build among the goalkeeper and his defenders. 

 

Chelsea has five goalkeepers. The likelihood of regular first-team exposure for Jorgensen, enabling the facilitation of relationships with his defence, feels unlikely, with Robert Sanchez expected to start the season as the first-choice goalkeeper.

 

Even if Jorgensen is given an extended run in the first team, it feels improbable that the 22-year-old will be walking into a settled line-up, given the excess of talent Chelsea possesses elsewhere on the pitch, where communication can flow efficiently between goalkeeper and defence.

 

Another goalkeeper set to experience a different kind of communicative barrier is Liverpool’s ever-reliable, safe pair of hands, Alisson Becker. The Brazilian stopper, who arrived on Merseyside with little understanding of the English language, was praised by former manager Jurgen Klopp for his dedication to quickly integrating into the culture and picking up the language. 

 

But this summer, Alisson will have to quickly learn a new tactical language, as for the first time since arriving at Anfield, the goalkeeper will be coached by a different manager. The new Liverpool manager, Arne Slot, has contrasting views on the game to Klopp and utilises goalkeepers in build-up slightly differently. 

 

Largely due to his commitments at Copa America, Alisson returned to pre-season later than any other Liverpool player this summer and has featured in just one friendly game heading into the forthcoming Premier League campaign. 

 

The Brazilian goalkeeper must quickly come to terms with how Slot sees the game if he is to accurately convey information that might slightly differ from what he was familiar with under Klopp to his defenders.

 

Other goalkeepers joining Premier League clubs, Wes Foderingham, Alex Paulsen, Arjjanet Muric, and Odysseas Vlachodimos, will have to adapt to new tactical shapes and set-piece routines too. 

 

Typically, outfield players are allowed time for “settling in” when switching clubs and leagues or navigating the complexities of learning a new language—generally, goalkeepers aren’t afforded the luxury.