Liverpool U21 Goalkeeper Coach Mark Morris has helped elite goalkeepers to debuts at Anfield and beyond. What considerations go into a programme aimed at developing shot-stoppers good enough for the Premier League Champions?
Mark Morris knows what it takes for a young footballer to reach the top.
The Englishman has supported the Liverpool goalkeeper department in refining its pipeline to bring elite goalkeepers through to careers at Anfield and beyond for 17 years. With the Welsh National Team, he worked with the U17s, 19s, and 21s as the ‘golden era’ of Gareth Bale, Joe Allen, and Aaron Ramsey worked their ways into the spotlight.
Whether on Merseyside or in Wales, Morris is experienced enough to know that no journey to the top is the same or straightforward, and must be assessed holistically, uniquely and, most importantly, patiently.
“We’re fully prepared for the dips in the road”, he said, speaking exclusively to Goalkeeper.com about the pathway to the top for young goalkeepers at Liverpool.
“Everything is taken into consideration. At larger clubs with more resources, we’re fortunate enough that we can be a bit more patient and work with potential if a goalkeeper is, say, a late developer. But potential is the big one. It’s about their ability to learn, their ability to take on information, the what they've got ahead of them, rather than what's been behind them. That would be our main criteria when it comes to progressing goalkeepers through the system.”
In recent years, claims about academies being able to spot a Premier League footballer before their teenage years have flown around footballing circles. Morris doesn’t believe in such “crystal ball” matters. When a goalkeeper joins Liverpool’s academy at any age group, they join a club taking a longer-term approach to nurturing the next generation of top flight shot stoppers.
“If you jump to making decisions very early, that can bite you further down the line”, he admits. A goalkeeper is assessed by all departments across the academy to ensure that a cohesive vision for his or her development is realised. No decision is made in isolation, and a longer timeline is taken to work out where a goalkeeper’s future lies. Morris would “go as far to say that the best goalkeepers probably aren’t even playing in goal at nine or ten years old.
“There have certainly been goalkeepers who played for us in the Premier League who weren't playing in goal at 14 or 15”, he continues. “But there are certain traits you look for to work out whether a player could actually be successful in goal.”
Many of these traits can’t be taught. Morris points to speed and bravery as two of the key ones. “Do they run out to the ball instead of turning away from the ball? It’s those sorts of things that are very difficult to instill in people”.
The way psychological development corresponds with physical development is another key consideration in Liverpool’s programme. Biobanding (placing players in age groups that correspond with their physical maturity rather than official age) is a technique that is sometimes employed across the academy game to better filter players’ progression. But so much also comes in the form of the goalkeeper’s mentality.
Morris recognises that at times “it doesn’t matter where the bioband is if they’re good enough - physically and mentally - and are capable of stepping up an age group. The mentality side of things comes into it an awful lot, because it's a big step up between the U16 and ‘full time’ programmes especially.
“At 16, goalkeepers come in euphoric because they're full time from pre-season onwards, but then they might not be playing. The form dips. You’ve got to pick up the pieces again, so we’re experienced enough to see that coming and work with them.”
A long-term perspective is central to goalkeeper development in this regard, especially in England where age groups are based on school years (September - September) rather than calendar years.
“When we go and play youth tournaments in Europe, we sometimes suffer in those but again, it's nothing that we don't know and we're not prepared for. The lads are aware of it as well. But it’s a marathon, not a sprint”, Morris explains.
The home straight of that marathon is integration with the first team goalkeeper group. “We're probably fortunate that we've got really close relationships with the first team at Liverpool, and a lot of pre-seasons, some of the younger goalkeepers ended up going over with the First Team on tour or to train” he says.
“All you can say to them is, look, you're probably on tour with one of the best goalkeepers, if not the best goalkeeper in the world. Whatever he does, you're watching, watching, watching because you want to try and take the best of what he's got.”
When goalkeepers of Alisson and Mamardashvili’s stature are your day-to-day mentors, it’s hard not to feel like you have to absorb what they show you into your game. In reality, Morris believes that the individuality of the goalkeeper still has to be maintained.
“If it works for you, it works, but if it doesn't, then…not everybody's the same. There will be bits of what those guys do - even beyond the pitch - that you can bring into your profile.
But how do Morris and his colleagues know when a goalkeeper is actually ready to move into that environment?
“I always say to goalkeepers who go over to the First Team that it's an audition. You're in front of the head goalkeeper coach, the first team goalkeeper coach. You're in front of the management staff, the manager himself. And you're also in front of the other goalkeepers and the other outfielders. They are sometimes, if not always, the best judges.
“You can learn a lot about a goalkeeper by the way their teammates or senior staff talk about them, by the way they treat them.”
These moves don’t always end up being the big break all parties hope they will be. “The audition can go wrong because the level stepping up from the U21s to the first team for outfielders and for goalkeepers is huge”, Morris explains.
The staff try to take a ‘drip feed’ approach rather than just throwing goalkeepers in the deep end, and sometimes confidence can be knocked. But the preparation goalkeepers will receive at Liverpool takes a 360 degree approach. Whether nutrition, psychology, gym work, or something else, the academy aims to give them the best possible foundation to make that step.
Morris admits that the step up to the first team is big, and often unavoidable due to injury, for example. It’s in those moments when “you find out very, very quickly, whether a goalkeeper is ready or not”.
“I spend a lot of time with the first team and just watching the level of finishing and the speed of the ball is a prime example. But it’s the IQ of the players that is off the scale. And Ali [Alisson] is a prime example of that.
“The great goalkeepers are the ones who read the game well, they anticipate, they understand the wider tactics. If the opposition are doing something to stop us, then they are generally one step ahead, like a game of chess.
“When you’re training with Alisson, Mamardashvili, Freddie [Woodman] and Xavi [Valero], you can observe so much. But the younger lads have then also got to keep their level of training up. to maintain that, and at a world class level it can be difficult for a seventeen year old to get their head around.”
Morris notes how, despite the average age of a Premier League Two player recently being around 17-18 years old, "for a goalkeeper, that's particularly young”. Last year, one U17 goalkeeper at Liverpool played most of the U21 matches. When goalkeepers are being stretched, it’s vital that academy and first team coaches remain in close communication to stay on top of the goalkeeper’s development.
“We’re in constant communication with the first team goalkeeper coaches. I get texts from Xavi in the morning, and we have a coffee most days for 20 minutes, half an hour, talking about the goalkeepers going into the first team group that day, the previous day, and the games coming up.
“The collaboration is unbelievable. Really, really close. I speak to the U18s goalkeeper coach, more than I speak to my wife!”, he jokes. The practice is all equally goalkeeper-centred, and this has remained the same as Liverpool’s goalkeeper department has evolved between the Klopp and Slot eras.
In reality, “you’re sort of hoping on the end of the phone that a good report is going to come back. If it doesn't, then you take that on board and you work on the areas that have been highlighted,” says the English coach. Communication channels remain open and play a core role in setting up success. “We’ll have a conversation with the goalkeeper themself and say, this is the feedback, let’s go and fill in the gaps.”
“Ultimately, my job is, in a way, to get young goalkeepers to where I feel that they can step up to the first team and handle it.”
One of the hardest situations to handle in an academy system is when multiple goalkeepers are vying for the same starting spot. Signing decisions have to be made on whether a goalkeeper can perform over a pressurised ninety minutes. It’s a classic goalkeeper dilemma, which only becomes harder post-16.
“Before the age of 16, Premier League rules mandate that any goalkeeper in the building has to play 50% of the games. After that it’s something of a free for all”, Morris explains.
“We want goalkeepers to have as much game time as possible. Whether that is the loan pathway or not, everybody's got different routes. Sometimes our first year scholars will carry on playing with the U16s, which happens quite regularly, but then there’s a knock on effect that the Under 16 goalkeeper then doesn't get a game.
Once again, “communication is the big one. Not only between the different age group coaches, but to the parents, because we don’t want people panicking if their son's not playing. Ultimately, the needs of the first team dictate, and we're here to facilitate them. Sometimes we use short term loans to help. We’ve had quite a few goalkeepers go out into the League of Wales, and lots of other places.
“On the flip side, Caoimhin [Kelleher] came in at 14 and left recently but never went out on loan. He's only ever played in the Premier League and international football. He was a prime example of drip feeding into the first team environment through the age groups. We felt it was best to keep him in the building over those years.
“But that just goes to show that there is no written rule. Every goalkeeper has to be treated differently.”
So, what really goes into making a Premier League goalkeeper in 2026?
“I thought long and hard about this one”, the Englishman admits.
“We had a period where we went away from keeping the ball out of the back of the net towards goalkeepers being judged more on their ability to play from the back. That’s still a huge part of it, depending on the team you play for, obviously. But I feel that's coming back around again in terms of the long ball game.
“First and foremost, you must have the ability to keep the ball out of the back of the net on a consistent level, and make the ‘big saves’. The top, top goalkeepers generally play behind the best defences, so they have very, very little to do, but when they are called upon, that's the difference. They make the big saves.
“Part of that is your football IQ and your mentality, because it's ruthless. If you're mentally rock solid, on the outside, you can be what you want on the inside. So they would be my three big factors, in that order: keep the ball out of the goal, maximise your football IQ/mentality, and then be able to start an attack with the ball at your feet”, Morris concludes.
