Bayern's Junghans emphasizes mental and physical aspects to training keepers

Walter Junghans played over 400 games in the German Bundesliga, of which about 100 were for Bayern Munich, for whom he bagged two league championships (1980/1981) and the cup in 1982.

The 57-year old was in the German squad at the 1980 European Championships. Today, Junghans is goalkeeping coach in Munich - a job he took over in 2007. Xinhua recently sat down to ask him about Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

Xinhua: When you say Manuel Neuer has unique goalkeeping abilities, do you think that any amount of practice can hone abilities as sharp as those of Manuel Neuer?

Junghans: You might be able to train the feeling for a situation, but in general I would say: either you have the ability, or you don't. Of course, the unique talent that Manuel Neuer has is not a must-have. Intensive training will give you a lot that you need for goal-keeping. But then, it is more a case of mechanical movements instead of intuitive decisions. Manuel Neuer is unique for one reason: He intuitively makes the right decisions.

Xinhua: Would you say he was spot-on in the Champions League match against Atletico? Many pundits such as Lothar Matthaeus gave the impression that Neuer choose incorrectly when he pulled back his hands to be quicker, when in fact he had to get up again to make a possible second save.

Junghans: As Manuel Neuer said after the game, he had the impression that he was not going to get to the ball. Then it is absolutely the right decision to hold back and to think about what happens when the ball hits the post. It was very close in that case, a case of a few centimeters. But I think there is no doubt that Manuel Neuer is one of the top goalies at present. Just think about his special interpretation of goalkeeping. He takes a lot of risks but is at the same time not only goalkeeper but an additional outfield player for the team. I think that is how football works today.

Xinhua: You were a top class keeper yourself for Bayern Munich and other German clubs. Today you work as a goalkeeping coach. What would you recommend to a youngster looking to join a big club and deal with the attention that comes with it?

Junghans: If you choose football as your sport and you are good enough to turn professional, you have to learn to deal with it. Only if you manage to stay cool, especially after making mistakes which are inevitable, will you have a good chance of making it. Obviously in football, youngsters with outstanding skills get catapulted into the focus of media and the public. It's a part of the game. It is important is to stay focused on your life and career - for me that includes getting good grades at school.

Xinhua: If a talented youngster has to decide whether to join Bayern Munich or another club, what should he do? The goalkeeping position in Munich for instance is blocked by Manuel Neuer for the next years, meaning no one else will get the chance to play regularly.

Junghans: Don't forget that goalkeeping is also about experience. For a young keeper, it means he can benefit a lot from training on a world-class level. To practice next to a keeper like Manuel Neuer is something of great value. Just to look at his way of training and the way he does things is a great opportunity to learn. For a young keeper that means he can benefit just by the training, even if he does not often get the opportunity to play in games. Young keepers can still join another club, for instance on loan. This seems to be not always a bad idea. When it comes to getting time on the pitch, we should not forget the outfield players. It's also not easy for them to get in the team. Just take a look at David Alaba, Toni Kroos or Philipp Lahm. All of them took a detour via other clubs before they came back and made it into the team.

Xinhua: For many years you have been training with the professional team. At present you are responsible for the under-19 and under-23 teams. What is the biggest difference in training youngsters and professionals?

Junghans: The training is quite similar; coaching youngsters is more about teaching them things. Juniors train the basic skill for hours on end. It's something the pros don't have to do; they've been through it already. With them it's more about fine-tuning. They additionally have to do some outfield training. Today it is important for a goal-keeper to be a good outfield player too. To be precise, they have to maybe improve their kicking techniques and outfield skills. If they have to play up-field they often have less time than their teammates. Xinhua: Manuel Neuer is a shining example when it comes to footballing skills. What does a skills session for goalkeepers involve?

Junghans: It's more or less exactly the same as for outfield players. You repeat technical exercises and, important, you include the keepers into the outfield players training. It is important to also change the exercises as often as you can to avoid creating any monotony. As long as fundamental abilities such as shooting skills, passing preciseness and bring able to think on both feet are ok, it's important to work on slight weaknesses. As a goalkeeping coach, you are always in intense discussions with the head coach as he's the one that indicates the direction of training and its content.

Xinhua: How does the collaboration between head coach and goalkeeping coach work?

Junghans: You're in a constant dialogue. It's essential because every coach has his strategy and plan as to how to open up a game. I can hardly train long balls to the right flank when the coach demands short passes over the left flank. When it comes to goalkeeping-specific decisions and training them, it' s entirely our business. We talk about the split-second decisions a keeper has to make on the pitch: short or long passes to open the game, catch the ball or use the fist, leave the goal to close down an opponent further up in the box or stay on the line. Making the right decisions is the fine art of goalkeeping. For young keepers, it's a most difficult thing to discuss such decisions or mistakes and how to do better the next time. It takes experience. A mistake is just a mistake and nothing something that should stay on your mind. Working on it makes things better and easier.

Xinhua: What would an analysis look like exactly?

Junghans: We in Munich record most of the games from the "under 13s" on. I take a look at the situations our keepers are involved in together with the keepers themselves. This takes place in two stages: Ones that affect the work with the foot and the keeper-specific ones. As a goalkeeping coach, you have to be sensitive and not talk too long about mistakes. There has to be a clear message: It's normal to make mistakes and never bad to work on them, it's a part of life and sports.

Xinhua: That means you are not only coach but a sort of psychologist too?

Junghans: If you want to make it into professional football you have to learn to deal with mistakes. In today's medial society, you can watch your games and your mistakes over and over again, but we don't have to talk about them that long. It's more of a case of finding solutions and avoiding mistakes. But in general, it's different and depends on what type of person the footballers are. Some you just leave alone because they need to think about it themselves, some others need to talk about it. Most of this happens after the game, during the game we only talk about fundamental things and not individual mistakes that happen.

Xinhua: How often does it happen that you demand a fundamental change in goalkeeping during a game? As observers, we mostly see changes amongst the outfield players especially when it comes to their tactical strategy.

Junghans: In most cases we talk about opening up the game which has a big effect on the team as a whole. Do we need more goal kicks out wide or is it better for our game to find a short passing solution in tense situations.

Xinhua: Today clubs try to get players at a relatively young age, meaning they don't wait until they are 18 or 20. What do you think about it?

Junghans: It's wishful thinking to expect to sign a nine-year old and coach him straight away to becoming the best keeper in the world. That of course can happen, but it's not very likely to happen. So many factors play a vital role on the way up, and only very few of the highly talented youngsters get to the level that makes them ready to be a candidate for the first team of Bayern Munich. We as a club are entitled to have the best talents in our teams, but others do great work in junior coaching too. It's clear that many talents appear on the national and international stage. To make it into the professional squad, you need to have extraordinary ability, it would be presumptuous to think only you could deliver the things young footballers need. In general, the fact that clubs sign younger players is difficult for the youngsters themselves in the first place. In junior football, the most important thing is to have fun. My advice would be to consider things very carefully, and take time to decide. It's the best idea to only take such a step when you are fully convinced and prepared.

Xinhua: The height of goalkeepers is an important thing. How important is it for developing youngsters?

Junghans: Of course height plays a vital role when it comes to goalkeeping. It can be a problem at a younger age, if a player doesn't grow to the height of his fellow players.

Xinhua: To find out what height a player gets to is difficult, especially at a younger age. At what stage would you decide if a young goal keeper can grow to the height that is essential?

Junghans: There is no key strategy to decide, it depends. We try to wait as long as possible. At a younger age, the body develops at often extremely different rates and ways. As long as we see the player can satisfy expectations as far as talent is concerned, we wait. In many cases physical growth increases rather late and you can't really tell when the time arrives to say that the player won't reach the required height.

Xinhua: Now at the end we come to a difficult question. How tall are you, and how tall is Manuel Neuer?

Junghans: (laughing) Manuel Neuer is 1.93 meters tall - as for me we have to consider that people say you start to shrink when you get older. Endit