Millwall v Sheffield Wednesday: James Beadle told to keep taking risks by manager who learnt from the master

Playing at Championship leaders Leicester City is hard enough without giving them a headstart but James Beadle played a hospital pass to Will Vaulks deep in his own penalty area with Dennis Praet at his back.

The Foxes hunted the ball down and Abdul Fatawu opened the scoring just four minutes in. From there, they were able to add another through boyhood Wednesdayite Jamie Vardy for a 2-0 win.

It was a daft mistake, but not one that will cost Beadle his place in Saturday's team to face MIllwall.

Beadle is a 19-year-old Brighton and Hove Albion have sent on loan to make mistakes somewhere else.

The senior Seagulls have made their fair share this season, level at the top of the Premier League's list of "errors leading to goals" with Sheffield United (seven each), according to its statistics.

Title-chasing Arsenal are only two behind and Alisson, widely regarded as one of the world's best, has been blamed by the statisticians for two of the 23 league goals Liverpool have conceded this season.

Maybe we need to change our expectations and soften our criticisms of goalkeepers. Managers increasingly want them to be brave on the ball, looking to pass rather than simply lump it as was the case a decade ago.

Danny Rohl, English league football's youngest manager (barring interims) at 34, certainly falls into that category having worked closely with the man who has done more than anyone to redefine the role of a goalkeeper.

Despite Rohl's youth, he spent four years working with Manuel Neuer – two as a Bayern Munich coach, two more with Germany.

Neuer has been the archetypal sweeper-keeper since his Bundesliga debut in 2006. The 37-year-old is no novelty act a la Mexico's Jorge Campos or Colombia's Rene Higuita in the 1990s, even if his more calamitous moments carry comedy value.

Neuer has won a World Cup, two European Cups, a European Super Cup, two World Club Cups, 11 Bundesligas and two German cups. He won the golden glove at the 2014 World Cup, has a man of the match award from a European Cup final, and kept goal in the team of the last decade as voted for by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics. Little surprise Rohl wants Beadle to be a risk-taker too.

"Ten years ago there was more building up with long balls from goalkeepers, winning second balls and (keepers) staying on their line," says the Owls manager. “When you compare this to how goalkeepers are against the ball now, the positions and the solutions they have to play around or through the lines, you can see why all the big, successful teams have great goalkeepers with a lot of different profiles.

"In my mind the first goalkeeper who changed the style was Manuel Neuer. I think he has really improved modern football, he's changed the style of football. He was more like a modern libero (sweeper) behind the back four, with front-foot defending and solutions with the ball.

"The key point is still the same, to stop the opponent scoring, but the profile of a modern goalkeeper is wider than 10 years ago.

"You have different challenges – where you have to stay against the ball, which position you have behind the back four. If you want to press high it's important you have a keeper who stays high to get a ball behind the back four. I'm looking for goalkeepers who can play from the back but it's about finding a balance between the short and long solution.

"He's a goalkeeper but he's also a player who can keep the ball, it's massive and important for the team.

"With James, everyone's speaking about the situation after four minutes but if you take the whole game you will not find many mistakes from him. He played well against Birmingham as well, great saves.

"Before the injury to Cameron (Dawson) I said it was an open race (to be first choice) and then there was an injury and James showed his quality. We should not just look to one mistake."

But Rohl is no Ossie Ardilles-style kamikaze manager. He cannot be in charge of the Championship’s lowest away scorers, so a 1-0 today to dampen the notorious New Den atmosphere will do him nicely.

"We have a lot of points at home because we have positive energy and the supporters celebrate every shot and corner,” he says. "If you play well away we can also quieten stadiums.

"We had positive energy at Leicester even after we conceded twice and our away fans were great. We can influence the atmosphere around us – if we play well and fight we will be able to hear our supporters.

"It was key we did not concede again. The second half was 0-0, that was a huge step forward for us. We have to be very clinical in our own box to not concede and 1-0 is always a great result, especially away."

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