Defending the long goal kick: who wins the first contact, who forms the second line, and why most teams only train one of them

In my breakdown of Tottenham's 3-2 defeat by Aston Villa, the goal that stayed with me was the second. Zion Suzuki kicked long, nobody in a Tottenham shirt dealt with the first contact, Johan Manzambi laid it off, and Nicolas Jackson went past Micky van de Ven and scored. Roberto De Zerbi said afterwards that his staff had warned the players about exactly that ball in several meetings before the game.

This international break is a good moment to slow that goal down, because the lesson is not really about Tottenham. It is about a situation every team at every level faces many times a match, and one that the Premier League is seeing more of, not less. This is how I would teach a squad to defend it.

Why are more teams kicking long again?

For most of the last decade, goalkeepers played short. The Premier League's own Opta analysis from September 2025 showed the share of goalkeeper passes played long falling from 79.3 per cent in 2014/15 to 46.6 per cent in 2023/24. The proportion of goal kicks reaching the opposition half dropped every season from 2016/17 to 2024/25.

Then it turned. The same analysis found 51.9 per cent of goalkeeper passes going long in the opening weeks of 2025/26, and a follow-up by Opta Analyst in January 2026 had 48.8 per cent of goal kicks ending in the opponent's half after 21 rounds, with long balls up to 99.6 per game from 93.4 the season before. Some goalkeepers barely played short at all: Burnley's Martin Dubravka sent 193 of his 233 goal kicks into the opposition half.

There is a simple reason. When everyone learned to build short from the back, everyone also learned to press it. Teams now push five or six players up to squeeze a short goal kick, and that leaves space behind them. A long kick skips the press altogether and turns the game into a contest for one header and one loose ball in midfield. De Zerbi's figure after the Villa match, that Villa were playing "86% more long balls than last season", is his staff's own number and I cannot verify it. The trend it describes is real across the league.

What does the law allow at a goal kick?

It helps to be precise about the rules, because they shape the shape. Under Law 16 of the 2026/27 Laws of the Game, the ball is in play when it is kicked and clearly moves, and opponents must stay outside the penalty area until then. Players on the kicking team can receive it inside the box.

That second point is why the short build-up became so common, and it also sets up the long kick. The kicking team can pull your forwards towards the edge of the box with two centre-backs standing either side of the goalkeeper, and then go over the top of them. When your front line has been drawn in, the distance between your strikers and your defenders is at its biggest. Your midfield is stretched across that gap, and a long kick lands in it.

Job one: who attacks the first contact?

Every long goal kick has a landing zone. Before the goalkeeper strikes the ball, one player must own that zone. In most teams it is a centre-back, sometimes the holding midfielder if the target man drops short. The rule is simple and should be said the same way every time: one player goes, and everybody knows who.

The player who goes has three tasks. Read the flight early, get the first step in front of the striker, and head the ball forward and wide if he can, never back into the middle of his own half. A header that goes straight up or straight back is a gift, because the ball comes down where the opposition's runners are arriving. A header that goes forward and towards the touchline buys time for the team to reset.

He will not win them all. Villa's Jackson and Manzambi, or any strong pairing, will win some. That is fine. A centre-back who wins six out of ten long balls is doing well. The four he loses are the second line's problem, and this is where most teams are exposed.

Job two: the second line

When the first contact is lost, or only half won, the ball drops somewhere within ten to fifteen yards of the duel. The team that gets the second ball usually controls what happens next. So the players who are not attacking the header have one task: drop off and form a line that can collect that knockdown.

In practice this means three players. The nearest two central midfielders drop to sit in front of and either side of the duel. The other centre-back tucks in behind his partner, a few yards deeper, to cover the flick on. Think of it as a triangle around the header, with the point facing our own goal. If the flick goes through, the covering centre-back is already goal side. If it drops short, a midfielder is already there.

The second line goes missing for a predictable reason. When a team is chasing a game or pressing high, the midfielders who should form it are twenty yards too far up the pitch, still thinking about the last attack. That is how I read Tottenham's goal. They were 1-0 down and pushing up. The club's own report says the long kick was not dealt with, and one lay-off was enough to leave Jackson running at Van de Ven. When a single pass does that, the second line was not there to stop it. A second-ball problem turned straight into a one-against-one.

Winning the header is an individual skill. Winning the second ball is a team habit, and habits have to be trained.

Job three: keep the back line connected

The third part is the one supporters rarely see. While the duel happens, the full-backs have to tuck in and stay level with the covering centre-back. If one full-back is still high and wide from the previous attack, the flick-on has a lane to run into and the striker can take the ball on the half turn.

I also want the back line to drop a few yards as the goalkeeper steps up to kick. Not a panic retreat, a controlled step back. A defender who is already moving backwards can turn and run with a striker. A defender who is standing still, or worse still stepping up, gets turned. That is the difference between a centre-back who can recover and one who is chasing, and Jackson's goal was the second kind.

How to train it in one session

De Zerbi said his staff warned the players about Villa's long ball in meeting after meeting, and it still cost a goal. That is not unusual. A meeting shows the problem; training solves it. Here is a session I would run in a week with no match.

• Warm-up, 15 minutes. Heading in pairs, then a server kicking long from 40 yards. One player attacks it, the partner reads the knockdown. Swap roles every five balls.
• Unit practice, 20 minutes. The goalkeeper kicks from the six-yard box to a target man and a runner. Defend with a back four and two midfielders. Score a point for every second ball won, and lose two for every flick that gets in behind.
• Game situation, 20 minutes. Eleven against eleven from a restart. The attacking team has a goal kick every time the ball goes dead, and the coach stops play when the second line is not in position. Short, sharp freezes, not lectures.
• Finish, 10 minutes. Same situation, but the defending team is already 1-0 down and must press high. This is the moment the habit breaks, so it is the moment to rehearse.

The last block is the important one. Every team defends long balls well when it is calm and in shape. The goals come when a team is chasing, as I wrote about with Chelsea losing control at Brentford. The training has to recreate the emotional state, not only the positions.

What role does the goalkeeper play?

The defending goalkeeper is not a spectator. On a long kick he should be starting a few yards off his line, so he can sweep a flick that gets in behind. He also has the best view of the pitch and should be the one calling the second line into position. Goalkeepers who give a name and a job, not just "away", make this work faster. A name followed by "drop" is an instruction. "Watch it" is a noise.

There is a sensible balance here. A goalkeeper who starts too high can be caught by a ball that clears everyone. The distance depends on how deep the back line sits and how fast the goalkeeper is. What matters is that the decision is made before the kick, not after.

Where this matters beyond the Premier League

This is not only a top-level problem. In youth and grassroots football the long kick is often the default, because young goalkeepers may not yet have the passing confidence to play short under pressure. A defending side that trains a second line, even at under-13 level, takes control of those matches long before the other side learns to build.

It is also worth watching in India's friendlies against Panama, Brazil and Uruguay. Stronger opponents may choose when to go long, often straight after India have pushed up to press. How India's midfield reacts to that switch is one of the clearest tests of the rest-defence work Khalid Jamil can do in this camp.

What I would look for in Tottenham's next match

Tottenham's next league match is at Manchester United on Saturday 10 October, according to the club's fixture list, which is subject to change. I will be watching three things when the opposition goalkeeper has the ball.

1. Does one Tottenham centre-back clearly go for the header, or do two players drift towards it and leave the cover empty?
2. Where are the two holding midfielders at the moment of the kick? If they are level with the header, the second line exists. If they are twenty yards higher, it does not.
3. What happens when Spurs are behind? That was the moment it broke against Villa. It is also worth comparing with the rotated side that played well for long spells at Anfield, to see whether the shape holds when the first team returns.

None of it is complicated. It is repetition and responsibility: one player for the ball, three for the drop, four in a connected line. The team that can do that at 1-0 down, when every instinct says go forward, is a team that can stay in games long enough to win them.

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