Celtic’s Craig Gordon says he takes part in outfield training to fit in with new Hoops style

IT’S getting to the stage where boots are more important than gloves for Craig Gordon.

The Celtic star is a convert to the modern trend of goalies being skilled with the ball at their feet.

After a sticky start under Parkhead boss Brendan Rodgers, the 33-year-old is now immersed in studying how he can help his team-mates with the right passes.

That means he sometimes takes part in outfield action during training.

Gordon said: “Probably 90% of my touches now are with my feet.

“When that happens, I need to make sure my touch is right and that I’m helping the team.

“I didn’t make any saves of great note against Hamilton in midweek. But I came off feeling very good because I’d passed the ball around well and put it in the areas we wanted to go and create attacks.

“That’s part of my role now.

“It gives me great satisfaction coming off with a clean sheet and having contributed to the team more, in terms of passing the ball or keeping possession, than with my actual goalkeeping work.”

While he still works hard at being sharp to pull off the big saves, Gordon also spends time mixing with the rest of the squad.

He went on: “Now and again I take part in outfield training.

“When we’re doing possession, I might join in, and when we’re doing patterns of play, more often than not it starts from me.

“It’s up to me to be in the right positions to start us off. That’s something that I’ve had to learn.

“It’s OK saying you are going to play out from the back but there needs to be a system and people in the right places to receive the ball.

“We’ve worked hard on that on the training field.”

Until recently, the only statistic that mattered for keepers was the scoreline.

Now their passing ability is closely scrutinised.

Gordon said: “We look at things like pass completion and percentage of forward passes.

“There is analysis of the areas where we keep the ball and how many players you eliminate with each pass.”

Gordon, however, is reluctant to be tagged as a “sweeper keeper”.

Perhaps that’s because he was criticised for a couple of wild challenges when straying well outside his penalty area.

He said: “I was reading about Claudio Bravo and it described him more as a playmaker than a sweeper.

“He doesn’t necessarily come out very far from his goal like Manuel Neuer does.

“He stays further back and dictates play from there.

“I watched Hugo Lloris doing it very well for Tottenham the other night.

“You don’t have to come out that far. It’s about making decisions and getting them right as often as possible.”