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A ima kdo dostoo do The Athletic članka o Linekerju? 

Every weekend, Gary Lineker hosts Match of the Day and asks the two pundits sitting alongside him — most typically Alan Shearer and Ian Wright — to analyse the day’s football.

Shearer and Wright are obviously specialists at explaining and critiquing the performances of centre-forwards, and therefore Lineker asks the questions on behalf of the layman viewer.

But Lineker, of course, is not a layman. Lineker was probably the finest finisher of his generation, a World Cup Golden Boot winner in 1986, and a domestic Golden Boot winner with three different sides — Leicester (1984-85), Everton (1985-86) and Tottenham (1989-90) — in three straight First Division campaigns, interrupted by a successful three-year spell at Barcelona.

“To score the number of times he did, you have to be technically accomplished as well as having that love of getting goals,” says Shearer. “He was very quick and very clever and cute, knowing exactly how to time his runs and where to be, to find the near and far posts. Gary was a brilliant finisher.”

Before succeeding Des Lynam in the host’s chair in 1999, Lineker was a pundit himself, and an expert at explaining centre-forward play. For two decades, we’ve rarely heard his analysis. So, to mark Lineker’s 60th birthday, The Athletic asked him to talk us through a few of his classic goals — and one he’d never previously seen…

Leicester 2-1 Ipswich, September 1984

OK Gary, so we’re starting near the beginning of your career…

That looks like Filbert Street…

Correct. This is against Ipswich in 1983-84. And this is a classic early Lineker finish.

Ah yes, the dink. We like the dink.

This looks like you and Alan Smith up front…

Yup, Andy Peake with the header.

So in the early days at Leicester, there are so many goals where you finish one-on-one. A lot of the time, just before the shot, you seem to delay by half a second, and the goalkeeper commits…

That’s absolutely right. Good spot. The whole thing about one-on-ones is, if you can make the goalkeeper react first, you win. Or generally you win. It’s then up to you about how you finish. But if you can get him to commit, particularly to go down early, it gives you more options.

The first option, in this case, is to flick it over him.

The second option is to go around him. But on this particular occasion he’s too close to his goal, really. In an ideal world, to go around him, it’s best when they’re near the edge of their box.

Lin1.png

The one thing I used to hate — if he was a yard back here, and just stayed there, and stayed on his feet — that’s what I didn’t like. Because then your only real option is to knock it in the corner, and then you’ve got to be exceptionally accurate. I was never a whacker, I never blasted it.

But these ones, when they come out, if you can kid them a little bit with that stall, and make them go to ground early, then that gives you the option of the dink. Now, the dink isn’t an easy skill, but it’s one I was comfortable with — more so than slotting it away in the corner. When you’re running with the ball at speed, it’s not necessarily that easy.

I got a lot of goals like that, particularly in my early days, both at Leicester and Everton, because I had a lot of speed, which I tried to use to my advantage — a lot of defences used to play offside back then, so that was helpful — so I’d often I’d make a run towards the ball, bring the defender with me, and then spin. My movement before the ball is played will become a recurring theme, because that is the secret of goalscoring.

You go towards the ball, you spin and then you get in behind. I used to do signals for that with my team-mates — I used to do that (Lineker sticks his finger up and loops it around) — and that meant I want it behind. Then if they put the ball in behind, I used to back myself, speed-wise, to get in behind.

Did you work with a goalkeeper in training, in terms of practising one-on-ones, trying to understand their perspective?

Yeah, loads. I practised with Mark Wallington, the Leicester keeper at the time. He was really helpful, he used to tell me what goalkeepers would and wouldn’t like. He was a very bright guy, he went on to be a teacher, very intelligent.

There would be certain finishes in the game — like this one — where I was getting the goalkeeper to react early, which he said was the key. So I would always acknowledge him after a goal if it was one of the goals we’d worked on, I’d give him a little “yesss!” (Lineker punches the air.)

So I definitely studied and thought about — and I think completely worked out — the art of goalscoring.

Watford 0-2 Leicester, April 1986

OK, on to the next goal. This is another Leicester one, a very different type of goal — away at Watford from a corner.

Ah that one, yeah. That’s actually quite skilful for me!

What I like about this is how comfortable you are going with your left foot.

Yeah… people used to say I was one-footed but my left foot was all right. Not as good as my right foot, but it was fine. And that’s obviously a similar goal to the one in the World Cup semi-final against Germany.

Ah yes. I hadn’t considered that…

Yeah, there are similarities here, one I pull it across with my thigh, and this one with my foot.

The key to this one is that when it comes to me I’m in space, and space is everything in goalscoring. Can we go back to the start of that? To see my movement that pulls me away…

Lin2.png

…look, I start to come out now, away from the defender. Defenders will always stay. I’ve pulled out on the off-chance they might miss it, or there’s a flick-on. So I’ve just taken a chance on where I think the ball will go. And there’s no way a defender will do that, they always wait to see where the ball will go. In fact, 90 per cent of strikers I watch — even to this day — wait to see where the ball will go. And in that case, you’ll always be up against a defender. So the secret is to make a move.

Now, most people will not notice that move. And 95 per cent of the time, the ball won’t go to where you make that move to. Therefore no one will notice you making those runs. From corners, I would get four or five goals a season just by little movements, pulling away like that, gambling on where I think it will go. And that’s the key word: gamble.

The 19 times out of 20 that it doesn’t go to you, no one notices, but on the 20th time that it does come to me, like this one, I’m in space, in the box, and I’ve got an opportunity. A lot of them will be easier than that. But therein lies the secret of goalscoring.

People used to say that goalscorers have a sixth sense of where the ball’s going to go. No, no, no! I’ve even heard strikers say that because they don’t realise how they score goals!

It is actually finding space in the box and gambling on where it’s going to be. I used to read reports all the time saying “Lineker, he did nothing all game, but then he was in the right place at the right time in the 89th minute.” But they hadn’t seen the umpteen runs I’d made.

It’s not a sixth sense. It’s not. Keep making movements, and if the ball finds you in space, you’ve got a great chance to score.

I only worried about my game when I wasn’t getting chances because that meant I wasn’t making the right movements. If you keep making movements, it will come to you.

With this goal, how early do you know what you’re going to do here?

That’s last second. I can see it coming, I’ve already gambled on the space. I’ve got to go with the ball that’s bounced. That part of it is largely instinctive, and a degree of talent to adapt to the ball bouncing. Particularly when I played — because now the playing surfaces are so beautiful, it’s probably quite easy to predict the bounce — whereas when I played you were never sure how much it would bounce. So largely it was about adapting quickly.

England 3-0 Poland, 1986 World Cup

On to one of the more obvious goals. This is from the hat-trick against Poland. The first one is your favourite, right?

Yes, in a couple of different ways. One because it was a quintessential striker’s goal, attacking the near post. But second, because it was the most important goal of my life because it changed my life.

I’d gone five or six games for England without scoring a goal, I could have been left out. I wasn’t. Bobby Robson gave me another chance alongside Peter Beardsley — we had this partnership that we hit off instantly. Without the first goal, there’s no second goal, and so forth.

I’m chuffed with that because I was involved in the build-up. I think in commentary, Barry Davies says I passed when I could have gone on myself. He obviously didn’t know my dribbling abilities!

Lin3.png

I can see his point: for most players, I could have gone down the line there, but I was never really a dribbler. That’s about gambling in space, that was my point with the one before, and this encapsulates it perfectly.

I’ve taken a chance there on running in front of the defender and hoping that Gary Stevens puts the ball on that particular spot, and thankfully he did. And that’s not a “sixth sense” of where the ball’s going to go. That’s hoping, and gambling on a spot, and if the ball’s laid in the right spot, I’ve got a great chance to score.

Mas.png

Are you always going to make this run across the defender?

You’ve got three real (possible) movements. You can do what I did, gamble on the near post. You can make a little run towards the near and then check to the far post, which was one I didn’t enjoy because I think it makes the pass harder. And the other one is to stand still, which I didn’t used to do much. They’re your three choices.

The other option is to wait and see where the ball goes. But the defender does that, so he’ll always be in front of you.

It’s another perfect example of how to score goals. I watch a lot of strikers these days, and so few do it. I often think, just 10 minutes with someone, and I could get them to do it… I don’t know… because I talked to some before and it doesn’t seem to sink in. I suppose in that sense it did come naturally but I think it’s something you can learn. I can’t see why you wouldn’t.

I think I could take someone like… who’s a wonderfully gifted footballer? Let’s talk about the man of the moment, Marcus Rashford. He’s clearly a very intelligent young man, he’s a wonderfully gifted footballer, he’s super quick. He’s got everything. But he doesn’t score many poacher’s goals. And I look at him, and he doesn’t make those movements because… either it doesn’t come naturally to him, he’s not thought it through, or no one’s ever told it to him. But if I had 10 minutes with him, even if he just reads this one day…

I’m not singling him out because I love watching him play. But this (goalscoring) is an art form in itself, and I think I could help many strikers do it. And I’m available, if they want to give me a call…

Let me just show you the replay of this Poland one, because there’s something I love about this replay. If you watch the defender, there’s just a little look over his left shoulder…

Yeah, he doesn’t know where I am. I will also now check back slightly because my whole purpose there is to get in front of him. And I’m hanging out there because — if you freeze it there…

Lin4.png

…if I’m where he is now, already, then the danger is, by the time I make the burst, which has to be at speed, I’m past the near post. And then it becomes difficult to score. So the longer you can hold yourself back before the absolute burst of speed, the better in that position.

In fact, this is exactly where you want to be. And the whole thing in my mind, the whole reason I didn’t dribble towards the left was because of this scenario, that I ultimately would have wanted.

Barcelona 3-0 Real Madrid, January 1987

The next one is another great example of movement. It’s again the opener in a hat-trick, this time against Real Madrid…

Yeah… I love this goal! This is my favourite… one of my favourite all-time goals. Just purely for the absolute gamble on the goal.

Who’s this with the cross, the little No 5?

Victor! Victor Munoz. Played for Spain many times, was at Barcelona for years and years.

Again, this one’s all about the movement, right?

And you’ll see this as he hits it, I’m just gambling where it might go. Most of the time it wouldn’t go there but when it does, you can’t miss.

And it’s quite deliberate. You really back off in terms of your positioning here…

Yeah. I come away to go in again.

Lin5.png

Are you making that run in relation to the defender? Because initially, he can see you…

He can see me there. But my first run there is taking a chance that it might be flicked on, and it wasn’t, so I come out immediately because I don’t want to be stuck in there, so I get back into a position where I can attack, and then I go — bang. I don’t know the ball’s gonna go there, I’m not following the ball there, I’m just hoping it goes there.

Lin6.png

So I go back and in. You either go in and back or out and in. And it’s always one movement to move the defender, and then one for yourself.

Alan Shearer and Ian Wright also always say that — one for the defender, one for yourself. Is that something coaches always told you?

Yeah. Coaches always used to say that. You’d do a lot of exercises where you’d do crossing, and you’d drift out and then make a run. But what I found is that a lot waited too late to make the run, because they’re half-waiting to see where the ball will go. And the key is not to wait. It’s just: guess where it might go. Most of the time it’s wrong. But you gamble on where you think will give you the best chance to score.

England 3-0 Northern Ireland, October 1986

OK, the next one is Northern Ireland…

Is this the chip?

This is the chip, yeah.

Yeah… I was quite proud of this one.

So it starts with a Glenn Hoddle tackle in midfield, which is…

…yeah, that’s unusual in itself.

That’s a different goal. I’m quite chuffed with this one because it’s quite unusual. I didn’t call many really what you’d call “high-quality” goals. It’s nearly outside the box, not quite… a chip with the left foot running away from goal is not easy, so I was particularly proud with that one.

This is another one where I’m more fascinated by the replay because it’s got a great angle… there’s another fake run…

Nearly always is.

So this one you’re pretending to go into the right channel…

Yeah…

Lin7.png

…and then you cut across…

That’s right. I mean that’s a long run across, again, just to gain space. I’m not necessarily doing it on that occasion because I might get a goal or a chance, but it’s just a good movement to make. Again, you move one way, then go another way, which is a very common theme. But I didn’t expect that finish.

Lin8.png

We mentioned before about you being comfortable with your left foot. Does that open up more angles of movement? Because once you’ve made this run across, you wouldn’t be going back on your right foot.

Absolutely. Yeah, it opens up greater chances to score goals if you can use either foot — unless you’re some kind of genius like Maradona was, who never needed two feet. But yeah, it massively increases the chances, I mean I’ve got no choice there unless you do the old rabona, which was definitely not in my repertoire…

England 1-1 Colombia, May 1988

The next one is a more unusual choice, but I wanted to include a header…

Yeah, I got a lot of headers.

Do you remember this one? Against Colombia at Wembley.

Yeah, a glancing header. That’s the kind of header I scored. I think I’ve scored the most headers for England — I think it’s 15. The statistics don’t exist from the olden days, but there’s only one player who could conceivably have beaten me, Nat Lofthouse, as he was famously good in the air. And he got 30 England goals, so it would have had to be half of them headers, which would be quite a lot.

And again, it’s about the movement.

And that’s why I scored a lot of headers because of my movement getting in front of people. I’m only 5ft 10in, I’m not particularly tall. I wasn’t powerful in the air, I didn’t rise above people. But at one point I’m behind the defender there…

Lin9.png

…and then it goes out of shot, and the next time you see us, when the cross comes in, I’m in front of him…

Lin99.png

Let’s watch it one more time. I’ve drifted away, to go in front. I’m behind him… and now I’m in front of him… and I’ve gambled on space. This time it’s with my head rather than with my feet, but it’s exactly the same process, and it’s a deft enough flick to score, a bit of luck involved in that.

So just going back a bit in terms of headers. At Leicester, you were always going in behind and using your pace, and when you went to Everton people were surprised you scored so many headers…

They were really surprised, and I did score a lot of headers for Everton, mainly because of the unbelievably good service from both flanks. Gary Stevens we’ve seen (for the assist against Poland), Trevor Steven, who was a great crosser of the ball, and Kevin Sheedy on the left-hand side. So my emphasis on movement got me in front of people, and the quality of the crosses meant I could get my head on a lot of them.

Manchester United 0-3 Tottenham, October 1989

Three to go. Coincidentally, they’re all against Manchester United — you seemed to have a good record against them.

Yeah, I scored a few against United.

This one’s from the League Cup…

League Cup…? I’m trying to remember this one.

Gary1.png

I picked out this one because now you’re coming deep, you’re on the ball in a No 10 position here…

But there’s a similar theme. OK, I’m involved in the build-up… yeah that’s me coming deep, that’s unusual… well, I liked a link-up a bit. I wasn’t the most gifted footballer in the world in terms of dribbling and stuff, but I could hold it up, I could give it and go. But again, once I give it, it’s bursting into an area where you think you might have a chance of scoring if the ball goes.

I have no memory of that goal. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen it! Who’s crossing that, David Howells maybe…

You seemed to score a few after coming deep around this point. There was one against Arsenal at Wembley as well…

I think when you get older you do drift a bit deeper. If a team’s playing deep like that, that’s the place to get space, towards the midfield. But I’d never trust myself to shoot from 25 yards, I’d knock it wide and get in the box.

And did you do this more after playing in Spain? Did that change your game?

Yeah, Barcelona changed my game quite a bit. I had to change, I couldn’t just spin in behind and get one-on-ones. I often played against man-to-man marking with the sweeper behind.

Who did I have a conversation with the other day? Michael Owen! He thinks the same as me in a striker’s sense. He asked if I liked it, playing against a sweeper. I said, “Like it? I hated it! You couldn’t spin!” He said he was the same.

But I said, “But when you scored the goal against Argentina, that was a classic example of the sweeper.” He said, “I know, I’ve got past the first one, I looked up and there’s a guy on the edge of the box.”

Owen1.png

And I related to it — I thought, there’s so many times where I thought I’d done them, and there’s some guy 20 yards behind. We don’t see that in the modern game — if there’s someone in that position now, we’d say, “What the hell are you doing?”

I started to experiment in Spain when they played a sweeper. I used to go and stand on him, and they didn’t really know what to do. It didn’t really help me score goals, but it helped the team have more space, because I’d occupy two players, and because they were so deep, and it would leave a big gap between their defence and midfield for players to get into.

It was a bit sacrificial, which is unusual for me (laughs). It wasn’t something I enjoyed, but it was something necessary.

But you faced man-marking in England sometimes too…

It was a similar thing when I played against Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest. Cloughy would always put Des Walker on me, as a man-to-man. So what I did, for the good of the team, I would drag him out and stand next to Stuart Pearce, which is stupid because Stuart’s quite aggressive… but then I’d have their best two defenders stuck close to me, on our right wing, and we got a bit of joy. That’s a long story…

Go on…

So Clough had always done that with me, and we’d always had lots of success because of it. And Cloughy was obviously thinking… well, we’d played them a few weeks before the FA Cup final in a meaningless game at White Hart Lane with both teams in mid-table, but we both knew we playing each other in the FA Cup final.

So we went out on the pitch, and the game kicked off and Steve Chettle was on me. So I thought, “This is odd… what’s going on here… is he experimenting for the FA Cup final? Is he seeing if Chettle can do what Des Walker does…?”

It’s the only game of my career where I never tried. I honestly let Chettle get every ball in front of me, win every ball.

So we’re in the tunnel for the FA Cup final, and I got a tap on the shoulder. And it was Des Walker. And he went, “It worked…”

So we went out on the pitch and Chettle marks me. And we played for 45 minutes, and I ran him ragged. I won a penalty, which I missed, I had a perfectly good goal disallowed — it was a yard onside, wouldn’t have taken three seconds to overturn it with VAR. We were 1-0 down at half-time.

We were running out for the second half, and Des shouted out to me, “I’m back!”, and I thought “OK, we’ll have to do what we always do”. So I drifted out to the right side, and we played well and ended up winning.

But that’s the kind of thing you have to do as a striker — adapt to circumstances. You don’t really see the sweeper in the modern game — but if you did, you have to think about how you play against it.

Manchester United 0-1 Tottenham, December 1989

Right, Manchester United again. You definitely remember this one…

I’ve seen this one lots of times! It’s not the only goal I’ve scored from outside the box, I’ve scored a few. But generally, they’re one-on-ones when the keeper’s come out. But actually to score a top-corner screamer, bender, call it what you like, from outside the box… it felt miles outside the box, but it’s just outside. That’s the only one I can remember in my entire career.

Again, I’ve gone out to get space. That’s a common theme, that’s where the space was. And that’s what you have to do as a forward. And it’s not all about scoring goals — I joke that it is — but you do the right thing. That movement is least likely to get myself a goal, but it’s most likely to help the team.

Gary2.png

I wouldn’t usually shoot from there, I don’t know what came over me. Usually, I’d have someone on the left going outside of me, and I could knock it out and get in the box, but there wasn’t anyone else there.

And on this occasion, it kind of just opened up, and I thought, “Ah, sod it.” And I have to say, it was a major shock when it went in, I won’t kid you.

Manchester United 3-1 Tottenham, May 1992

And last one, another at Old Trafford. This one’s really about the emotion of it…

Ah, the last goal. It’s emotional, it’s the most emotional goal. This is a typical kind of goal. Look, gambling, getting in front, it’s a very common theme. It didn’t bounce very kindly but I managed to steer it into the top corner with my head.

We were 3-0 down, it didn’t matter in terms of the overall match. It was a nothing game. But it was my last game in English football.

It wasn’t just the goal, it was the reception from Old Trafford. Now, I don’t know whether they would have done it if we’d been 3-0 up, but to a person they applauded and sang my name. And that made me… I actually welled up, thankfully in those days they didn’t have those close-ups they do now… it might have been a bit embarrassing, as there were a few tears.

And they gave me a lovely gift before the game, that Bryan Robson gave to me. It was a really, really amazing and emotional day. The best I’ve ever felt after I’ve lost.

The other interesting thing here is your last goal comes in the last game before the start of the Premier League.

Yeah! I never played in the Premier League so, obviously, I don’t exist in the footballing world…

You always joke about that on Match of the Day when Shearer’s stats come up. Is there any frustration your stats are never compared to Harry Kane’s?

It doesn’t really matter. I suppose it’s nice to see your name on the graphics.

It is odd, the way it’s done. My stats would have been different. I was a late developer anyway, a slow developer. I don’t know why. I was tiny, I didn’t grow until I was 17 or 18, I wasn’t one of these boyhood greats like Owen or Wayne Rooney, and I didn’t get into the England team until I was 25.

So my stats were good, but for the first two seasons at Leicester I was played on the wing, so that would have warped the stats to a degree. But once I got going, my stats were right up there. I was successful individually. I didn’t win a million things team-wise — I was a bit unlucky in that sense on occasions. But I wouldn’t swap anything.

People say things like, “When Kane won the World Cup Golden Boot for England, does that annoy you that you’re no longer the only Englishman to do it?” I say no — it reminds people you did it, that you played the game of football. You’d be amazed at how many kids don’t know that I played… and then you get, on Twitter, young people going, “Oh, I didn’t know you were a proper player.”

I found a nice quote from Bobby Charlton when you were coming up to his England goalscoring record. He said that, until people start talking about you potentially overtaking it, his wife had no idea he was the record holder…

That’s exactly my point. And it’s funny when Rooney went ahead, and people said, “Oh, you’re only third now”, and I said, if someone told me when I was 16 and joining Leicester City, that one day you’d be the third-highest goalscorer for England, I’d have thought you were off your rocker. I’d have grabbed that.

England all-time top goalscorers
RANK PLAYER YEARS ACTIVE CAPS GOALS
1
Wayne Rooney
2003-2018
120
53
2
Bobby Charlton
1958-1970
106
49
3
Gary Lineker
1984-1992
80
48
4
Jimmy Greaves
1959-1967
57
44
5
Michael Owen
1998-2008
89
40
6
Harry Kane
2015-
50
32
7
Nat Lofthouse
1950-1958
33
30
7
Alan Shearer
1992-2000
63
30
7
Tom Finney
1946-1958
76
30
10
Vivian Woodward
1903-1911
23
29
10
Frank Lampard
1999-2014
106
29

I have not a single… the only… regret’s the wrong word. But there’s only one thing I look back on in my career and think, “If only”, and it isn’t missing that penalty against Brazil to equal Sir Bobby Charlton’s record. It’s the penalty shootout against Germany, if we’d have won that.

You know, Chris Waddle hit the inside of the post in extra time. If he’d put that two inches to the left, I think we would have been favourites to beat a tired Argentina, and we were a good side. That’s the only thing I look back on because that’s footballing immortality. That really is footballing immortality.

You clearly still love analysing strikers’ movement. Before you switched to presenting Match of the Day, you used to be one of the pundits. Do you miss it?

I did, but I found — and I genuinely mean this — I was a specialist. I’ve sat next to Alan Hansen so many times when he’s talking about defending, and I’ve gone, “Oh yeah”, and that’s what the pundits do, they educate you. I could do that with strikers, but I started to feel like I was getting repetitive with it.

And it’s very easy for me, particularly when we do live football and England games, to put my opinion into something. And with Wrighty and Shearer we can debate the movement and I can involve myself. So I can contribute in that area if I want to.

I know people sometimes say that they’d sooner hear my opinions, but honestly, on midfield, defending, goalkeeping, there are better people than me. Some people see the overall picture — generally the ones that go into coaching, or become the really good pundits. But others are a bit more niche. And I was a bit more niche.

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