Emi Martinez

[Rory]

My brother's girlfriend, who is from Hong Kong, keeps nagging my brother to get tickets to a Villa game so she can get "as close to Emi Martinez as possible".

Keeping a player like him happy at the club is so important commercially as well as what he contributes to the team.

I love him.

[LeeB]

From The Athletic:

Mark Bosnich analyses Emi Martinez: ‘His arrogance is insecurity too – he’s the best in the world’
Mark Bosnich analyses Emi Martinez: ‘His arrogance is insecurity too – he’s the best in the world’
By Jacob Tanswell
Aug 23, 2024
28

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It has gone 9pm in Sydney and Mark Bosnich sits down to discuss Emiliano Martinez.

Both are considered Aston Villa’s greatest goalkeepers in the Premier League era. Bosnich made 217 appearances across seven years and won the League Cup twice. Martinez joined Villa in 2020, with 160 appearances to date and, having won the World Cup and two Copa America’s with Argentina, is the incumbent of The Yashin Trophy — the world’s best-performing goalkeeper award. The former Arsenal player has just signed a new contract until 2029.

“Villa toured Australia just before the 2022 World Cup,” Bosnich recalls. “I was working the games for TV and it was arranged to meet Emi at the team hotel in Perth. We had a great chat. He told me Villa supporters kept comparing him to me. I just said, ‘Listen, you’re going to win the World Cup in three months and because Villa haven’t won a major trophy since 1996, getting into the top four would be winning a trophy.

“Two years later, here we are. I am so happy for him. Right now there’s no better goalkeeper in the world.”



The Athletic has asked Bosnich to assess Martinez’s standout and varying attributes, be it his shot-stopping, “Schmeichel-esque” tendencies or his inherent character. Together, over the next 90 minutes, we watch video clips from last season.

Mark Bosnich: He has a great energy. If you look through his career and where he’s come from, he has a tinge of insecurity, which is understandable. I can understand why people think he’s arrogant but it’s insecurity disguised as arrogance. You don’t achieve what Emi has done without confidence, but I know what it is because I was accused of arrogance and deep down, it wasn’t that: it is confidence with a tinge of insecurity.

There must have been times when he thought, ‘Maybe it’s time to do something else’ during his loans at Rotherham, Reading, Sheffield Wednesday, Oxford etc. But he didn’t — instead, he reached the pinnacle. People take Emi the wrong way. He’s down to earth.



Bosnich begins by watching Martinez’s penalty saves in April’s UEFA Conference League shootout victory against Lille.

In the shootout, Martinez was the subject of whistles from Lille supporters, scolded for his lewd gestures and acts of pantomime in Argentina’s World Cup final victory against France. Martinez was shown a second booking during the penalties but was not sent off due to the yellow card not counting within the initial 90 minutes or half an hour of extra time.

Martinez produced two penalty stops to secure Villa’s progress into the semi-finals.

Bosnich: He thrives on the boos. He’s been conditioned to build himself against people who say ‘You can’t do it’. He gets into the mindset where the negativity motivates him.

I’m 6ft 2in and remember looking up to him. He’s one of those guys where you don’t realise how tall he is. When people say ‘They look their age’, for goalkeepers, it is ‘they look their height’ which means they are not athletic. But Emi is very athletic. That night, he was huge.



Low down or in the top corners are the hardest saves to make in penalties. That was superb athleticism. For a low ball going hard along the ground, you’ve got to dive that far off the ground (Bosnich narrows his thumb and index finger together) and try not to fall like a harbour bridge because you will lose time and it can go underneath you.



So a dive like this can be dangerous because the first part of your body that lands is your shoulder and you can injure it. Technically, the save was phenomenal. Look at his knee just slightly off the ground.

The next penalty was a very good save but it wasn’t as good as the first one as it was closer to him. But when I talk about feeling — you see when he stands tall up like that, the goal looks very small. Can you imagine after 120 minutes of playing, coming up and seeing him? You can understand the intimidation.



Penalty shootouts are a lot like boxing — you know when you see somebody’s face and you think, “They’ve lost before they get into the ring?” You see that in a lot of players who take penalties against him because he’s got himself the reputation.

The Athletic: Do you watch the ball or the penalty taker during the run-up? What clues do you get?

Bosnich: I watch the non-kicking foot and the position it is in relation to the ball. This one looks very close to the ball and normally it points to where the ball is going to go.

If you slow the footage down, the last non-kicking step is the key. If they curl the run-up, they are going to shoot across themselves. But if they run straight, with their non-kicking foot pointing straight like this one, they go to the side Martinez went because it is nigh impossible for them to go to his right. Martinez stays tall and waits for the penalty taker to put his head down. He’s in business.



The Athletic: Martinez jinks one way before diving to his left as Benjamin Andre runs up. Why does he not do this before every penalty?

Bosnich: If it is a shootout, the next penalty takers are watching you. So you always have to change up your little shimmy. Some forwards, like Alan Shearer, their first look would always be to the corner they were aiming for. They would then look again towards the other corner to put me off, but I always went with their first look.



Martinez’s personality is discernible within his style, invariably on the front foot and physically imposing. This has benefited his ability to smother closed-range shots and one-v-one situations. The first example shown is the 32-year-old’s save against Wolves full-back Rayan Ait-Nouri…



Bosnich: Schmeichel-esque, in how he makes himself like a handball goalkeeper. It’s the spread eagle. The closer the shot is, the less time you have and this method becomes effective. For a striker, it’s not nice when they see a big target coming towards them.



The Athletic: This one against Fulham stays in mind. Look at how long is left and the scoreline — how does Martinez maintain his poise at such a huge moment?



Bosnich: He had so much speed as he came out, but see how he stopped himself as Adama Traore steadies himself? It wasn’t dangerous speed where the striker can push the ball past you. It was well-timed.



A striker always tries to move the ball to move the angle, but if you can make that difficult for him to do, you’ve won half the battle.



The Athletic: From corners, Villa rarely have players stood on either post. Is this a good or bad thing for a goalkeeper? The more bodies blocking the goal, the better, but having a free post enables Martinez, as he does here, clarity to make these saves:

Bosnich: Wonderful reflexes. But it is one I would expect him to save. I wouldn’t be over the moon with having no players on the post but I was a goalkeeper happy to adapt. The best system I saw formulated was with Villa. We used to have two men on the post, one man on the six-yard box in line with the near post and one man in the middle who was our best header of the ball.



Then there was another person whose job was to make sure no one got in my way because I used to like to take high balls.

Having people on the post saves a lot of goals but my big thing from set plays was to make sure I had a clear run to claim crosses because with the spring I had and being able to use my hands, I should always be fine.



The Athletic: With Villa’s offside trap, particularly early on last season, Martinez faced a disproportionate number of high-quality opportunities. Here, Chelsea break Villa’s defensive line and Nicolas Jackson is through on goal…



Bosnich: He saves this with his right foot. It’s always better to go with your legs when a shot is close to your body as it’s the quickest way.

In one-v-one situations like this and to know where the goal was, I’d visualise drawing an imaginary line between the two posts and the player and make a triangle. If the keeper can be in the middle of that triangle, they give themselves every chance of saving.



If you go with your hands around your body, it can go underneath you. But your feet are always there. Emi is perfectly positioned with great reflexes again. If you want to get really technical, his central nervous system is perfectly in tune with his body.

The Athletic: Is his hand positioning important? Does it make covering angles easier?

Bosnich: You don’t want your hand position too high or too low, just in between. Your hands are there for balance.



The Athletic: On the subject, how is it for a keeper to play with a high defensive line? Does it require a particular mindset?

Bosnich: At Manchester United, our thing was to play high. It makes the game easier for the central defenders so they don’t keep running back. I was always taught the distance between your last defender and myself should remain constant. But it can get to a point where you just do the offside line all the time, regardless if there is pressure on the ball or not. That’s where you’ve got to be careful.



I remember when I got into the first team at Villa in 1992-93 and we virtually lost the title away at Blackburn Rovers. It got to the stage where Paul McGrath and Shaun Teale were near the halfway line and it was too risky. But Paul was lightning quick and Shaun was a magnificent reader of the game.

It’s difficult for a team, especially when it’s wet, to put a perfectly weighted ball between the defence and a sweeper keeper. What you’ve got to be careful of is being chipped because you’re starting position is so high. I remember Anders Limpar almost dinked me at Villa Park in 1994.

The Athletic: Here’s a clip which appears to be a good example of Martinez’s anticipation. It looks as if he’s decided to go to his left before the shot is taken. What are the tell-tale signs?



Bosnich: He’s waited until the player has planted his last non-kicking step. In some circumstances, you have to anticipate making wonder saves.

The Athletic: Do the defenders in front of him help in shutting off one side of the goal?

Bosnich: It can. That’s why I’ve got a pet hate with defenders who stand in what they would consider the right position — attempting to block the shot but with their legs open. Do you know how many goals go through a defender’s legs? I used to say to the late Ugo Ehiogu, McGrath, Steve Staunton and Gareth Southgate that all they needed to do was stand on one side and keep their legs closed because I’d be on the other side.

The conversation pivots to Martinez claiming crosses. It is a key, occasionally understated part of his game and alleviates the pressure on his team-mates.

The Athletic: Watch this one against Wolves. A cross is put into an area where Villa are three-v-three inside the box, yet Martinez reads the ball’s trajectory…



Bosnich: I’d always have a quick look to where the strikers were and line myself up with them because that’s where the crosser is going to aim. If you see Pablo Sarabia in the middle, Emi has aligned himself with him.



He’s on the front foot and it makes such a difference. You ask any defender what it’s like to have a goalkeeper who comes for crosses and it takes so much pressure off. To be a goalkeeper takes a special mentality because once you start to retreat inside your shell and the other team senses you’re not going to come off your line, the manager might as well take you off.

Look at how high he claims this ball. It’s lovely keeping.



The Athletic: Last season, Martinez had the ball at his feet longer than any other player, often standing still to bait attackers into pressing. But what can be overlooked is his level of distribution and kicking dexterity. This looks like a ‘side-winder’, no? You don’t see a lot of ‘keepers make this pass…



Bosnich: The South Americans love that. They called it the “Lafa Rel”. I used to have an Argentinian coach called Raul Blanco for Australia’s under-23s. He would swear by that technique as the pass went flat.

Sometimes you use a high ball when you want to waste time or a drop kick against the wind. But with that one, the South Americans swear by it. There was an Australian goalkeeper called John Crawley who went to Chile and started using the technique when he came back.

The final clip is the two exceptional saves Martinez made against Erling Haaland. They were the sole chances Manchester City had on the day, with Villa dominant in their best Premier League performance for over a decade.



Bosnich: The second save is better. The first was super, don’t get me wrong, but with the second, he’s made up so much ground and has had to fall backwards. It is what Ron Atkinson used to call ‘miracle saves’.



Even though he’s had to go behind himself, Emi has kept his arms in front of his body. Otherwise, if you start to dive backwards, you can get in big trouble and palm the ball into the net. Look at how strong his wrists are.



This season, Martinez confirmed he would be changing his shirt number from 1 to No 23, owing to his son’s birth date and what he wears for Argentina. 

“I want to bring silverware to the fans, to Villa. I’m really superstitious,” he said.

Bosnich: He’s been a massive part of Villa’s revival. I’ll hold my hands up and say Emi is a better goalkeeper if he wins a trophy with Villa.

The Athletic: So right now, you think you’re No 1 — but he can overtake you?

Bosnich: Yes. Forget about clean sheets or anything like that. It all depends on whether he wins a trophy with Villa.

(Top photo: Martinez after the Villa win and with Bosnich. Richard Pelham/Getty Images/Mark Bosnich)


Jacob Tanswell
Jacob is a football reporter covering Aston Villa for The Athletic. Previously, he followed Southampton FC for The Athletic after spending three years writing about south coast football, working as a sports journalist for Reach PLC. In 2021, he was awarded the Football Writers' Association Student Football Writer of the Year. Follow Jacob on Twitter @J_Tanswell

[Hookeysmith]

It amazes me that the UK media, Talk Shite in particular bang on about Alison, Edison etc as being the best and maybe even Pickford (what a joke)

Emi is not just THE Best but he has a World cup winners medal, Best keeper in the World cup trophy, 2 x Copa America winner medals and was voted by the world governing body Fifa as being the best in the world in 2023 to prove it.

WTF has he got to do to be acknowledged in this country

Wankers

Cloughie stated to be a winning team it starts with having the best keeper - when he bought Shilton

We have ours in place now for the long term

[Dave]

The model is built on your unhappiness. Every time you get annoyed, they win.

[OCD]

WTF has he got to do to be acknowledged in this country

You mean besides move to one of the only 6 clubs that the media give a shit about?

[Toronto Villa]

The model is built on your unhappiness. Every time you get annoyed, they win.

It's why TS retain the likes of Danny Murphy.

[KNVillan]

John Percy of The Telegraph has a say about Emi

https://archive.ph/Z5BtE

(Apologies if this is elsewhere)

[enigma]

Interview with him in the Guardian. Getting quite a lot of attention just lately.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/aug/23/emiliano-martinez-aston-villa-arsenal-premier-league-football

[SaddVillan]

As a former goalkeeper, I find Emi's supposed antics and eccentricities absolutely normal behaviour.

[Chap]

As a former goalkeeper, I find Emi's supposed antics and eccentricities absolutely normal behaviour.

Me too. All goalkeepers are as mad as a box of frogs, it’s the law!

[rooboy316]

From The Athletic:

Mark Bosnich analyses Emi Martinez: ‘His arrogance is insecurity too – he’s the best in the world’

Really interesting read, thanks for sharing. I have very little understanding of the technical aspects of that job, so always insightful reading something like this.

[VillaTim]

Top bloke , legend.

[algy]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/aug/23/emiliano-martinez-aston-villa-arsenal-premier-league-football

Interview in the Graun

[ldavfc4eva]

Great interview, comes across as level headed and assured, but also doesn’t hide his will to win.

Contract to 2029 too, so 2 year extension?

[Mellin]

Yeah, I checked at the start of the summer as was worried it was 2026. Old contract ended 2027.