With the exit of Jurgen Klopp and the appointment of Arne Slot, Liverpool is ready to walk into a new era. Alongside Slot, a new set of coaching staff has arrived at the club, one of them being Fabian Otte. The new goalkeeping coach already started his prep for pre-season, but Slot indicated that wasn’t supposed to happen.
Otte was with the USMNT side in the 2024 Copa America, but due to their early exit, he became available earlier than anticipated. Otte was told to take a few weeks’ holiday, but for him, that was not an option. “I gave him a few weeks off, but he said: ‘No, I want to come as soon as I can’. So he’s already in now after one week’s holiday and I think that’s what you like to see,” Arne Slot said about Otte.
Born on December 4, 1990, in Ochtrup, Otte started his playing career with Pr. Munster in Germany in 2009. But it was apparent to him that he would not make the jump to the top leagues. So he found another way to achieve his goal. In 2011, Otte moved to the USA to play for North Carolina University at college level. This gave him the opportunity to study and get a degree in sports management at the same university. After 3 years in college, he moved to England in 2015, after spending a year in Germany with the Oberliga Westfalen team, SF Lotte.
Fabian Otte at Borussia Mönchengladbach
In England, he signed for Blyth Spartans, a national league side. He also enrolled at Newcastle University to study international marketing. With the one and half year course in the bag, Otte set off to the Netherlands and then to New Zealand. He signed for another semi-professional side, Three Kings United, in the lands of Kiwi, before ultimately retiring in 2018. His playing career stopped there, and his coaching career got a kick-start from there. But his studies weren’t complete there.
Otte returned home and enrolled in Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln to get his skill acquisition training and coaching science degree. This gave him the opportunity to join Burnley in 2021 before he moved to Borussia Mönchengladbach for the 2022/23 season.
By the time he was coaching Yann Sommer, he was no rookie in the coaching game. Remember his trip to New Zealand? Otte spent his time coaching the New Zealand women’s national team.
So, with a catalogue of degrees, one can easily assume Otte to be a football nerd and the first glimpses of his training methods support that argument.
In a video posted on social media, Otte is seen training with Marcelo Pitaluga, Liverpool’s 3rd choice keeper. The German handed him a pair of headphones and glasses, which the keeper promptly put on. Then the training started as the keeper was visually impaired with blocked hearing ability. This is done to increase focus on the ball and to train reflexes.
New GK coach Fabian Otte making the keepers train with noise cancelling headphones and glasses that impair your vision is the kind of nerdy stuff I live for pic.twitter.com/bcjA7uq7rS
This method is often applied in German football with ‘Swivel Vision’ glasses, which limits the keeper’s vision to the right and left, leading to maximum focus on the ball and better hand-eye coordination. Manuel Neuer uses it under the guidance of Michael Rechner, so can’t say this method is not tried and tested.
Manuel Neuer training with Swivel Vision glasses
According to Liverpool deputy keeper Caoimhin Kelleher, the new methods are interesting to work with. ‘It’s great that Fabian has come in now, looks really good, really interesting. Full of energy as well, which is good. Probably brings some new ideas as well, which is good for the goalkeepers. It’s new and exciting, looking forward to it,’ the keeper told LFCTV.
In case you’re intrigued to know more about such training methods, Otte has you covered. Fabian has written and contributed to 33 separate research works about sports science and training. So if guessed, Liverpool’s new goalkeeper coach is a nerd, that’s because he probably is.
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