Landin’s game: “You have to ‘kill’ every shooter”

“I always try to remember what I was thinking about when the heat is really on and you have everything to lose, but you also have everything to win. I think I like it more and more, that I stood often in those situations,” says Aalborg Håndbold goalkeeper Niklas Landin, speaking of the part of the game he enjoys the most — crunch time.

“I always like to train this mental game, specifically at the end of the game — as in the last 15, 10 minutes of the game. That's where I think the best keepers improve at the highest level, if they are mentally in the game.

“I really like to watch the opponent when I see they could lose the game — if they had taken a shot and they missed it, then maybe they lose one point or two points. I really appreciate this mind game, because there's a lot of thinking; a lot of mental significance in the game.”

“Live in the game and just focus on the next shot”

Landin says he likes to work on being ready for these crunch-time moments, but the only possible training really is to experience those high-pressure situations many times. 

“I also think it's really important not to think about what could happen — if I'm not taking the next ball, what could happen then? But just live in the game and just focus on the next shot. And what was my plan before the game? What are the shooters thinking in this situation? And then maybe play a little bit with the shooters.”

Landin has experienced those high-pressure situations — and conquered them. One of the most recent examples in a big EHF Champions League match was the semi-final in 2024, when Aalborg defeated SC Magdeburg 28:26. Early on, Landin did not have his best day in the goal and left the court around the middle of the first half with one save to his name. But he returned in the last 10 minutes and stopped three crucial balls that created the chance for Aalborg to reach the final for the second time. 

“I really like it. I also experienced being the worst guy in the world — it's just the feeling for a goalkeeper when you’re not saving the last shot and then you lose the game. But I've also experienced saving the last shot, and that's just an amazing feeling. I really like to be in these moments where you could just be the best guy in the team, but you could also be the worst guy in the team.” 

Landin prefers when a shot he is facing really matters, where he has the chance to clinch the win for his team, and basically feels the opposite about situations where the goal is somewhat inconsequential. “If they're going to miss it or score the goal and it doesn't matter for the shooter, that's the most disappointing situation for me.”

“I think it’s more important today to have a really good offence”

Landin appeared on the international scene more almost 15 years ago, winning his first national team medal with Denmark in 2011, the first trophy at the EHF EURO 2012 and his first international club title, the EHF Cup, in 2013 with Rhein-Neckar Löwen. His first and only EHF Champions League title came in 2020. With the national team, he retired following the Paris 2024 Olympics with a haul of 12 medals. 

The 36-year-old keeper has been present at the top level for long enough to have seen an extensive evolution in the game. 

“When I was starting to be a professional handball player, every team was seeking two-metre tall, 120 kilos, and they should just shoot as hard as possible. Now the game has completely changed. The rules are also a little bit changed for the offensive players, so they can be small and really fast, and I think it’s more important today to have a really good offence,” says Landin. 

“For 15 years, you always said ‘you win the Champions League or the World Championship if you have the best defence, the best goalkeeper.’ Now it matters to have the best defence and the best goalkeeper, but you just have to score a little bit more goals than the other side.” 

Because of how the game has evolved, with increasing numbers of smaller, faster players who favour one-on-one situations in attack, life has become much more difficult for defenders. 

“It's really difficult to be the defence player today, basically because there's one-against-one every time. If they [the attackers] miss, they get a free throw or the penalty. If they score, they get the goals, so I have the feeling they always have a second chance,” says Landin. And how do those changes impact his work as a goalkeeper, for instance, in terms of positioning? 

“80 per cent of every shot is from six metres, so you have to be a little bit more aggressive in your playing style. And the shots from 10, 11 metres are almost gone, because the players are a little bit smaller. I trained a lot more six-metre shots than nine-metre shots,” says Landin — but that suits him just fine, as the closer range shots have always been his strength.  

“My strengths were always from the wings or the six metres, because I could wait long and be cool in those situations and I think I read the game pretty well. So, the wing shots feel like my thing.” 

“It's better when they are shooting every 20 seconds”

Another development in handball through Landin’s career has been more speed, and that also fits the Danish keeper, as he gets to see a lot more action. 

“I like it because there are a lot more chances to save the ball. If they play really slow and never shoot on the goal, then you almost have to save every shot, but if they are going three times in one minute, then you have a lot of chances to change the game with a couple of saves, so I think the speed is OK. I really don't like it when one team is doing one offence in one minute and then you have to stay focused for 60 seconds, then a shot comes and you don't save it, and then you have to wait really long to get the chance again. Then it's better when they are shooting every 20 seconds.”

Video analysis is a big part of preparation for any match. For goalkeepers at the top level, that is usually very specific, with a complex and detailed understanding of each shooter’s preferences and weaknesses. But every player is also reacting in the moment, and for goalkeepers, quick reflexes are often on display in a way that is not as prominent in other positions. 

“It's a 50:50 game. I think it's really important to prepare every game with video analysis and so on, but you could also be a little bit too much on your video so you could not react in the game. So, I really try to do both, but also to be in the game and do what makes sense in these situations,” says Landin. 

Talking about video analysis naturally raises another topic — which goalkeeper coaches have been the most influential in Landin’s career. He names one who is known for his intricate attention to preparation via video analysis: 

“I've worked with a lot of really, really good goalkeeper coaches, so it's also not really easy to mention one name, but I have to say, I think my career was really going up when I was in Kiel and got Mattias Andersson.

“We had a lot of talks before and after the games, but I think where I improved the most was the thinking and the mental game about how you have to ‘kill’ every shooter. You can always be better in every training, in every game, and you just have to 'kill' everybody. I think this Kiel way of thinking was really important for me, and he was a really big part of it.” 

Aside from their coaches, goalkeepers have many conversations with their partner between the posts — that fellow keeper with whom they have prepared for the game, who will be there on the sideline with input when needed. Landin says his fellow goalkeeper or goalkeepers can be very important in helping remind him of the pre-game work.  

“Most important for me is to hear what they were thinking in the specific situation. We were always talking before the game with the goalkeeper coach and the other goalkeeper about the playing for the game — what were we preparing against the left back and the right back, and if you then play the game and every time the left back was shooting you were doing the other thing, not what the game plan was, then the other keeper should say, ‘hey, take it easy. You’re just out of your mind. Stay on the plan.’ That is, I think, the most important thing for me to hear from the other goalkeeper.” 

“The best part of being a goalkeeper”

The “kill every shooter” idea refers to the psychological element of goalkeeping — the idea that the best possible situation is when a keeper can get in the other teams’ heads; into the mind of every single attacker, causing them to lose their confidence and rhythm. Talking about who is the hardest shooter to rattle, Landin says:

“It's changed for every game I play. Sometimes it's going really well and sometimes it's not working, what I'm preparing or what I was doing in the game.” 

Anyone who has watched enough handball will have seen a match where a goalkeeper becomes almost impenetrable — where they are saving almost every ball, where the attackers become increasingly frustrated, where the keeper has "killed" every shooter. 

“I think every keeper has experienced that. I also think every keeper has experienced the other way — they’ve tried everything, they touch every ball, but it's always going into the goal,” says Landin, before elaborating on those matches where he has felt impassable. 

“This feeling where you can just not make a mistake in the game… you just do something, also not knowing what to do, and you save the ball. That's the easiest way to feel in the game and you could just go on. That's really the best part of being a goalkeeper.”

Photos © kolektiff images/Axel Heimken/Nebojsa Tejic/Uros Hocevar/Anze Malovrh/Sasa Pahic Szabo; Henrik Hansen