Former Liverpool, Barcelona and Villa keeper made big impression on Millwall goalkeeper

Millwall goalkeeper Matija Sarkic has spoken about how he learned plenty from working with Pepe Reina at Aston Villa.

Reina played for Liverpool, Barcelona, Villarreal, Napoli and Lazio. He also had a spell on loan with Villa in 2020, when Sarkic was also on the books of the Midlands club.

Asked which goalkeepers he looked up to most, Sarkic told the South London Press: “I’d say one I learned from the most was Pepe Reina at Aston Villa, especially in terms of playing out from the back. We would play small-sided games and it was like we had an extra man.”

Sarkic has kept two clean sheets for Millwall since arriving from Wolves at the start of August.

Asked about his personal targets this season, the Montenegro international said: “Goalkeepers can only go off clean sheets and goals conceded.

“I want to keep as many clean sheets as I can because ultimately that helps the team – we’re not losing. It means we’d get points on the board.

“I’ve always thought 50 per cent is very good, promotion standard. But I don’t want to look too far ahead. I don’t look at other teams and how they are performing.”

Sarkic does not believe that one attribute is any more important than another for a stopper.

“Every keeper is different,” he said. “They have their strengths and points where they are not as good.

“The most important thing is the mentality to always want to improve and better yourself, because when you do have dips and don’t look back – try and fix those things in training or fine-tune tactically, physically, decision-making or positionally – then you’re never going to really take the next steps.

“You have to be a student of the game. The more games you play, it becomes easier.”