Europe's top Goalkeepers - by the numbers

Although the quality of a goalkeeper cannot solely be judged by statistics, they can provide an insight into how well they perform. They need to perform sweeping duties much more than their NHL counterparts and often are left horribly out of position by lapses in skill or concentration by the defenders they are attempting to organise.

Amongst numerous possibilities, the two major statistical categories that NHL goalkeepers are measured by are GAA (goals allowed average) and Save percentage. These stats, though accessible aren't kept as a matter of course by football leagues throughout Europe simply because they don't really provide an accurate representation of a goalkeeper's duties - for example, Ben Foster was by most accounts Birmingham City's best player last season yet the club was relegated. They do, however, allow some analysis as clankers (like Rob Green's worst nightmare) as even the occasional mishap can affect a player's numbers.

The following numbers were compiled using raw data from ESPN Soccernet. For full details, you can visit our Goalkeeper Stats page.

Europe's top ten goalkeepers by Save percentage:

League	Team	Player	Games	Save %	GAA
Serie A	AC Milan	Christian Abbiati	35	0.853	0.54
La Liga	Barcelona	Victor Valdes	32	0.826	0.50
Serie A	Inter Milan	Julio Cesar	25	0.806	0.84
Bundesliga	Hannover	Ron-Robert Zieler	15	0.804	0.73
Serie A	Chievo Verona	Stefano Sorrentino	37	0.795	1.05
La Liga	Valencia	Cesar	15	0.781	0.93
La Liga	Malaga	Wilfredo Caballero	15	0.774	1.27
EPL	Man City	Joe Hart	38	0.771	0.87
EPL	Birmingham City	Ben Foster	38	0.765	1.45
Bundesliga	B. Dortmund	Roman Weidenfeller	33	0.764	0.64
Average	Cagliari's	Michael Agazzi		0.712

And the top ten by GAA:

League	Team	Player	Games	Save %	GAA
La Liga	Barcelona	Victor Valdes	32	0.826	0.50
Serie A	AC Milan	Christian Abbiati	35	0.853	0.54
Bundesliga	Borussia Dortmund	Roman Weidenfeller	33	0.764	0.64
Bundesliga	Hannover	Ron-Robert Zieler	15	0.804	0.73
Bundesliga	Mainz	Christian Wetklo	24	0.762	0.83
Serie A	Inter Milan	Julio Cesar	25	0.806	0.84
EPL	Manchester City	Joe Hart	38	0.771	0.87
EPL	Chelsea	Petr Cech	38	0.750	0.87
La Liga	Real Madrid	Iker Casillas	35	0.717	0.91
La Liga	Valencia	Cesar	15	0.781	0.93
Average	Levante's	Gustavo Munua			1.35

There's significant overlap between the two lists - 'keepers in teams like Manchester City played a staid, solid brand of football limiting opponents' scoring chances before counterstriking themselves leading - with his considerable skill - to Joe Hart's desirable numbers.

What this overlap suggests is either down years or the early signs of the demise for two of the best custodians in recent memory, Iker Casillas and Petr Cech. Though both had above-average Save Percentages (in Casillas' case, only barely), those numbers don't correlate well with their GAA.

GKs such as Valdes and Abbiati have excellent GAA and Save Percentage numbers. To have a great GAA could reflect on team's possession statistics (ie. Valdes), a team's defensive solidity and finally, the ability of the goalkeeper. A low save percentage means either a defense prone to playing their keeper out of position, or that keeper not stopping as many shots.

The opposite was Ben Foster, who made a million and one saves - actually, 179, fifteen more than the next most called-upon 'keeper, the aforementioned Green - yet let through slightly more than average goals per game. His save percentage is high despite his facing heaps of shots, rather than perhaps youngster (and Football Manager stud) Ron-Robert Zieler of Hannover, who only faced three shots per game.

The Ten-Year Premiership Table

We've been working hard and mindlessly to bring you special stats pages on Balanced Sports. You can find out all about which players contribute most to their team scoring, how the English Premiership ladder would look over a decade, rather than a season, or how each EPL Goalkeeper performed last year compared to his peers.

Our newest addition is the 2002-11 Cumulative EPL Table. Take a peek to see how your club fared.

Enjoy!

Applying NHL Goalkeeper stats to the English Premiership

In the English Premiership, goalkeepers often face the most scrutiny and pressure. It's a simple truth of football that custodians need to maintain concentration during long periods of inactivity and then make a save, clear a ball or claim a cross. When they fail, often it costs their team a goal. In short, to have a reliable man between the posts is the foundation of a solid defence.

There are many methods of evaluating goalkeeper efficacy such as Goals Conceded and Saves but rarely with this position do stats tell the full story. As with statistical application across all sports, much depends on interpretation. The only GK stats readily available don't take into account things such as howlers (for which Tottenham's Gomes must be very thankful), nor aspects of defending which usually fall to the 'keeper such as communication, marshalling a defence or their (in)ability to deal with crosses. The one stat however which doesn't appear is Save Percentage.

Save percentage in football doesn't fully measure a goalkeeper's efficiency but it can provide some small insight into how the goalkeeper for each team performs. Often GKs are exposed to "no win" situations due to the size of their goalmouth, their defences' positioning and the skills or pace of an opposition player. Save percentage and Goals Allowed Average are key indicators as to an NHL custodian's performance, even though they still don't fully reflect a backstop's value.

To port those NHL numbers across to the Premiership makes for interesting reading. The following table is arranged by Goalkeeper Save Percentage. It shows (perhaps) why Fulham's David Stockdale got such big raps while covering for Mark Schwarzer earlier in the season and that Joe Hart's slight slip in form this year since returning to City from Birmingham is perhaps overstated.

For the full analysis, visit the Goalkeeper Stats page.

Top 15

Team	Goalkeeper	Games	Saves	Conceded	GAA	Save %
Fulham	David Stockdale	7	26	6	0.86	0.81
Tottenham	Carlo Cudicini	7	21	6	0.86	0.78
Man City	Joe Hart	36	107	33	0.92	0.76
Stoke City	Asmir Begovic	27	93	31	1.15	0.75
Tottenham	Gomes	30	115	39	1.3	0.75
Chelsea	Petr Cech	37	98	32	0.86	0.75
Man Utd	Edwin van der Sar	32	80	30	0.94	0.73
Bolton	Jussi Jaaskelainen	34	118	47	1.38	0.72
Fulham	Mark Schwarzer	30	91	35	1.17	0.72
Arsenal	Wojciech Szczesny	14	42	17	1.21	0.71
West Ham	Robert Green	36	154	66	1.83	0.7
Wigan	Ali Al Habsi	33	112	49	1.48	0.7
Sunderland	Craig Gordon	15	50	21	1.4	0.7
Arsenal	Lukasz Fabianski	14	36	14	1	0.7
Liverpool	Pepe Reina	37	96	43	1.16	0.69

Bottom 5

Team	Goalkeeper	Games	Saves	Conceded	GAA	Save %
Newcastle	Tim Krul	19	47	32	1.68	0.59
West Brom	Boaz Myhill	6	18	13	2.17	0.58
Blackpool	Paul Rachubka	1	6	5	5	0.55
Man Utd	Tomasz Kuszczak	5	6	5	1	0.55
Wigan	Chris Kirkland	4	5	12	3	0.29

Image of Mark Schwarzer courtesy: free-football.tv

Image of Carey Price courtesy: leshabitantssontmagnifique.wordpress.com