Thursday, June 23, 2011

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.

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