Statistician, Javier J. Hernandez is to break down with goalkeeper in La Liga is the best of the best and why.
Half the season is already long gone and we’ve seen great performances all throughout Spanish football. However, asusual, the main focus has been on the midfielders and strikers.
With the likes of Messi, Ronaldo and Diego Costa taking all the space on the front covers, there has been little talk about goalkeepers and their performance. I myself, don’t particularly rank goalies as high as other players, as I base myself in the theory that shots on target is the most important stat in football and the ‘number one’ players have very little influence in determining if a shot is going to be on target or not.
However, once a shot is on target, great goalkeepers can stand above the rest in saving those shots and help their teams to achieve an all important victory.
And if the ability to stop shots on target is the greatest value that a goalie can have, certainly Víctor Valdes has made statement to be crowned the best keeper in La Liga so far. After all, his 80.65% of saves is four points higher than anybody else in the league. Of course, Valdes tends to receive fewer shots and fewer clear chances than most other goalies.
That’s why Keylor Navas, with his 76.47% save ratio, is perhaps far more impressive. Second in this category, Navas has had 41 more saves than Victor with 91, second only to Almeria’s Esteban with 96. The Costa Rican goalkeeper receives, on average, one goal every 13 shots, which is the best in the league and a goal every 4.58 shots on target, which is second best in the league after Valdes with 5.17.
The Levante goalie has been forced to save 5.7 shots on target per game, also second best average (Esteban 6.1) in the league and in 42.86% of his games, he’s picked up a clean sheet. This is a massive number considering that his team sits ninth in the table, having conceded 30 goals already. The only two goalkeepers with a better percentage of clean sheets per game are Barcelona’s Valdes (55.56%) and Atlético’s Cortouis (45.45%) however; these two teams have actually conceded 30 goals combined.
In our Ranking J, which counts over 70 keeper stats, Navas leads La Liga goalkeepers in points with 107, followed by Valdes with 104 and Diego López with 102. The former are on teams that have already picked up 17 wins, and Real Madrid’s goalkeeper has only conceded one goal in 2014, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he’s closing the gap with Valdes and Navas.
Valdes and Diego López together, with Courtois, are the only three goalkeepers that have picked up seven clean sheets with three saves or less. The Belgian has even picked up two clean sheets with no saves and in only one of his 10 clean sheets has he had to make more than three saves. While Navas has only had two clean sheets with one to three saves and six with four or more, leading the league in this category.
Víctor Valdes is the only La Liga goalkeeper to record a clean sheet with more than eight saves. He made nine against Rayo Vallecano, including a penalty save, on 21st September 2013. Another interesting goalie stats is, for example, that only Andrés from Osasuna has managed to save more than one penalty, two to be precise, in this season.
While Courtois and Yoel are the only two who have scored an own goal. The Atlético Madrid goalie also leads La Liga in games conceding a goal without making a single save with three.
The answer to the headline of this article can’t be anyone other than Keylor Navas. In a league where goalies haven’t shined too much, it should come as no surprise to see a World Cup keeper like Navas being above the rest.
After all, as it stands right now, only three or four goalkeepers from La Liga will play in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Navas, Courtois and Real Sociedad’s Chilean goalkeeper, Claudio Bravo are sure picks, while Casillas hasn’t played in this La Liga yet and it remains to be seen if Valdes is going to get picked over him. The other goalie that could enter this list is Granada’s second goalie, Greek international, Orestis Karnezis but he has only played one game in Spain.
Half the season is already long gone and we’ve seen great performances all throughout Spanish football. However, asusual, the main focus has been on the midfielders and strikers.
With the likes of Messi, Ronaldo and Diego Costa taking all the space on the front covers, there has been little talk about goalkeepers and their performance. I myself, don’t particularly rank goalies as high as other players, as I base myself in the theory that shots on target is the most important stat in football and the ‘number one’ players have very little influence in determining if a shot is going to be on target or not.
However, once a shot is on target, great goalkeepers can stand above the rest in saving those shots and help their teams to achieve an all important victory.
And if the ability to stop shots on target is the greatest value that a goalie can have, certainly Víctor Valdes has made statement to be crowned the best keeper in La Liga so far. After all, his 80.65% of saves is four points higher than anybody else in the league. Of course, Valdes tends to receive fewer shots and fewer clear chances than most other goalies.
That’s why Keylor Navas, with his 76.47% save ratio, is perhaps far more impressive. Second in this category, Navas has had 41 more saves than Victor with 91, second only to Almeria’s Esteban with 96. The Costa Rican goalkeeper receives, on average, one goal every 13 shots, which is the best in the league and a goal every 4.58 shots on target, which is second best in the league after Valdes with 5.17.
The Levante goalie has been forced to save 5.7 shots on target per game, also second best average (Esteban 6.1) in the league and in 42.86% of his games, he’s picked up a clean sheet. This is a massive number considering that his team sits ninth in the table, having conceded 30 goals already. The only two goalkeepers with a better percentage of clean sheets per game are Barcelona’s Valdes (55.56%) and Atlético’s Cortouis (45.45%) however; these two teams have actually conceded 30 goals combined.
In our Ranking J, which counts over 70 keeper stats, Navas leads La Liga goalkeepers in points with 107, followed by Valdes with 104 and Diego López with 102. The former are on teams that have already picked up 17 wins, and Real Madrid’s goalkeeper has only conceded one goal in 2014, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he’s closing the gap with Valdes and Navas.
Valdes and Diego López together, with Courtois, are the only three goalkeepers that have picked up seven clean sheets with three saves or less. The Belgian has even picked up two clean sheets with no saves and in only one of his 10 clean sheets has he had to make more than three saves. While Navas has only had two clean sheets with one to three saves and six with four or more, leading the league in this category.
Víctor Valdes is the only La Liga goalkeeper to record a clean sheet with more than eight saves. He made nine against Rayo Vallecano, including a penalty save, on 21st September 2013. Another interesting goalie stats is, for example, that only Andrés from Osasuna has managed to save more than one penalty, two to be precise, in this season.
While Courtois and Yoel are the only two who have scored an own goal. The Atlético Madrid goalie also leads La Liga in games conceding a goal without making a single save with three.
The answer to the headline of this article can’t be anyone other than Keylor Navas. In a league where goalies haven’t shined too much, it should come as no surprise to see a World Cup keeper like Navas being above the rest.
After all, as it stands right now, only three or four goalkeepers from La Liga will play in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Navas, Courtois and Real Sociedad’s Chilean goalkeeper, Claudio Bravo are sure picks, while Casillas hasn’t played in this La Liga yet and it remains to be seen if Valdes is going to get picked over him. The other goalie that could enter this list is Granada’s second goalie, Greek international, Orestis Karnezis but he has only played one game in Spain.