A fascinating study has revealed the best 'Big Six' goalkeeper in the Premier League this season.
Goalkeeper data specialist @Jhdharrison1 has produced a detailed breakdown of the performances of the goalkeepers.
The stoppers in question are Manchester City's Ederson, Liverpool's Alisson, Chelsea's Edouard Mendy, Tottenham's Hugo Lloris, Arsenal's Aaron Ramsdale and Manchester United's David De Gea.
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John has looked at their general stopping, 1 vs. 1, shot handing, cross claiming, through-ball sweeping, general passing and pressurised passing.
He's worked out how many goals each of the 'Big Six' goalkeepers have saved their side compared to an 'average' top flight keeper.
6. David De Gea - 3 goals saved.
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"While his shot stopping was by far the best, saving 9.86 goals above what we be expected if an average goalkeeper faced those shots. For comparison, the next highest goalkeeper in the top six had +4.59. His cross claiming, through-ball sweeping and distribution was by far the worst meaning that his overall contribution to Manchester United was just +2.96 goals."
5. Ederson - 4 goals saved.
"Ederson’s profile is almost the exact opposite to De Gea’s. Ederson’s distribution was by far the best and was worth nearly two additional goals to Manchester City over the course of the season vs if they had an average Premier League distributer in goal.
"Additionally, his sweeping was top class and saved Manchester City an additional 2.5 goals, also allowing them to comfortably play with a high defensive line. The reason Ederson is not higher on this list is because of his shot stopping. Unlike all of the other big six goalkeepers, Ederson performed to a below average standard when it came to shot stopping and given shot stopping actions are in general the actions which allow the goalkeeper to have the largest influence on the game, this severely hampered the influence he had on Manchester City."
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4. Edouard Mendy - 6 goals saved.
"The reason Mendy isn’t higher up on this list is because of his poor end to the season shot stopping-wise. Mendy was comfortably in 2nd place for the majority of the season but a few uncharacteristically weak goals at the back end of the season dragged him down. Still, being worth +5.74 goals to Chelsea is not a bad score by any measure."
3. Aaron Ramsdale - 7 goals saved.
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"Like Mendy, Ramsdale is also a net positive in all three major aspects of goalkeeping. Similarly to Mendy, Ramsdale also started off the season in electric form before performance levels dropped off at towards end. Ramsdale’s big strengths at the start of the season were his 1v1 stopping, his general shot stopping, and his cross claiming.
"By Christmas, he was worth almost eight additional goals to Arsenal! However the second half of the season was not as impressive for Ramsdale. While his shot prevention remained solid his shot stopping dropped off. In fact, his general shot stopping was in line with the average Premier League goalkeeper while his 1v1 stopping actually cost Arsenal three goals."
2. Hugo Lloris - 7 goals saved.
"Lloris was probably the most underrated and undervalued player in Tottenham’s charge to fourth place this season. Lloris’ profile is different to the other goalkeepers in the top portion of this list as his ability with his feet is below average and his 1v1 stopping is just about average."
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1. Alisson - 19 goals saved.
"Alisson was by far the goalkeeper of the year statistically! Not only was he above average in every aspect of goalkeeping, he often was the outright best goalkeeper in each individual aspect.
"His distribution was second only to Ederson, his cross claiming and sweeping was the best of the group, and his ability to stop 1v1s was out of this world - saving almost nine goals above what would be expected for an average Premier League goalkeeper!"
So, per Jack's findings, Alisson comes out on top ahead of Lloris.
Ramsdale is ranked third, with Mendy, Ederson and De Gea ranked fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.
Topics: Alisson, David De Gea, Ederson, Football