The Premier League elite keeper who gets hardly any recognition
It's hard to be talked about alongside the elite players when you don't play for an elite side, but one Premier League goalkeeper certainly deserves that sort of acknowledgement this season.
Hello and welcome back to Marginal Pains.
You good? Good. It’s David here, and today we’re talking about goalkeepers and one in particular who is performing at a very high level.
He’s also illustrating a skillset suited to playing at the highest level for one of the division’s top sides, but yet, he continues to drift under the radar for too many.
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It’s not unusual to see a player performing well at a smaller club, and then, as a result, be linked with a move to a bigger one. It’s just how the football ecosystem works.
Sometimes, a big contributory factor to the success of that player is the environment they’re playing in. Things such as well-suited tactics and a lack of ‘big club’ pressure can all assist players in flourishing.
These players can sometimes land bigger moves as a result of their strong form, but then struggle to replicate the same level of performance when playing in a different system and under more intense pressure.
The risk associated with the above means that there can sometimes be a tendency by elite sides to overlook top performers as a direct result of who they play for and the reputation that surrounds those particular clubs.
This isn’t just the case from a recruitment standpoint, but also from a wider recognition perspective with fans and the media.
A good current example of this is the lack of appreciation for Burnley’s No.1 Nick Pope.
Burnley are a side who don’t really get the credit they probably deserve. They’re not a blockbuster name and they’re perceived as an unremarkable and tactically rigid team.
Yet with Sean Dyche at the helm, they’ve consistently managed to punch above their weight and have established themselves as one of the league’s mainstays, despite operating pretty much on a shoestring budget.
Perhaps this lack of glamour surrounding the side from Turf Moor means it’s easy to overlook the performances of Pope, but he has undoubtedly been one of the division’s best players this season.
It feels a long time ago now, but Pope was one of the star performers in the 2017/18 campaign, making his Premier League debut that September in the place of the injured Tom Heaton, and then going onto secure an impressive 12 clean sheets across the course of the season.
We know that clean sheets don’t necessarily equate to brilliant keeper performances, but given that he also scooped Burnley’s annual 'Player of the Year' and 'Players' Player of the Year' awards, and earned a place in England’s 23-man squad picked to go to the World Cup Finals in Russia, we can safely conclude it was a standout first year.
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A dislocated shoulder sustained against Aberdeen in the opening Europa League game of the following season basically put his first-team career on hold, and by the time he was fit again, he found himself behind both Heaton and Joe Hart in the pecking order.
It was only at the start of last season, following Heaton’s departure for Aston Villa, that was he able to again reclaim the No.1 spot.
It was a strong first full season back between the sticks and he finished the campaign with the second-highest number of clean sheets behind Manchester City’s Ederson. This was despite facing roughly 75 shots more than the City man across the course of the campaign.
This season, he’s again performing at an impressing level from a shot-stopping perspective, and we can highlight this by looking at his post-shot xG against (PSxGA) data.
PSxG utilises information such as shooting location, body part and assist type, like traditional xG, but it also takes into consideration shot characteristics after the ball has been struck, such as its trajectory and whether it was on target or not - all shots off target or blocked are assigned a value of 0.
Impressively, Pope has overperformed by 4.7, that’s the highest of any keeper across the whole Premier League so far.
(Data accurate as of 11/01/21)
Pope’s shot-stopping prowess is aided by his strong physical attributes. He’s a long-limbed figure who stands at 6ft3in, yet he’s very agile and possesses really good reflexes.
When it comes to the talent of keepers, there’s much more to consider than just their ability to save shots, there are also aspects such as their capacity with the ball at their feet and how well they command their penalty area.
In terms of the latter, Pope has proven to be both aggressive and governing, especially when it comes to claiming crosses swung into the box.
So far, his Burnley side has allowed roughly 146 crosses into the box and his ‘stop cross’ percentage of 13.6% is the second-highest in the league behind only Fulham’s Alphonse Areola.
Another facet that’s crucial for a keeper, more so for the top sides in the division who like to press high, is having the ability to perform as a sweeper. This job involves trying to control the space in behind a high defensive line, latching onto balls played over the top, intercepting possession or clearing away any danger.
It’s something the likes of Liverpool’s Alisson and Manchester City’s Ederson do really well and both are integral to the way in which their teams plays.
As you might expect, this season, Alisson ranks top in terms of both defensive actions made outside the box per 90, and in the highest average distance of defensive actions made away from the goal.
Furthermore, each of Ederson and Chelsea’s Edouard Mendy also rank in the top four in both of these departments. However, Pope shows up very well and is sandwiched in between each of these three players, ranking second for both.
This does really add a further level of appeal to Pope’s game, especially from a top club perspective. It indicates that he could well be a keeper who could play in behind a high defensive line efficiently.
Focusing on that big club suitability, there is one area though that he remains fairly untested in, and that’s his passing capabilities.
Burnley have the third-lowest possession average in the league, and Dyche is clear in instructing his side to get the ball up the pitch as quick as possible. For Pope, this means going long almost every time and his average pass length is the second-longest in the league, behind only Aaron Ramsdale at Sheffield United.
This is perhaps the biggest unknown when it comes to evaluating Pope’s suitability to an elite side. He seems to be a well-rounded keeper who is excelling in almost all areas.
Yet, being able to offer yourself as the 11th man in possession is crucial for top teams in terms of them playing out from the back and bypassing pressing opponents.
Maybe this lack of experience in being utilised in possession play is the one unappealing facet of his game that’s putting potential elite suitors off. Because based on everything else, things such as his age, shot-stopping capacity, ability to read danger and so on, he’s excelling.
Perhaps a move to one of the bigger sides may one day materialise, not that Burnley will be in a rush to see this happen. But in the meantime, he does at very least deserve to be included in the conversation about who is the Premier League’s best current No.1.
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