The blog posts have been a bit thin on the ground recently but I thought I’d come back with a slight change of pace. Anyone who follows the blog team on twitter will have already seen its rise to a rank of 658 overall, so instead of reviewing its performance again, I thought I’d take a look back at the basic statistics and key performance indicators that I tend to use when creating the watchlist and making transfers.

Over the next few days, I’ll look at each position individually in the hope that it might help myself and others to identify the players who have been coming to the fore over the first 12 gameweeks. Today, it’s the goalkeepers.

The Stats

Clean Sheets:

1. Alisson, Ederson (7)
2. Kepa (6)
3. Begovic, Patricio, Dubravka, Lloris, McCarthy, Schmeichel (4)

Saves:

1. Hart (53)
2. Fabianski (51)
3. Ryan (46)

Save Points:

1. Fabianski (15)
2. Hart (14)
3. Ryan (13)

Penalty Saves:

1. Etheridge, Pickford (2)
2. Hart, Hennessey, Bettinelli (1)

Bonus Points System:

1. Hart (258)
2. Alisson (244)
3. Pickford (234)

Bonus Points:

1. Ryan, Pickford, Fabianski (7)
2. Hart (6)
3. Dubravka, McCarthy, Lloris (5)

Sky MoM Awards:

1. Patricio (2)
2. Hart, Pickford, Ryan, Lloris, Cech, Leno (1)

Opinion

Earlier in the season, I discussed the benefits of opting for a £4.5m goalkeeper over the alternative premium options, and nothing from these stats has yet to convince me otherwise. Yes, Ederson and Alisson sit atop the standings due to their team’s ability to keep clean sheets, and I’m certainly not disputing that will likely finish there come May. However, every other indicator suggests that the budget options can perhaps keep pace via other means. The likes of Hart, Ryan and Fabianski are dominating in terms of saves/bonus points and are more than making up for their lack of clean sheets (3,3 and 1 respectively).

In fact, of the current top 10, only four cost £5.0 and above, and only three come from one the league’s top six teams. So, given the outfield options available from the likes of City and Liverpool, and with a spread of only 10 points between the remainder of the top 10, I would argue that you could still save £1m here without compromising the performance of your team. 

 

All stats are per the Official FPL and Sky FF websites