Today’s column will continue the season-long odyssey into goalkeeper performance metrics, with the recent debate surrounding Craig Gordon’s inclusion as a player of the year finalist and subsequent win making it topical. Of the publicly available data vendors, Statsbomb appears to have the most robust keeper-related data and metrics. So which keeper ‘deserved’ to be a finalist? Joe Hart, Craig Gordon, or a sleeper?
Using traditional keeper-related metrics would place Hart towards the top of the list, as he’s been at the helm for nineteen clean sheets in league games and conceded just 0.47 non-penalty goals per 90 minutes so far this season. By comparison, Gordon has had fourteen clean sheets and conceded at a rate of 0.85 non-penalty goals per 90 minutes. This radar offers a broad array of shot-stopping and goal prevention-related metrics comparing the two:
