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Martin Dubravka shows he’s top Premier League keeper taking pressure off defence – Outstanding stats

5 years ago
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It is only weeks ago that the media were trying to whip up a drop Martin Dubravka campaign, Newcastle fans knew the truth though.

The Chronicle ran a poll asking if Martin Dubravka should be replaced for the Huddersfield match after conceding that controversial late goal against Wolves, an incident where he was clearly fouled.

This having quickly followed the game at Spurs where he had let in a soft winner.

The bigger picture of course was that Rafa Benitez was never going to drop one of his very best players, it would have been the equivalent of dropping Salomon Rondon for Joselu, if the Venezuelan striker missed a couple of chances.

Four games, three wins and two clean sheets later, Martin Dubravka and Newcastle United have been generally excellent.

I cam across these stats on ‘high claims’ this week on the official Premier League site.

So what we are talking about, are the goalkeepers who are the bravest, the ones who will come and take high balls/crosses and take pressure off those in front of them.

At the very top of these stats below is Martin Dubravka with 33 high claims, with Ben Foster of Watford next best with 29.

Only five goalkeepers including Dubravka have more than 16 high claims, so all the rest have less than half as many as the Newcastle keeper.

Also, look at where the NUFC keeper ranks in this season’s Premier League Golden Glove competition, based on clean sheets:

17 Alisson

14 Ederson

11 Kepa Arrizabalaga

9 Martin Dubravka

9 Hugo Lloris

8 Neil Etheridge

8 Jordan Pickford

7 Kasper Schmeichel

7 Ben Foster

7 David de Gea

Considering Alisson and Ederson play for clubs where the keeper rarely sees the ball as they spend most time on the attack, for Martin Dubravka to have only one other keeper above him (£72m Kepa plays for a half-decent team as well…), is pretty special.

Martin Dubravka and Newcastle have conceded only 38 goals this season, only five Premier League teams have conceded less and they are all top seven clubs.

Overall, in 42 Premier League appearances since joining Newcastle, Dubravka has conceded only 49 goals, whilst playing for a team continually fighting relegation. Quite mad.

Looking at his record since he arrived at Newcastle United, this is how many times he has conceded the different amounts of goals:

Four goals – Once

Three goals – Twice

Two goals – 13 times

One goal – 13 times

Zero goals – 13 times

So only three times in 42 matches has he conceded more than two goals and in 26 of the 40 has conceded one or no goals.

If Newcastle United had had attacking players capable of scoring two goals each match, it would have guaranteed wins in at least two thirds of matches.

I know it doesn’t work out exactly like that but you can see the potential Martin Dubraka and his defence gives Newcastle, if Rafa Benitez can add two or three more quality signings in the front half of the team, with Miguel Almiron looking a great start.

Signs of early promise at the other end of the pitch, as in three of his four starts so far, Almiron has helped Newcastle score two or more in three of those four games (in only five of the opening 26 PL games did Newcastle score two or more in a match).

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