His footwork is incredible & he does amazingly to get himself all the way across goal & into position but then he jumps into the spread rather than trusting his reactions!
It’s not a mistake as it was so difficult for #Navas to get across goal but given #Navas’ awesome footwork he will be gutted he didn’t trust himself as I’m sure if he didn’t jump into a premeditated barrier he could’ve made the save with his foot & it would still be 0-0
To make certain big saves not only do you need exceptional physical skills (speed & agility) & exceptional technical skills (foot work & efficient movement patterns) but you also need exceptional decision making skills!
Expected Save% for an avg #PL GK who faced the same shots as #Pickford in that time = 69.0
I understand why people think that #England’s #1 should be better than a middle of the road PL GK but the abuse he gets is just crazy!
Also regarding the #England #1 shirt, the main reason he has it is because currently #Southgate believes that being an average shotstopper is outweighed by the fact he is a level above any other English GK when it comes to distributing the ball, especially when under pressure!
#Henderson has outperformed #DeGea when it comes to shotstopping 🔄
Despite criticism #Ramsdale#Pickford & #Guaita have performed at a roughly average top flight level 👀
Explanation of ExSaves:
ExSaves are calculated by looking at every shot a GK faces & using the shots distance, angle, trajectory, final location, the number of defenders in the way + other things & using historical data to find the probability that an avg PL GK makes the save...
...Therefore as a rough example a shot from 40yrds at a tight angle that goes down the middle of goal with all the teams defenders behind the ball may have an ExSave of 99% whereas a central 1v1 from 10yrds fired into the bottom corner may have an ExSave of 10%.
His 2nd 1v1 save was a nice spread!
I loved the fact he backed off & didn’t commit himself when #Mbappe ran in 1v1 as he knew #Mbappe was too far from goal to trouble him then as soon as he squared it to #Neymar he realised the shot was now in the engage zone & he then rushed out
If you are wondering what I am talking about in terms of “block”, “spread”, “engage some” etc.
Here I will compare #Henderson’s cross claiming & sweeping (the two branches of shot prevention) so far this year to #DeGea’s & discuss how this has affected #ManchesterUnited’s defence.
I will use my shot prevention model as sadly mainstream models miss many important actions!
Sweeping:
#Henderson’s sweeping has been highlighted after his tidy display vs #THFC & it wasn’t a one off!
So far this year for #ManchesterUnited he has prevented 11 opposition chances occurring by sweeping which corresponds to preventing 0.15 ExG/90 (#PL avg is 0.10 ExG/90)
He’s shown class shot stopping, shot preventing & distributing skills & been excellent in 1v1 situations!
#Martinez has saved 11 1v1s this year & my model predicts an avg PL GK would‘ve only managed to save ~8 of them!
I don’t think it is unsustainable form either, especially when talking about 1v1s, because my model shows his excellent decision making is regularly making the saves easier for him!
His Post Decision Ex1v1 Saves is 1.42 saves higher than his Pre Decision Ex1v1 Saves!
Research has shown the optimum GK position for none 1v1 long range shots is roughly 1.5-2yrd off the line
Once a GK starts positioning themselves further out than this the reduced goal area they have to cover doesn’t outweigh the loss of reaction time hence goals like this occur
In this situation though #Watkins’ finish is actually a poor one as he smashes it down the centre, so #Alisson could’ve got away with his poor positioning but he compounded his first mistake by going with his hand rather than his foot!