With xG (expected goals) and xA (expected assists) generally used to analyse attackers, surely somebody had to think of the goalkeepers?
Well, they did.
Expected goals on target (xGOT) data is collated in the same way as xG, but is a post-shot, rather than pre-shot, metric. In other words, it considers where a shot is placed within the goal.
While it can also indicate how well a player finishes chances, it is also commonly used to assess goalkeepers.
For instance, if a goalkeeper faces 40 xGOT throughout a season but only concedes 30 goals (not including own goals), they are said to have prevented 10 goals.
Goals prevented is worked out by the following calculation: xGOT – goals conceded (not including own goals)
So, let’s look at some live statistics from the ongoing campaign.
Focusing on the Premier League, we can see that Tottenham shot-stopper Guglielmo Vicario is the best-performing goalkeeper in the competition based on the goals prevented metric, at 6.9. On the flip side, Brentford’s Mark Flekken has conceded a whopping 7.4 goals more than would have been expected based on the quality of shots he has faced, and props up the top-flight goalkeepers.
David Raya — the goalkeeper Flekken replaced at Brentford — might have ousted Aaron Ramsdale (-1.7) at Arsenal, but his goals prevented figure of -3.5 shows the Spaniard has struggled. Even Ederson, one of the league’s goalkeepers, has been far from at his best this term, and that is reflected in his figure of -1.9.
Andre Onana has faced plenty of criticism in his first six months as a Manchester United player, but in terms of shot-stopping, he has fared well, preventing 3.8 goals, which ranks him fourth in the division, ahead of the likes of Alisson (2.9), Nick Pope (1.8), Bernd Leno (1.5) and Jordan Pickford (0.2) to name a few.
