Following the debacle that was the defeat to Wigan, Liverpool fans have started to point their finger at a new target: Pepe Reina. A few of them saying: he’s not been making as many saves or doesn’t look as though he’s trying or he can’t save penalties anymore. Liverpool’s slump shouldn’t rest solely on the shoulders of Pepe Reina and hopefully the statistics will help show this.
We’re going to compare Pepe Reina to goalkeepers from the teams above Liverpool in the table with whatever data we can find from the EPLIndex Stats Centre. First, let’s look at their save averages for the season and compare it to their current form (current form usually calculated by using data from last six games). The save % is calculated by dividing the number of saves by the total number of shots on target conceded by the team. The graph below shows the results.
The graph above shows that Pepe Reina’s save average has dropped. Reina is sitting pretty at 71.1% of shots on target saved behind only Joe Hart and De Gea for the season so far but his form in the last six is alarming with it dipping by over 10% and now sitting at 60.9% of shots on target saved. All keepers improved this figure apart from Reina and Friedel which clearly shows which sides are struggling for form in the league at the moment.
David De Gea is topping the shot stoppers in the last six games saving 82.1% of shots on target and Joe Hart is a close second on 78.9%. Petr Cech and Szczesney have improved over the last six games just like De Gea has. Krul also improves but very slightly. Both Pepe and Brad fall behind Krul with the massive drops in the % of shots on target saved.
Can all of this be attributed on the goalkeeper’s form? We don’t think so but we’ll talk some more about this on page 2.
Let’s take a quick look at how this has affected their goals conceded statistics:
Pepe Reina and Brad Friedel are conceding goals every 54 minutes in their last six games and this average is way below the season average of 87.1 minutes for Pepe and 77.14 minutes for Brad. There, obviously, is a direct correlation with the decrease in percentage of shots on target saved and it shows here.
Joe Hart’s stats are surprising as he only improved his percentage slightly but he’s conceding a goal every 2 games if you go by his last six games although his season average is also far and away the best of the top seven. De Gea’s stats also show improvement here as well as Cech & Szczesney – the latter really improving his numbers above from conceding a goal every 69 mins to now 108 minutes in his last six.
It’s Krul that is the worst off here – already averaging 63.66 mins per goal conceded he has dropped further in the last six games to concede a goal every 49.09 mins, that’s almost two goals per game.
Next Page: Blame Game – can the blame rest solely on the shoulders of Pepe Reina?
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Categories: Arsenal (NN), Chelsea, EPL, EPL Index Featured Article, EPL Index Statistical Comparisons, EPL Opta Stats, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester Utd, Newcastle Utd, Tottenham Hotspur
Tags: AFC, Agger, Arsenal Stats, Carragher, CFC, Chelsea Stats, EPL, epl opta stats, EPL Stats, Johnson, Kelly, LFC, Liverpool stats, Man City Stats, Man United Stats, MCFC, MUFC, Newcastle Stats, NUFC, Opta Stats, Reina, Skrtel, Spurs Stats, THFC
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Sell him and get a talented keeper like the one who played for Cardiff against us in the final. Should give Kenny at least 10 mil to spend elsewhere.
Haha, what is Kenny going to do with 10 million? He has just spent 110 million on players who, on the whole, are not liverpool quality. He might spend the 10 million on David James, He’s English so he must be good. Edited by Admin.
@ David | Erm no – the whole point of the article was to shift blame from Reina. Don’t think you’ve grasped the point.
Pepe Reina need real competition, let him know he is not indispensable, We can’t have the Likes of Doni and not afford a chance its unfair to him and Liverpool as a team.
Sadly I agree with your conclusions – Carra’s a legend and hopefully he’ll manage the team one day. But he’s only getting slower, and Coates can only get better. So let’s get the young lad in and give him some more experience as we wait for Agger to hurry up and get fit! As for Pepe, he’s a legend too, everyone goes through the occasional bad patch. He’s one of the best keepers in the world so let’s give him our support, he’s irreplaceable.
Agree, whilst I believe he could have done better I understand that we’re presenting teams with clear chances to score and they are taking them. Wigan had more clear cut chances than us – triple in fact – 3-1.
Definitely not Reina’s fault. He may have conceded a few in the last 6 games but far more alarming is our player’s inability to convert chances combined with their startling inability to cross the ball. Indeed it seems the only person on the team capable of putting a good ball into the box aside from Gerrard is Andy Carroll – which surely defeats the point!
Our failures this season can be attributed to the following:
1) Set pieces – what has happened to Charlie Adam? He can’t even beat the first man with his corners and not even in the running to take free-kicks anymore
2) Crossing – I feel sorry for Andy Carroll our crossing is truly awful. I see friendly Sunday league teams put more threatening balls into the box than our ‘wingers’.
3) Finishing -WHY CAN’T ANYONE PUT THE BALL IN THE BACK OF THE NET.
4) BAD LUCK – other supporters will claim that this is not a valid factor, but deep down they will know that we have not had the rub of the green this season. If there was a cup for how many times you hit the woodwork then we would win by a country mile. Also it seems to me that any opposing keeper we face seems to turn into some sort of god.
5) Inconsistancy – we play like footballing legends whenever we face off against the big clubs, dominating the games and winning most of the time. However if we come up against the small clubs the players just don’t seem to get out of bed for it. (I reckon my Sunday league team could put one over Liverpool!)
Kenny please stamp out this complacency and make your next training session focus on crossing and shooting!!!
I think the bad luck and inconsistency should merge – you make your own luck and whilst we can all go on about it I think there is a lot of room for improvement and that maybe it’s not JUST luck and that the players just do not have enough quality to sustain any type of form in the League. It’ll be ineteresting to see how we do in the Cup after this bad run.
Excellent article. Those blaming Reina now know it doesn’t solely rely on the Spaniard. We sorely miss Agger, and Enrique hasn’t picked the perfect time to go on a bad run of form! It may be time just to throw Coates in and see how he fairs because Jamie Carragher hasn’t done the best of jobs in all honesty.
Thanks AotK. Appreciate the kind words. Hope Agger comes back quick.
What a difference Lucas makes.
I don’t know if that’s a joke or a serious comment but I honestly think that Lucas is the big miss along with Agger for Liverpool at the moment.
Pepe is having a rough trot, but the real problem is the opposition keeper. I would love to see the stats of each keeper in games against Liverpool vs their normal season stats. I reckon for the last couple of years, the opposition keepers have been playing at 150% of normal against Liverpool compared to other games. That save from Suarez’s curler just shouldn’t happen and De Gea and Hart made 100s of saves to keep their teams in the games against Liverpool. Even the Cardiff keeper. Goalkeepers lift so much against Liverpool.
Haha,totally agree with you mate. The opposition keeper always looked better than their normal form
Check out this excellent analysis from last year by basstunedtored:
http://basstunedtored.com/2011/11/23/jeepers-keepers/
It covers the first part of the season when it looked like every keeper was having a blinder.
go and buy begovic he is incredible