Why Morgan De Sanctis may be the most underrated goalkeeper in the world

Is Morgan De Sanctis the most underrated goalkeeper in the world?

            While Morgan De Sanctis may not enjoy the global reputation of some of the most popular goalkeepers on the planet, his statistics since he joined Roma place him at the top alongside his more illustrious peers. For the second season in a row, Morgan De Sanctis is proving to be a key ingredient to Roma’s ability to wrestle the Scudetto title away from bitter rivals Juventus. Ten games into the 2014/15 Serie A season, the Roma custodian has already amassed 6 clean sheets, having missed two games due to injury. Among Europe’s top 5 leagues this season, only Barcelona’s Claudio Bravo, Juventus’ Gianluigi Buffon and Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer have kept the opposition off the scoreboard more often than De Sanctis, but they all have the advantage of having played more games. More impressively, Roma’s net-minder leads the way with 8 saves per goal – the highest ratio in Europe’s top 5 leagues. His 3.67 diving saves per goal ratio is second only to Sampdoria’s Emiliano Viviano, who has made 4 diving saves per goal.

2014/15 Season Saves per goal rankings (through November 4^th)

2014/15 Season Clean Sheet and Least Goals Allowed Sheet Rankings

At 37 years old, De Sanctis is proving to be one of the most reliable and consistent goalkeepers in the world. His arrival at Roma last season played a huge role in the Giallorossi’s second place finish. De Sanctis finished the 2013/14 season with 21 clean sheets – tied with Lille’s Vincent Enyeama, who was outstanding in Ligue 1 last term, and ahead of Atletico Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois, PSG’s Salvatore Sirigu and Juventus’ Gianluigi Buffon. In terms of least goals conceded per game, Roma’s shot stopper ended last season fourth among Europe’s top 5 leagues with 0.64 goals conceded per 90, behind Manuel Neuer (0.59), Salvatore Sirigu (0.62) and Gianluigi Buffon (0.63), but ahead of Thibaut Coutois (0.65). In comparison to the likes of Neuer and Buffon (and even Courtois), the name De Sanctis may not carry quite the same weight in world football these days, but his record speaks for itself, and as long as he carries on with his current form, Roma fans won’t mind. If the Giallorossi are to prevent the Bianconeri from winning their fourth consecutive Scudetto, the performance of De Sanctis in goal relative to that of Buffon just may be the difference.

2013/14 Season Saves Per Goal Rankings

2013/14 Season Clean Sheet and Least Goals Allowed Sheet Rankings

The Value of a Goalkeeper: The impressive saves per goal ratios attained by Yann Sommer (7.6) and Emiliano Viviano (6.0) this season have a lot to do with Borussia Monchengladbach’s and Sampdoria’s current third place positions in the Bundesliga and Serie A respectively. While goalkeepers don’t necessarily win you titles, the best custodians help their teams earn points throughout a season they wouldn’t have otherwise. Looking at the shot stoppers with the best saves per goal ratios last season, Buffon (4.3 saves per goal) and Neuer (3.94 saves per goal) won the Serie A and Bundesliga titles respectively. While Nice’s David Ospina (4.04 saves per goal) and Levante’s Keylor Navas (4.03 saves per goal) were only able to help their teams place seventeenth and tenth in Ligue 1 and La Liga last term respectively, their clubs would have been much worse off without them. Nice in particular would have almost certainly been relegated without Ospina’s heroic performances in goal.

Both Ospina and Navas went on to have stellar performances at the World Cup for Colombia and Costa Rica respectively, leading their nations to historic quarterfinal stage finishes. Consequently, they earned dream moves to Arsenal and Real Madrid where they are unfortunately currently playing back-up roles to goalkeepers who were statistically inferior last season (Wojsiech Szczesny and Iker Casillas).       

Why Real Madrid may regret letting Alonso leave

Why Real Madrid may ultimately regret letting Alonso go

Toni Kroos’ 30M Euro move to Real Madrid and Xabi Alonso’s 8M Euro move in the opposite direction were two of the more intriguing transactions of the transfer window this past summer. While the two moves happened in isolation, they were related in the sense that it was only after Real closed the deal for Kroos earlier in the transfer window (shortly after his World Cup triumph), that Alonso essentially became surplus to requirements in the mind of Madrid’s power brokers. Bayern Munich and Pep Guardiola were more than happy to pounce when they realized that the Spanish International was available at a relatively cut-price fee.

Several Madridistas were (and still are) disappointed to see Alonso leave, and many recognized that Toni Kroos, for all his offensive talent, doesn’t have the natural defensive characteristics possessed by the Spanish International. To put this into perspective, I tried to break down the similarities and differences between the two former World Cup winners by taking a closer look at the performance of Kroos at Bayern over a 5-year period, and that of Alonso in a Real outfit over the same timeframe, and unraveled the following:

Goals, Shots and Creativity:

           

Between the 09/10 season and the 13/14 season, Kroos averaged 4 goals per season (0.91 non-penalty kick goals per 90), 2.35 shots per 90, 7 assists per season, 2.46 shot assists per 90 and 0.26 big chances created per 90. During the same period, Alonso averaged 1 goal per season (0.02 non-penalty kick goals per 90), 0.68 shots per 90, 5 assists per season, 1.76 shot assists per 90 and 0.19 big chances created per 90.

Essentially, on every one of the offensive metrics mentioned, Kroos has superior numbers, partly explained by the fact that he’s generally played closer to goal than Alonso, who has almost exclusively sat in front of the back four in his career.

On the Ball – Passing:

            In terms of passing statistics over the past 5 seasons, Kroos has averaged 63.6 passes per 90 and 0.5 through balls per 90, with an overall passing accuracy of 87.5%. Alonso on the other hand has averaged 75.4 passes per 90, and 0.69 through balls per 90 with an overall passing accuracy of 86%.

            While Alonso’s passing accuracy is slightly lower than that of Kroos, (86% vs. 87.5%), he’s averaged 18.6% more passes per game and 38% more through balls per game than Kroos over the past five seasons.

Defensive Action & Duels:

It’s probably on the defensive side of the ball that the effect of losing Alonso in favor of Kroos is going to be felt at Real Madrid over the long term. Over the past 5 years, the German has averaged 2 tackles per 90 in comparison to Alonso’s 3.42. In terms of defensive positional and tactical awareness, Kroos has averaged 0.23 interceptions per game in comparison to 1.4 interceptions per game for Alonso. Lastly and perhaps most crucially, Alonso has recovered 96.2% more balls per game on average than Kroos (10.4 ball recoveries per game vs. 5.3). 

With the exception of Madrid’s early-season loss to Real Sociedad in which Los Blancos were exposed defensively, Luca Modric and Toni Kroos have anchored Madrid’s midfield with absolute class. The reality however is that Real Madrid hasn’t been tested enough to determine if the void left by Alonso’s departure is being filled in terms of the protection he provided the defensive back-line of four. Sami Khedira would provide more defensive cover in the midfield position, but his relative lack of technical quality on the ball means that Ancelotti has preferred a Modric-Kroos partnership in midfield. Even in the absence of Modric due to injury, Ancelotti has opted for Isco as a deep-lying playmaker over Khedira. While this strategy may be successful against most teams Madrid encounters, you have to wonder whether Ancelotti’s men may come undone against higher quality opposition. We may not find out until the latter stages of the Champions League this year where the likes of Chelsea or Bayern Munich will provide a much tougher attacking threat to Los Blancos than is posed to them most weekends in La Liga.