- Jan 28, 2011
- 5,701
- 79,514
At first glance, this is a pretty damning statistic.
At second glance, it's a load of bollocks.
If we're talking players making errors leading to goals, then it's much more likely that goalkeepers, as the last line of defence, will do this than defenders who can make the same number of errors, but don't see them converted into goals because the goalkeeper is there to make a save.
If we're talking the last three years of the Premiership, then that immediately reduces it to those 16 teams who have been in the Premier League for that period.
And if we're talking the last three years of the Premiership, then we must discount those teams who've changed goalkeepers in that period (Liverpool; Manchester City; West Ham) or have seen their main keeper injured for a long period (WBA; Stoke; Southampton).
This leaves us with six keepers who have played 100 or so Premier League games in the time period cited when no other keeper has played more than 90. These are Lloris, De Gea, Cech, Schmeichel, Gomes and Fabianski.
At first sight, it's not great that Lloris has committed more errors than the other five which have led to a goal, but, again, to compare these six is very much apples and oranges territory. Leicester, Watford and Swansea tend to defend deep. Which means Schmeichel, Gomes and Fabianski aren't asked to leave their line as much as Lloris does. This means they're less likely to make an error because, basically, they just stay on their line. They save it. Or they don't. But, if they don't, it's not an error leading to a goal. It's just a goal.
This just leaves Cech and De Gea. Fair play, De Gea is the best keeper in the country. As for Cech, we know his error rate is pretty much akin to Lloris' rate from other stats, so, if you'd rather Cech than Lloris, that's your call but, personally, I'll stick with Hugo if that's OK by you and give him my support rather than quote out-of-context statistics that belie the full story.
Edited for accuracy
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