Martin Dubravka back to his best – These new Premier League stats don’t lie | OneFootball

For Martin Dubravka, this season must have felt a bit all deja vu.

Summer 2020 had seen the keeper pick up a freak foot injury when on a run, whilst training alone in Slovakia just before due to arrive back on Tyneside to begin pre-season.

That Martin Dubravka injury saw him ruled out of the start of the 2020/21 season, having played for two and a half seasons of starting 88 Premier League games in a row.

He was unavailable for the first 14 Premier League matches last season, however, we then had the bizarre sight of Steve Bruce refusing to put the number one keeper back in goal, despite Karl Darlow’s early form clearly tailing off. Another 11 PL matches Martin Dubravka was left on the bench by Bruce, before finally the then Head Coach accepted the reality, the Slovakian getting back in for the final 13 PL matches.

The stats last season clearly showed who is the better keeper:

Karl Darlow:

Played 13 Won 5 Drawn 5 Lost 3 (20 points picked up and 19 goals conceded)

With Darlow in goal, Newcastle picked up an average of 1.00 points per game and averaged 1.72 goals conceded.

With Dubravka in goal, Newcastle picked up an average of 1.54 points per game and averaged 1.46 goals conceded.

Fast forward to summer 2021 and Martin Dubravka once again injured and unable to start the 2021/22 Premier League season.

In his absence, 27 goals were conceded in the opening 12 PL matches by Freddie Woodman and Karl Darlow.

Whilst with Martin Dubravka, it has been 17 goals conceded in 11 PL matches, since Eddie Howe put him back in the team in his (Howe’s) second match.

The exact stats for the three NUFC goalkeepers this 2021/22 PL season having been:

With Freddie Woodman in goal, Newcastle picked up an average of 0.25 points per game and averaged 3.00 goals conceded.

With Karl Darlow in goal, Newcastle picked up an average of 0.62 points per game and averaged 1.87 goals conceded.

With Martin Dubravka in goal, Newcastle have picked up an average of 1.36 points per game and averaged 1.54 goals conceded.

If that were not proof enough of Dubravka’s value to Newcastle United, a very interesting new table published by the Other 14, who specialise in statistic of non-‘big six’ clubs:

The table above showing the difference between Post-Shot Expected Goals (PSxG) and Goals Against for the goalkeepers.

So basically, how well each Premier League keeper has done, compared to the quality and number of efforts on goal he has faced.

Only the three having performed better than Martin Dubravka.

In reality though, I think the Dubravka contribution has been seriously better than what the complete stats show for this season.

If you take out that very tricky trio of games in a row when Newcastle lost to Liverpool, Leicester and Man City, conceding 11 goals in three matches. The other eight Martin Dubravka starts have seen only six goals conceded and only three in the last five.

I think the Slovakian keeper is back to his best and now we have a far better Head Coach in place and better quality options added in the January transfer window, it is a very different state of affairs when it comes to Newcastle United defending, compared to the shambles under Steve Bruce.

With Martin Dubravka now fully recovered from his latest injury, for me he is once again showing why looking for a new number one in the summer shouldn’t in any way be a priority.

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