Newcastle United have secured their second signing of the summer, adding Nick Pope added to their list of permanent new arrivals. The ex-Burnley goalkeeper suffered relegation last season, but the Toon have showcased an intent to keep him in the Premier League by paying around £10m for his services.
Pope is regarded as a capable shot-stopper between the sticks. For years, he's performed to a solid individual level at Turf Moor, and the numbers can be used to prove it.
The Englishman became a regular starter for Burnley in 2017. Since then, he's completed four full seasons in the Premier League, making a total of 140 starts.
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Pope faced 613 shots on target over that period, with those shots worth roughly 182.5 goals according to Expected Goals (xG). xG offers an insight into the likelihood of a shot being scored by considering the historical outcomes of hundreds of thousands of attempts, and it tends to provide an accurate summary of whether a team should have scored fewer or more goals based on the nature of their shots on goal.
Post-shot xG focuses on shots that hit the target and takes into account the quality and trajectory of the shot, which is why it can be applied to goalkeepers and shot-stopping.
Although an average goalkeeper would have conceded around 182.5 goals from the shots that Pope faced, the 30 year-old only shipped a total of 165 goals.
Those numbers suggest that Pope overperformed expectation by 17.5 goals with his shot-stopping, which captures his level in comparison to his peers.
For some perspective, Manchester City's Ederson overperformed by just five goals over the same period. Jordan Pickford overperformed by just 1.5 goals, which suggests the shot-stopping of the England no.1 is about average.
The better performers across Europe are the likes of Liverpool's Alisson Becker - who overperformed by 27.4 goals - and Atletico Madrid's Jan Oblak, who overperformed by 25.7 goals.
Some goalkeepers underperform xG and have a negative impact on their team's prospects of securing positive results, with Fraser Forster and Kepa Arrizabalaga among the names who fit that mould.
Overall, based on Pope's underlying save numbers, he's proved to be one of the better goalkeepers in England's top-flight when it comes to preventing goals over the past few years.
On top of his saving perks, he's also surprisingly proactive when it comes to sweeping up through balls. Last season, Pope ranked top of the Premier League for the average distance from goal of his defensive actions, ahead of Alisson in second place and Jose Sa of Wolves in third.
Moreover, he also placed joint-top of the division - alongside Alisson - for defensive actions made outside of the penalty box per 90 minutes.
Those figures highlight Pope's underrated tendency to explore life beyond his own goalmouth. Martin Dubravka, by contrast, placed inside the bottom five players in the Premier League last season for both of those sweeper-keeper metrics.
In Pope, the Toon are acquiring a proven shot-stopper who is more in the mould of a sweeper than many would typically expect from a goalkeeper who emerged under Sean Dyche. For just £10m, the Magpies appear to be getting a bargain.
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The 6ft 6in goalkeeper Newcastle United have added to their ranks in Nick Pope
