For the next 11 weeks, we will host a weekly survey series to suss out the best players in each position in this Premier League season. Each week, we’ll select six contenders in a given position and voters will elect who belongs amongst the greats.
By the end, the best XI will be confirmed.
Before we get underway, some points of clarification: This is not a science, nor is it claiming to be. This season still has a large chunk to be played, and as Tottenham Hotspur recently blasted open the title race, that chunk has accrued a heavy bit of clout.
Premier League teams also play vastly different formations, thus some position selections risk being flawed.
But flaws are part of the fun. It’s the reason football fans stubbornly turn out to their team’s ground week in and week out, their hope for triumph undeterred from any factual evidence from week’s prior.
So, agree to debate and not get irate.
Without further ado, and in no particular order, here are the nominations for the best goalkeeper of 2021/22.
Cast your vote at the bottom.
Alisson Becker:
Where most goalkeeper’s statistics vacillate somewhere between clean sheets and shots saved, Alisson Becker breaks into the section typically reserved for his teammates on the opposite side of the pitch.
Alisson’s distribution and vision throughout the pitch has become even more vital to Liverpool ’s attack, attack, attack.
While Alisson’s save percentage is middle rung in the league just creeping over 70% according to FBref, the Brazilian lurks right behind Golden Gloves leader Manchester City ’s Ederson for most clean sheets this season with 12.
Ederson:
Ederson and Alisson will likely never escape each other, but the incessant rivalry between these two standard-bearers makes for wonderful debate fodder.
Pep Guardiola’s scintillating and near suffocatingly perfect City side rely integrally on Ederson’s composure with his feet and his ability to lead an attack from the back.
This season has not been Ederson’s finest, however. His penchant for playing aggressively has, at times, left an (albeit small) sloppy trail of avoidable concessions. Small margins at the top, etc.
Edouard Mendy:
Where this season has teemed with goalkeeper howlers, the Senegalese shot stopper has been Thomas Tuchel’s ballast between the sticks.
Sadio Mane called Mendy’s Ballon d’Or snub ‘unacceptable’. Yet, the European, African and World champion often goes under the radar.
In October, Mendy led the league in shots stopped, according to FBref. He has not wavered far since, raking in a save percentage of over 80%. And 14 clean sheets in 18 Champions League appearances should not be sneered at.
Aaron Ramsdale:
That unforgettable October performance against Leicester has become the standard for the 23-year-old goalkeeper this season.
To date, Ramsdale stands second in the league in terms of save percentage and third in the race for the Golden Glove with 11 clean sheets. His distribution with both his hands and his feet dovetailed with his bravery to come off his line has come in clutch for Arsenal who are now primed to battle for a fourth-place finish.
While many banked on Ramsdale playing deputy to Bernd Leno, an overpriced backup option he is not. Ramsdale has made this season a breeding ground in which to prove his doubters wrong, manifested in a chip shop advert.
David de Gea:
Last month, the Spaniard ended a six-year drought for a goalkeeper to scoop up the Premier League Player of the Month, and he currently leads the league in most saves. How flattering a portrait that statistic paints for Manchester United ’s porous defence is not so much the point of importance as is how those saves have helped keep United within a fourth-place finish.
De Gea has also exorcised his apparent penalty hex, saving three of the four penalties taken against him, the best in the league.
Where De Gea often falls short rests with his composure with the ball at his feet, the keeper recently hit back at such claims, wagging the finger towards his team’s occasionally inept highline as the true culprit.
Jose Sa:
Filling the boots of Rui Patricio was never going to be an easy task, but Jose Sa has done all and more since arriving at the Molineux this summer from Olympiakos. His £6.25 price tag looks prescient.
The Portuguese keeper boasts the league’s best save percentage at 85% with more than 90 shots on target railed against him, ranking amongst the tenth most in the league.
In many ways, Sa is a microcosm of this season’s Wolves : pushing onwards and upwards rather than settling for filling boots and keeping with the team’s status quo. Bruno Lage’s siege of a surprise top-four finish has more than enough space to thank Sa.
Honourable mentions:
Robert Sanchez: The 24-year-old Spaniard has been on fire so far with Brighton. He ranks amongst the highly esteemed in terms of statistics. Consistency will be key.
Hugo Lloris: Sensational saves are inevitable from the Frenchmen, but Lloris has not relished the finest of seasons.
