I decided to start this blog, intending to use the new data released by Manchester City FC in conjunction with OPTA Pro, to create and discover different statistics that formed the 2011-12 Premier League. In doing so, I hope to find trends that may help guide any team to better themselves and create discussions surrounding the whole concept of Performance Analysis within football.

To start my blogging then, I decided to look at the Goalkeepers of last season’s League and how much their performance could be linked to the team’s success. My first port of call then was clean sheets kept during the whole season, thinking the obvious that not conceding on a regular basis must benefit the standings greatly.

So doing this, I created my first graph from the data. The graph shows the amount of clean sheets kept by GKs during the 2011-12 Premier League season which included any keeper that started in 15 games at least. As expected, Joe Hart (Man City – Champions) is top with 17 clean sheets over the season and Jaaskelainen and Bogdan of (Bolton – relegated) are nearly at the bottom. However, to show the true extent of the data it is important to note that some GKs will have played more games than other, and we can look at the average clean sheets in accordance with matches played to get a better idea of who performed best over the season.

So in looking at the season average, we can see how some players have moved in accordance with the amount of matches played. Most noticeably, De Gea (Man Utd) has moved above Hart in average clean sheets during the season (an indication of the title race between the two teams). From this, it may be possible to see where Manchester Utd lost the title in the fact that De Gea was absent for more games than Hart and therefore crucial games that were lost by Man Utd may have been salvaged had De Gea been involved.

Moving on, we can now look at the efficiency of GKs within the 18 yard box, where most strikers tend to attempt (and score) their shots, by comparing the total shots saved in the area with the amount conceded. 

So with this new graph, we can look at how well the keepers have dealt with this situation over the past season. Surprisingly, the graph shows us that Hennessey (Wolves) and Vorm (Swansea) actually have the highest percentage of saves inside the box than any other keeper, with Sorensen (Stoke) and Reina (Liverpool) conceding the most in the same scenario. If this is any indication, the ability to save goals inside the area doesn’t seem to matter in terms of overall standings of the team, but it can’t hurt to be skilled in the area should your defence prove weak!

Finally, when considering GK success in the Premier League, the most obvious of statistics to look at is the percentage of shots a keeper saves out of the total shots taken against him. Using the graph to show success, the most successful would be determined though being placed in the upper-right corner, with a high percentage of shots saved against a high number of shots taken. Therefore, a trend seems to emerge in that De Gea (Man Utd) and Hart (Man City) are the furthermost right with percentage saves averaging around 77-78%. This seems to indicate how important the keepers are in their role and in helping the team challenge for League success. Looking at the statistics provided, it would appear that although a team needs excellent firepower up front, a team will truly succeed if they have a consistently good presence tending the goal.

I hope that this has emphasised the importance of a talented goalkeeper within the team, although I’m sure this was never in dispute. I would encourage everyone to download the data set of MCFC Analytics themselves, and sift through the data in any way they wish. You may well disagree with my conclusions…