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Martin Dubravka began the season as a participant the vast majority of the fan-base wished to see go away the membership. He had been an excellent servant since becoming a member of underneath Rafa Benitez, however his presence within the workforce final season a weak point.
The membership had 5 senior goalkeepers on their books and have been chasing James Trafford to make it six. It appeared inevitable {that a} keeper must go away and the Slovakian worldwide was the one more than likely to depart.
That’s nonetheless the case in January, with a transfer to Saudi Arabia being closely touted within the press. Nonetheless, the panorama has modified since then and a rising part of the help are actually wanting Dubravka to remain. Some are even suggesting he ought to be the primary when Nick Pope comes again from damage.
Since deputising for the England worldwide, Dubravka has performed six video games in all competitions. Throughout this run, now we have seen the workforce win six successive matches throughout all competitions, conceding solely twice. It has been a run of kind that has reworked the membership’s hopes for the season, due to this fact it’s unsurprising that the goalkeeper has acquired his justifiable share of plaudits.
It has been his distribution of the ball that has attracted essentially the most consideration, as he has been calm in possession and provided an choice to defenders when they’re being pressed. Pope’s largest weak point is his means with the ball at his ft, as he usually rushes and kicks the ball out of play. Dubravka has a go success charge of 77%, which is greater than Pope’s 63%.
Regardless of the spectacular defensive report of the workforce, Dubravka has solely made seven saves within the Premier League since his return to the workforce. It could possibly be argued that the dearth of photographs is a direct consequence of the goalkeeper’s presence, however the pattern measurement is simply too small to firmly state that. Final season, Dubravka didn’t all the time impress along with his shot stopping.
The extra obtrusive distinction between the 2 keepers is their confidence off the goal-line. Pope may be very aggressive in his positioning when now we have the ball, which suggests he is ready to come off his line and sweep up any lengthy balls performed by the opposition workforce. He averages 1.94 defensive actions outdoors of his penalty space per ninety minutes, rating him within the high 10% of goalkeepers on the earth. In the meantime, Dubravka averages 0.9 on the identical metric, inserting him within the backside 50% of keepers.
Given the dearth of tempo now we have in our defence, it is very important have a keeper in a position to sweep behind them if we’re to efficiently play a excessive line. Anthony Elanga’s risk within the recreation away to Nottingham Forest final season confirmed the issues attributable to Dubravka after we play a excessive line.
In the summertime, it could make sense to recruit a brand new goalkeeper, who may present one of the best traits of each Pope and Dubravka. In an excellent world, we want a primary who is an effective shot stopper, snug off his line to comb and in a position to distribute the ball successfully.
For Eddie Howe, he wants to choose his poison with the primary place, as Pope isn’t good with the ball at his ft, whereas Dubravka isn’t snug off his line.
It has been a wonderful run of kind for Dubravka and it has improved his standing inside the fan-base. After a few of his feedback in recent times and his resolution to affix Manchester United on mortgage, that relationship had been considerably soured. Now, he’ll go away the membership with everybody’s greatest needs and he ought to be remembered as an excellent goalkeeper for this membership in a troublesome interval. In the course of the Steve Bruce period, he earned the membership plenty of factors and helped maintain us within the league.
Nonetheless, given his age and contract scenario, we ought to be trying to money in on him this month. He turns 36 this month and if now we have the chance to get a charge for him, we should always take it. It’s unlikely to remodel our PSR scenario, however each little helps and we may extract the next charge given his latest kind and new squad standing with Pope injured.
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