I know it's fashionable to blame everyone's favourite scapegoat for every single goal that goes past him, but here's another example of him getting blamed for something that was not his fault. Despite the one touch, bang, clinical finish, the goal was OFFSIDE ffs. If the lino does his job, there is no problem. Blame him instead.
Bar that lino mistake, he has kept a clean sheet against them for 5 hours already this season. Not bad for someone who is apparently, a basket case. The "best keeper in the league" let in two in half an hour against them this season.
Perspective.
Here's some perspective for you by way of stats. Let's look at where in the league he ranks on saves per match. When the opposition attackers get through the back line, you need your keeper to be pulling off saves so it's a truer indicator of a keeper's ability rather than the defensive line in front of him which distorts clean sheets.
Saves made per match:
Davis - 5.00
Krull - 4.13
Foster - 4.00
Mannone - 3.80
Butland - 3.61
Cech - 3.39
Howard - 3.39
AdriƔn - 3.36
Guzan - 3.25
Gomez - 2.87
Courtois - 2.75
Schmeichel - 2.74
Ruddy - 2.71
Fabianski - 2.70
De Gea - 2.68
Lloris - 2.55
Boruc - 2.44
Hart - 2.29
Mignolet - 2.00
For some reason there are no stats available for Julian Speroni.
So when actually called upon to make a save, Mignolet is the worst keeper in the league by some distance. Sure the worse your defence, the more shots your keeper will face so is our defence any worse than any other top teams? Not according to the stats, we're pretty much on par with most of them. Arsenal, for example, have the best goal difference in the league but have made almost the same amount of clearances as we have, it's just that Cech makes more saves. I accept this isn't a sole indicator of his ability but we know he's sh*te at distribution because we've all seen it with our own eyes, we know he doesn't command his area because we've watched him stand there mute in game after game, we know he dithers because even in the first half against Stoke, he'd come out then change his mind and go back on his line leaving his defenders wondering what the F**k he's actually doing.
So yeah, perspective when viewed through the lense of official Premier League statistics is quite telling indeed. The Mong is sh*t and needs to be gone, or at least reduced to a second choice Goalkeeper and until he does, we will continue being an embarrassment at the back.
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