Monday 13 November 2017

Begovic is almost as busy as Fabianski

I have no doubt that Asmir Begovic has been improving in the last few games and one look at the Premier League stats shows that he is now second, behind Swansea's Lukasz Fabianski, in the number of saves he has made this season.
Begovic has to keep his high standard up now.
I'm in two-minds as to whether I really want to see Begovic so high up in such stats, as while it is great that he has been making saves it would be rather nice if he was getting so well protected that he wasn't having to make many saves. But the Cherries have been better than most in getting their blocks in and I'd argue a good deal of them have been made by Nathan Aké and Steve Cook in the heart of the defence.

Begovic has kept his hands warm with the amount of saves he has been making.
They do say a good goalkeeper will save a team 10-15 points a season and on such a basis I would say that Begovic is already about six points along that scale, but I would put a few other keepers ahead of him in the best keeper stakes in the Premier League.

The best saves that Begovic has been making have been from distance shots which gives me hope that he can do well against Huddersfield who have scored a few from outside the box this season, even if not as many as the Cherries. A lot of the goals that Bournemouth have conceded have been from close range, whether you look at Everton and the Niasse impact or Diouf's consolation goal for Stoke. That might indicate that the Cherries are not doing so well at cutting out crosses or defending them when they do come int the box.

I like to see Begovic come for crosses. He did miss a punch in the Newcastle game, but when he is decisive it does put strikers off and that's often good enough when keepers don't get a clear clearance in. Pleasingly Begovic hasn't had to face any penalties yet, although he may well have been lucky to get away with that in the match against Stoke City.

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