The background
- Multiple sources have reported that Chelsea are interested in signing Rennes goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.
- The player is 28 years old and has spent his entire career in France in both Ligue 1 and Ligue 2.
- He would be available for a fee in the region of £20M.
The basic stats and strengths
- Since the beginning of the 2018/19 campaign, only Lille goalkeeper Mike Maignan has kept more clean sheets than Mendy (23) in Ligue 1.
- Of goalkeepers with at least 30 appearances in that time, only Walter Benitez (77.2 per cent) has a better save success rate than Mendy (73.5 per cent).
- The Senegal international has an average career save success rate of 76 per cent and is 6'4" tall.
- He is a decent passer of the ball but that's not his biggest strength - it is his shot-stopping ability.
- Mendy is a great shot-stopper whose reflexes are superb and one of his strengths is saving shots from outside the box, which he can reach faster thanks to his reactions and his reach.
The advanced stats
Before we delve into the advanced stats of a goalkeeper, there are a few terms we must understand first.
- Expected goals conceded - Also known as Post-Shot expected goals, this takes into account the quality of the shots a goalkeeper faces and how many goals he is expected to concede across the season, based on his positioning and other relevant factors.
- GSAA - Goals Saved Above Average means that given the shots a certain keeper faced, how well he fared in terms of what he conceded and what he was expected to concede. If the value is positive, it suggests that the keeper has good shot-saving ability.
- Claim activity - This stat describes how good a keeper is in terms of claiming crosses or coming ahead of his goal in time to stop a potential threat.
In the image below (taken from FootballSlices), we have Mendy's advanced stats depicted during his past two seasons in Ligue 1.
As you can see, his GSAA is pretty high as compared to goalkeepers across the top-5 leagues. With 2.85 per cent, what this means is that Mendy ranks positively and above average when it comes to saving more goals than he was expected to concede.
His launched pass completion rate (passes more than 40 yards) is also great, and he stops 8.59 per cent of the crosses coming into his box - also quite good.
Now, let's see how he compares with Kepa Arrizabalaga over the past 2 seasons (Kepa's stats are highlighted in black).
It is quite clear to see the difference in the two keepers - while Kepa boasts of a better passing rate, his shot-stopping ability is one of the worst in the world and he is not as confident or dominant when it comes to claiming crosses into his box.
In fact, to compare Mendy and Kepa based on purely shot-stopping ability would not even be fair to the current Chelsea goalkeeper, who seems to have forgotten how to save a shot!
Here are some other numbers where the disparity becomes quite clear.
- Mendy has a positive Post-Shot xG of +1.7 last season and +4.6 the season before that - Kepa had a horrendous -9.6 Post-Shot xG last season, which suggests that he let in almost 10 more goals than he should have!
- Kepa has conceded 14 goals from free-kicks the last 2 seasons, compared to only the 2 that Mendy has.
- Mendy stops over 10 per cent of the crosses coming into his box the past 2 seasons, as compared to Kepa's 7 per cent.
- Last season, even Kepa's launch per cent dipped. Not counting goal kicks, he completed only 28 per cent of his throws and passes, as compared to Mendy's 47 per cent!
Conclusions
- Mendy is a better shot-stopper than Kepa and he is more dominant in his own box when it comes to claiming crosses.
- He is not as good at launching the ball from goal-kicks, but he fares better when we speak of passes and throws.
- He is 28 years old so he won't be the best long-term solution to the goalkeeping issue Lampard faces, but he is at his peak right now and can easily start over Kepa.
