by theHotHead » Mon Oct 19, 2020 11:30 am
Well when people refuse to face reality let stats help them see the truth.
2020/21 season
Emiliano Martinez - 4 games, 3 clean sheets, 4 wins, 14 saves, 2 goals conceded, 0 punches, 5 high claims, 3 catches.
Berndt Leno - 5 games, 1 clean sheet, 3 wins, 14 saves, 6 goals conceded, 0 punches, 2 high claims, 2 catches.
Lets check last season
Emiliano Martinez - 9 games, 3 clean sheets, 5 wins, 34 saves, 9 goals conceded, 1 punch, 8 high claims, 4 catches.
Berndt Leno - 30 games, 7 clean sheets, 9 wins, 113 saves, 39 goals conceded, 17 punches, 17 high claims, 11 catches.
Now, consider in the 2020/21 season, Martinez is playing for Aston Villa, a team that stayed up through the skin of their teeth last season, there is no argument that he is playing behind worse quality players than us, his stats are convincingly better than Leno's. During last season the stats bear EXACTLY THE SAME data, that Martinez gets more clean sheets, the team therefore wins more games, made roughly the same number of saves as Leno, concedes fewer goals, punches the ball far far less and is much more dominant in the air, as seen by the number of high claims (all relative to Leno's numbers).
Why is this even an argument, Martinez is comfortably out-performing Leno. I understand the argument for keeping Leno and for selling Martinez, the fact it funded the Partey purchase justifies it. But don't try to make out Leno is on a par with Martinez - or better than him, that argument doesn't wash.