Goalkeeper Georgi Petkov concedes least goals per minute

One of the most important aspects of the goalkeepers game is to keep the ball out of the net…did I just say that? Well of course. I think I mentioned it before in some previous posts, where my old goalkeeper trainer Steve Watson (whilst I trained in the reserve team of Sydney United, Australia) said, “I don’t care how you [expletive] keep the ball out of the net…just keep it out!” With that in mind, feet, head, arms and hands…whatever your chosen poison, just keep the ball out of the net is the mantra for most goalkeepers around the globe.

I’m not a statistical person, but the good people at IM Scouting are, and recently they created a special report on goalkeepers from around Europe whom have conceded the least goals per minute. It’s interesting stuff. Here are the results from their findings:

(Image courtesy of IM Scouting, 2009).

It’s interesting to see Georgi Petkov of Levski Sofia (Bulgaria) has conceded just one goal over 810 minutes in goal. Though in the Premiership, goalkeepers such as van der Sar and Reina, both considered to be two of the very best in the Premiership and the world have conceded 8 and 12 goals over 1742 and 1980 minutes respectively.

So does Petkov have one up on van der Sar and Reina? Not really. Both van der Sar and Reina have phenomenal command of their area, I think that the amount of games played in the Premiership compared to other regions of the world will also translate into more goals over a period of time.

It actually shows just how well van der Sar and Reina can keep the ball out of the back of the net over the season. Petkov’s ability to command his defence [he is the captain of Levski Sofia for the 2008/09 season], has enabled him to top the charts as Europe’s best goalkeeper when it comes to keeping the ball out of the back of the net amongst some of the best in the business.

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