Yassine Bounou of Morocco and Dominik Livakovic have been two of the best goalkeepers at the World cup and the argument about who has been the better of the two goalies is ongoing.
This shall be nothing but the truth as I shall be telling who has been the standout goalkeeper among the duo courtesy of stats from my friends at Fbref.com.
While Bounou holds the record for the most clean sheets at the World cup, it is Livakovic that has been the busier of the two goalkeepers and he has been the better goalkeeper of the two goalkeepers.
How?
Bounou has faced only 9 shots since the start of the tournament which is down to the defensive doggedness and compactness of Morocco. It also explains why Morocco has the lowest expected goals against in the tournament.
Expected goals against metric measures the quality of chances a team has given up to the opponent and stats have it that Morocco has given up the least quality chances so far.
Livakovic on the other hand has faced 22 shots which is 13 more than Bounou which is just the tip of the iceberg.
Statistics show that Livakovic have also faced more difficult chances than Bounou and he has also prevented more goals than he or any other goalkeeper in the tournament.
You might want to ask how did they come to that conclusion?
Well, there is a metric called post shot xG which measures the quality of a shot, the difference between a goalkeeper’s post shot xG and the actual goals conceded will tell you how good a shot stopper the goalkeeper is.
It is therefore unsurprising that Livakovic has a save percentage of 86% which is the second-joint best at this World Cup and the highest of any goalkeeper to have faced more than 10 shots.
We should not also forget that Livakovic holds the record for most saves made in a single game at this World cup with the 11 saves he recorded against Brazil.
In addition, Dinamo Zagreb’s goalkeeper has not only proven that he is a good shot-stopper but also proven how well he is when on penalty duties.
He has been involved in two penalty shoot-outs where he has saved 4 penalties, 3 against Japan and one against Brazil. He is an all-around shot-stopper.
Conclusively, while Bounou has done well for Morocco, it is Livakovic that has been the standout goalkeeper not only between them but also among the other goalkeepers at the World cup so far. He merits the Fifa World cup Golden glove as it stands more than anyone.
Discussion about this post