Last January, Remko Pasveer announced his return to Heracles Almelo. He is (unsuccessfully) trying to save his former club from relegation, which might be his final challenge before potentially retiring after this season.
Coincidentally, a few days after his transfer, I came across his incredible 21/22 season at Ajax while working on my player evaluation research. The aim of this project is simple: turning raw Wyscout data into clear, interpretable football attributes.
When it comes to goalkeepers, the most sophisticated way to evaluate shot stopping is by comparing goals conceded to post-shot xG (PSxG). Converting this into a percentage of PSxG prevented shows that Pasveer’s 21/22 season was by far the best shot-stopping performance of any Eredivisie goalkeeper since the 18/19 season.
His Goal Prevention % was at least twice as high as every other goalkeeper's, except for Marco Bizot in 19/20. During that season, Bizot’s market value increased by over 50%. The former AZ keeper is now the back-up to a former Golden Glove winner at Aston Villa. That year, Bizot also led the second metric on my scatter plot: Clean Sheets Added.
Not every goal is worth the same. A crucial 90th-minute save to preserve a clean sheet can be worth up to 2 points; the difference between relegation and survival, or silverware and disappointment.
Using a Poisson Distribution, I estimated how many additional clean sheets goalkeepers kept above or below expectations, per 90 minutes.
The only other goalkeeper outperforming Pasveer in this metric is Joël Drommel this season. With a market value of just €2.5M, a move for the 29-year-old might be worth a shot this summer.