Falling down a Mike Penders rabbit hole
Learn about the Belgian's Manuel Neuer impression and Milton Delgado's Platformer clinic
Welcome to the second edition of The Rabbit Hole.
This newsletter is collection of single-game stat leaders from the latest week of football. But beware: I will explore any tangent I feel is interesting and pull at every single thread until I have exhausted all potential insight.
- Why Manuel Neuer would be proud of Mike Penders' heat map
- Milton Delgado completes millions of passes as a Platformer
- Addressing Les Éléphants in the room
To start things off this week, we’re diving straight into a goalkeeper rabbit hole.
This Mike Pender’s heat map looks different.
It’s rare to see a greater concentration of events outside the area. Events can spill out, but it’s usually exactly that: a spill, a leak. This is a ball of fire. I had to investigate.
The BlueCo Belgian saved a penalty in spite of Strasbourg’s last-minute defeat to Olympique Lyonnais but only made three saves overall. Usually, goalkeepers stand out for their superhuman shot-stopping, like Guglielmo Vicario against Monaco. His heat map follows the usual pattern: the nucleus is inside the penalty area.
My theory was that the reason Penders’ heat map looks more like a centre-back’s is because of the volume of passes, their (lack of) length, the number of Defensive Actions Outside of the Penalty Area and the Average Distance of those actions from goal.
First, let’s deal with the passes. Penders completed 49 passes against Lyon, one of 31 instances of a goalkeeper completing 45+ in a Big Five League game this season. When sorting those by ascending Average Pass Length, Penders was one of two goalkeepers to appear in the top 10 twice, alongside Metz’s Jonathan Fischer.
