We've taken a look at the stats from Sunderland's two goalkeepers this season.
After a short injury lay-off, Robin Roefs returned to the Sunderland starting line-up for Sunday’s 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur.
One of the Premier League signings of the season, the Dutch goalkeeper picked up exactly where he left off, making seven saves and preventing 1.82 goals (per FotMob), to help the Black Cats pick up all three points. That also delivered his ninth Premier League clean sheet of the season.
Of course, Sunderland didn’t exactly cope terribly without Roefs, with January signing Melker Ellborg coming in for four games across all competitions, keeping one clean sheet and conceding just three goals to help the Mackems beat Leeds United and Newcastle United - though they lost to Port Vale in the FA Cup and Brighton in the league (both 1-0). Roefs will undoubtedly man the posts again when Sunderland travel to Aston Villa this Sunday, but should Ellborg feel a little hard done by? Let’s take a look at how the two compare in the Premier League.
Robin Roefs vs Melker Ellborg
Stat (per 90) Robin Roefs Melker Ellborg
Goals conceded 1.17 0.67
Clean sheets 0.31 0.33
Saves 3.17 3.33
Save percentage 73% 83.3%
Goals prevented 0.08 0.20
Errors leading to goals 0.07 0.00
High claims 1.59 0.00
Sweeper keeper actions 0.31 0.33
Successful passes 24.8 15.3
Pass completion 63.8% 46.9%
Accurate long passes 5.79 4.33
Long pass completion 29.3% 20.3%
Perhaps surprisingly, it’s Ellborg who comes out on top in most core goalkeeping stats. The Sweden youth international outperforms his counterpart when it comes to stats like goals conceded, saves, goals prevented and clean sheets per 90 minutes, though it’s very important to remember that his sample size is far smaller than that of Roefs and undoubtedly has a major influence on the numbers.
And where Roefs really does stand out is with his passing numbers, far outperforming Ellborg’s long and short game, with Sunderland’s back-up goalkeeper seemingly tasked with keeping things a little more simple.
Ultimately, the margins between Sunderland’s two goalkeepers are very thin, and the Black Cats know from the evidence of the last month-and-a-half that they have someone in Ellborg who can step in more than competently when Roefs is unavailable, while the Dutchman will be well aware that his standards cannot slip.
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