So here are two guys who will have a massive tug-of-war for the slot of the national team goalkeeper for Brazil, and also I suspect for the Premier League trophy – for the next decade, I think. Interesting. But who among them should we pick for our FPL team?
In all honesty, there’s little to choose from a goalkeeping standpoint. Both LIV and MCY will keep a lot of clean sheets this season. You can pick either one and forget about the slot.
However, here’s one other definite reason to choose one over the other…. assists. Now before you go all ‘C’mon Baganboy, it was just one freak assist last match‘ on me, here’s something I have pieced together from a couple of videos, and which just got confirmed through a graphic that I received in the morning from the http://fantasyfootballfix.com/ website’s twitter feed (@FantasyFootyfix ). This will tell you more about why I think one is substantially better than other from an FPL PoV.
See the passing range and distribution of the two. First Alisson.
What did you see?
Alisson passed out a lot to the deep-lying midfielders, and to the wingers and wing-backs (the green lines). There are fewer direct passes up top and through the middle (i.e. the red lines)- and if I am not wrong, the longer passes would be more for springing counter attacks.
This is also realistic because a) Firmino, the nominal center-forward for LIV plays in a withdrawn forward / false-9 role. His chief responsibility is to bring others into play. b) Salah and Mane are Inside Forwards who prefer cutting in from deep. So that means IMHO that the assist potential of Allison would get realized only in a situation similar to Mane’s goal from the GW2 match against CPL in the last minute – Alisson could pass long to release Mane / Salah to counterattack to score a goal.
Chances? Few. Similar to those of Ederson last season.
Now let’s go to that man, Ederson.
With Ederson however, we find MCY taking a slightly different approach this season. You see that there are a lot of direct long passes through the middle. Remember, MCY plays with pure forwards in the shape of Aguero or Jesus, whose primary job is indeed to score goals. The above images do indeed show that.
How are they achieving it, though? In normal play, the middle of the pitch is congested. Indeed, last season, Ederson excelled in the short pass to Fernandinho or KDB. What changed this season? The video below will give a hint.
It’s a crazy sight! The MCY players have moved en-masse to the wings, the HUD players have followed – and this has resulted in a clear path being opened up for Ederson to pass long to the forward, Aguero. Which is what he did with the goal for Aguero. This is a strategic ploy that is being used by MCY; and Ederson is truly being used as an attacking weapon. Something he is well capable of.
A goalkeeper with (one of) the the best defensive team(s), who is a monster at saving penalties, and who is also an attacking threat. That is quite crazy. Ederson might make 5.5M really look like a bargain…
Sporting thoughts and otherwise ... 