‘Goodnight, sweet prince’, I sobbed, as I read the news that Scott Carson was moving to Bursaspor for an ‘undisclosed fee’, suspected to be around £1.5m. I’m a self-confessed Carson-sympathiser, as I belated argued earlier this year and was genuinely saddened to see him go. Not that I thought he was spectacular, far from it, more out of pity than anything else. So off he goes and for a brief spell, West Brom’s number one has been Boaz Myhill, followed by our youth/reserve goalkeeper, Luke Daniels. Ben Foster and Robert Green had been on the horizon for a while, with Foster finally moving to the Hawthorns in a loan move on July 29th, amid Birmingham City’s financial woes. Using the worderful world of maths and statistics, I’m going to provide you with a direct comparison between Carson and Ben Foster in as much detail as I can muster.
Scott Carson |
Ben Foster |
|
Games Played |
32 |
38 |
Minutes Played |
2,880 |
3,371 |
Goals Conceded |
58 |
55 |
Per Game |
1.81 |
1.45 |
Total Saves |
49 |
93 |
Per Game |
1.53 |
2.45 |
Diving Saves (%) |
67.3% |
63.4% |
Diving Saves – Caught (%) |
27.3% |
28.9% |
Diving Saves – Parried (%) |
72.7% |
71.1% |
Standing Saves (%) |
32.7% |
36.6% |
Standing Saves – Caught (%) |
87.5% |
76.5% |
Standing Saves – Parried (%) |
12.5% |
23.5% |
Cross Catches |
33 |
61 |
Per Game |
1.03 |
1.61 |
Punches |
19 |
21 |
Per Game |
0.59 |
0.55 |
Errors leading to goal |
5 |
3 |
Per Game |
0.16 |
0.08 |
Total Passes |
915 |
1445 |
Accurate Passes (%) |
48.7% |
37.3% |
Passes in Open Play |
600 |
1036 |
Accurate Passes (%) |
47.8% |
37.9% |
Passes to the Wing |
202 |
237 |
Right Wing (%) |
60.0% |
50.2% |
Left Wing (%) |
40.0% |
49.8% |
Attacking Half Passes |
412 |
879 |
Accurate Attacking Half Passes |
131 |
227 |
Accurate Attacking Half Passes (%) |
31.8% |
25.8% |
As we can see here, Foster started 6 more games, consequently playing 491 more minutes, as Carson was dropped for 6 games for Boaz Myhill.
On first glance, the goals conceded by Carson and Foster are very similar but there is a large disparity between goals per game, Foster letting in 0.36 less per game, the equivalent to 13.7 goals over an entire season. However this doesn’t automatically make Foster classes above Carson as we need to consider that Birmingham City operated very defensively under McLeish, scoring only 37 goals compared to West Brom’s 56. Â This could be a testament to Birmingham’s relative defensive rigidity, if it wasn’t for the next stat.
Foster made almost double the amount of saves as Carson, which would in-fact suggest defensive frailty rather than prowess, an average of 2.45 saves per game compared to 1.53 for Carson, a staggering whole ‘save’ more. Their goalkeeping styles seem to vary, also, Foster having a tendency to parry more from a standing position but given the vastly greater number of saves, certainly suggests it’s more ability than circumstance. Again, if we look at how many crosses are caught by each player, Foster nearly doubles Carson’s total, suggesting a far greater positional awareness and perhaps also confidence.
However, both goalkeepers are not without fault, each making errors leading to a goal: Carson’s 5 to Foster’s 3.
Apart from shot-stopping, Carson’s main strength he was often praised for, is his distribution and the stats certainly back this claim up. Of total passes, almost half of Carson’s were accurate (49.8%) compared to 37.3% of Foster’s, the stat again repeats itself identically for passes just in open play, 47.8% compared to 37.9%. Interestingly, Carson’s right/left distribution suggests the intention of specifically finding Jerome Thomas or James Morrison. Foster’s are virtually evenly split, only a single pass separating his right/left distribution. Whilst Carson may be more accurate, it appears that Foster has a significantly longer kick, with more than double Carson’s kicks, ending up in the attacking half. Again, Carson is more accurate in this area but the sheer number of longer kicks by Foster means that over the season, he has found a team-mate 96 more times.
All-in-all these statistics certainly suggest that whilst Carson had his strengths in distribution, fundamentally Foster is a far better goalkeeper in terms of stopping the ball from going into the goal, which, obviously, is a goalkeeper’s main duty.
