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[NSC] Robert Sanchez



DJ NOBO

Well-known member
Jul 18, 2004
6,751
Wiltshire
Watching a young Sanchez, the first impressions was he was going to be tall and athletic. By the time he went out on loan he would have been close to his ful height, but he was like a bean pole. The change in body shape is especially challenging for a goal keeper, as it affects your balance, so the odd mistake in this period is understandable.

Fast forward to this season and the Chelsea friendly was his lucky break in more than one way. Maty Ryan played the first half and Christian Walton started the second half and was expected to be Ryan's main challenge. Walton started nervously and after 10 minutes dithered with the ball at his feet, got tackled and bust his ankle.

Sanchez would not have been expecting to play that day, but came on as calm as you like and put in a confident performance.

I suspect the first time Ryan was dropped was a disciplinary matter, based on nothing other than speculation as to who the second player was involved in a training ground punch up. Would a fit Walton have got the nod that day? We will never know.

Playing an inexperienced keeper once is fine especially if you know he has already faced Man Utd (with Rochdale) and Chelsea and not been phased. The braver decision I think was giving him a run of games. It has paid of handsomely for Potter. If Sanchez suffers a dip in form, there is plenty of evidence now he is a bloody fine keeper and I think most fans will give him the space he needs to play himself back into form.

Sanchez is so obviously superior to Ryan, that you have to wonder why didn’t get in sooner.
I watched Ryan and thought - if they get it on target they score.
With Sanchez I think - whatever they do, they probably won’t score.
Top drawer keeper.
 




Machiavelli

Well-known member
Oct 11, 2013
17,511
Fiveways
So confident he will get over confident at some point and an error will happen.

Its the nature of being a keeper though, and I hope no one jumps all over him for it when it happens.

We still need to buy a keeper in the summer, it will be interesting to see what level we go for..

We won't be getting one that's better than Sanchez.
And he's already made one glaring error, which led to Leicester's late winner. I was expecting more than one glaring error in 21 games. He already looks like one of the PL's best keepers.
 


albionalex

Well-known member
Feb 26, 2009
4,728
Toronto
Posted these in another thread, but (more) relevant here as well:

Dropped Points comparison - Ryan vs Sanchez 2020/21

Classifying dropped points as being:

3 dropped = ahead, and then losing
2 dropped = ahead, and then drawing
1 dropped = behind, equalising, and then losing

Overall, our dropped points picture looks like this:

Dropped 3 points - 5 times
Ryan - 3
Sanchez - 2

Dropped 2 points - 3 times
Ryan - 0
Sanchez - 3

Dropped 1 point - 4 times
Ryan - 2
Sanchez - 2

Of Ryan's 11 matches, we had a lead in 5. Lost 3, Won 2. Conversion rate of a lead to a win of 40%, and overall from a position of leading with Ryan as keeper we only converted 1.2 ppg (6 points from a potential 15).

Of Sanchez's 21 matches, we had a lead in 10. Lost 2, Drawn 3, Won 5. Conversion rate of a lead to a win of 50%, and with Sanchez as keeper we converted at a rate of 1.8 ppg (18 points from a potential 30).

Overall, with Ryan we dropped on average 1 ppg. With Sanchez we've dropped just 0.67 ppg.

So Sanchez clearly ahead.

(Side observation: Bringing in Sanchez hasn't changed how often we find ourselves leading. It's only changed how often we actually score points from those situations.)


Clean Sheets (already mentioned in a Tweet earlier in thread)

Ryan - 18% of matches played (2 from 11)
Sanchez - 43% of matches played (9 from 21)

Sanchez ahead again.


Red Cards
With Ryan we had 3 in 11
With Sanchez 1 in 21

IMO probably indicative of increase confidence in the team - they don't feel as much of a need to make the desperate challenge to protect Sanchez that they did with Ryan.


Shots on target resulting in goals

OK, very rough comparison of Ryan and Sanchez this season (very rough because I'm only looking at how many shots on target, I've not got how many of those were blocked rather than saved by the keeper, and I've left a couple of own goals in which is probably unfair on the keepers):

Ryan
Faced 3.1 shots on target per match
Conceded 1.7 goals per match
Equates to 55.9% of shots on target resulting in a goal

Sanchez
Faced 3.3 shots on target per match
Conceded 0.9 goals per match
Equates to 27.1% of shots on target resulting in a goal

Few observations:

If Ryan faced a lot of shots on target, we also conceded heavily (eg Everton - 6 shots and 4 goals; Chelsea - 5 shots, 3 goals; Leicester - 6 and 3). Sanchez has been a lot more resilient in the face of a barrage (Man C - 6 shots, 1 goal; Spurs - 4 and 0; Burnley - 7 and 1; Man U - 7 and 2).

So again, Sanchez wins out by a significant margin.

Some really good observations here but 'shots on target resulting in a goal' is a bit simplistic.

If we look at post-shot expected goals (basically, how difficult of a shot it is), then Ryan, on average, has faced the hardest shots in the league (0.37). However, based on this, he has still conceded 3 more goals than 'expected' (which is quite a lot in 11 games). This is in contrast to last season where he saved 3 more goals than 'expected'.

This season, Sanchez has faced a post-shot xG of 0.30 (10th highest in the league) but has saved 3 more goals than 'expected'.

So it seems to be a pattern that when we give up shots, they are high quality scoring chances for the opposition.

But Sanchez has been a big upgrade from Ryan in saving those higher quality shots.
 


Machiavelli

Well-known member
Oct 11, 2013
17,511
Fiveways
Some good stuff in your post, but this bit is an overreach. The three red cards with MR in goal were an accidental reckless challenge by Bis when we were 3-0 up at Newcastle, a lunge by Dunk in Palace's penalty area in an attempt to get a late winner from a corner and a dive by Grealish that got Lamptey a second yellow. None of them follow the pattern you imply.

Like White's last night, all three occurred in the last few minutes of the game too.
 


Couldn't Be Hyypia

We've come a long long way together
NSC Patron
Nov 12, 2006
16,472
Near Dorchester, Dorset
Lot of interesting stuff in this thread. Clearly he's a very good keeper and at the start of his learning curve - so more to come one would expect.

Couple of extra observations - he tends to clear with a short pass under instruction from GP I assume, but when he does "put his laces through it", boy does he hit it a long way.

Second thing I've noticed is his hooked pass to the left back/left wing back position. He definitely wraps his foot round the ball to hook it out to his left. It's an effective ball played at pace which has tended to open that side up. But it does make me wince - if the oppo cotton on to that it's begging to be intercepted and they'd be clear on goal. One to vary more perhaps or at least telegraph less.
 




Cheeky Monkey

Well-known member
Jul 17, 2003
23,707
^ a couple of times last night he was almost caught out by being quickly closed down by Chelsea players as he dallied before kicking upfield.
 


dwayne

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
16,022
London
Sanchez is brilliant no doubt.

But Matt Ryan was abominable for over 2 seasons .... There were a few of us on here screaming for him to be removed. Replacing him was way overdue.

Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk
 


Milano

Well-known member
Aug 15, 2012
3,725
Sussex but not by the sea
^ a couple of times last night he was almost caught out by being quickly closed down by Chelsea players as he dallied before kicking upfield.

At no point last night was Bob remotely flustered or even close to being caught out. He’s more like a quarterback than a keeper, can kick short or long with either foot. Doesn’t seem to take stupid risks on the ball either, no silly drag backs. We will not keep hold of him long term.
 






albionalex

Well-known member
Feb 26, 2009
4,728
Toronto
Sanchez is brilliant no doubt.

But Matt Ryan was abominable for over 2 seasons .... There were a few of us on here screaming for him to be removed. Replacing him was way overdue.

Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk

Statistically this isn't true.

He performed pretty averagely over his previous 3 seasons (certainly wasn't abominable) and then this season dropped off pretty badly.

Not sure why people are trying to rewrite history as if he was as bad as Graeme Smith.
 


Boys 9d

Well-known member
Jan 3, 2012
1,840
Lancing
Matt Ryan was abominable for over 2 seasons .... There were a few of us on here screaming for him to be removed. Replacing him was way overdue.

Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk

Am I remembering correctly that his loss of form/ability coincided with his return from the World Cup?
 




dwayne

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
16,022
London
Am I remembering correctly that his loss of form/ability coincided with his return from the World Cup?
Yep that Fulham away game where we got pumped 4-2 or something a few years ago. Ryan looked like he was asleep.

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Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo

I believe in Joe Hendry
Oct 4, 2003
11,854
Great news for Bob and the club. Hopefully he’ll get a game in their warm up matches and the experience will be huge for him. What a brilliant season for the lad.
 


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