Fantasy Football group stage lessons: Goalkeepers
Monday, January 27, 2020
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UEFA.com delves into the numbers and finds home advantage did not always help goalkeepers deliver big points.
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With the round of 16 looming large on the horizon, UEFA.com looks at the numbers for the group stage and find home advantage did not always pay off as far as goalkeepers are concerned.
Across the whole of this season's group stage, there was a surprisingly even distribution of clean sheets. Of the 48 overall, 25 came from teams playing at home while away sides accounted for 23 shutouts. Therefore, targeting those playing on home turf on Matchday 7 – when the round of 16 first legs take place – is not necessarily the most productive approach.
With Paris keeping five clean sheets in Group A, the highest scoring #UCLfantasy goalkeeper was Keylor Navas (€5.7m), who brought in 34 points – seven more than any other goalkeeper – despite missing the 5-0 win at home to Galatasaray on Matchday 6. Paris's next opponents are Borussia Dortmund who, of the teams still involved in the competition, scored the joint-fewest goals in the group stage (8).
Sharing that mantle are Atlético and Atalanta, so their opponents over the next two matchdays – Liverpool and Valencia respectively – are worth considering for their clean sheet potential. Liverpool's Alisson (€5.7m) missed the first two matchdays through injury and has dropped 0.3m in value largely as a result of that, but with Jürgen Klopp's men having recently kept seven successive clean sheets in the Premier League, the Brazilian goalkeeper is definitely one to consider going forward.