Return of the Top Defenses of the Top 5 Leagues 2014-2015 (stats)

free_cat wrote:Is Yann Sommer the best GK in the world? Is he better than Ter Stegen...?

Well, some people in the Borussia M'gladbach forum certainly believe so. At first they were in total panic when they heard that MAtS was leaving, but by now the consensus is that Yann Sommer did not only completely replace him as shot-stopper, but he is somawhat better footballing-wise and he makes less mistakes.

Squawka thinks he's not bad either: http://tinyurl.com/top5gks-20150503

What about his feet play? Is he as good as Ter stegen?

Got to say that Ter Stegen is younger and far from a finished product. Do you think his potential is higher than Sommers?

free_cat wrote:What about his feet play? Is he as good as Ter stegen?

Better than Marc-André ter Stegen was for Gladbach in the last seasons. I can't really judge MAtS this season as I didn't see him for the full match lengths for Barca, although I heard he has improved considerably compared to his Gladbach days.

free_cat wrote:Got to say that Ter Stegen is younger and far from a finished product. Do you think his potential is higher than Sommers?

Hm. Good question. I'm not really keen on trying to judge potential as this is very theoretical. Due to MAtS' youth, he might get even better, of course, but then, there are already fresh GK youngsters in Germany that have a supposedly even greater talent than MAtS or Bernd Leno - but one can never say whether they will really fulfill this projected ceiling.

By the way, a very interesting thing is that GoalImpact (which is a statistical tool that evaluates how much a player is involved in getting his team a better goal difference and that also takes into account the other players playing at the same moment and a lot of further data) currently lists Yann Sommer with a GI of 150, which is the second highest GoalImpact after Manuel Neuer in the BL and which confirms my above observation that it is indeed very much Sommer who is responsible for the development of the defensive records of Basel and Gladbach, respectively.

Nr.1 in general: http://www.ligainsider.de/manuel-neuer_114/
Nr.2 in the BL: http://www.ligainsider.de/yann-sommer_2577/
GoalImpact and how it works: http://www.goalimpact.com/p/faq.html
GoalImpact Algorithm: http://www.goalimpact.com/p/blog-page.html

By the way, here is the website where you can find the GIs of Premier League players: http://www.premierinsider.co.uk/

11th in Serie A, but still part of the top 50 best defenses in the top 5 leagues.

Form is temporary, class is permanent (:

Barca: 0.60
Juventus: 0.62
Bayern: 0.71
Atletico: 0.78
Chelsea: 0.81
Real Madrid: 0.90
PSG: 0.93
Arsenal: 0.98
Manchester United: 1.02
Manchester City: 1.14

Even more impressive when you consider that Barca played PSG in the group stages of the CL and then City, PSG again, Bayern in the knockout rounds and some toughies even in the Copa del Rey (Villarreal and Atletico). Not only the best attack in the world but also best defense

Obviously Barca don't have the best "defense" but definitely the best defensive system: pressing + possession + opponents can't commit too many men forward and leave space behind against Barca's front three if they don't want to get rekt. Individually Pique and Alves stepped it up and the goalkeepers have been great and Rakitic and Iniesta have sacrificed their games for some serious hustling. Mascherano and Alba are improveable (even though I don't have clue who aside from Alaba, who is not getable, would be a serious upgrade on Alba, fullback position is lacking these days).

Bayern have the best back 4: Alaba-Boateng-Benatia-Lahm with Neuer behind them. Fortunately agent Pep turned Lahm into an average midfielder, moved Bayern's defensive line 70 meter further forward and Alaba doesn't want to be a fullback anymore (Boateng probably doesn't want to be a defender anymore either after what Messi did to him, Pep can turn him into a midfielder now ). So there is that.