David De Gea won the 2022/2023 English Premier League Golden Glove award for the second time in his 12-year career at Manchester United, ending the season with an impressive 17 clean sheets compared to his nearest rivals with 14 ( Nick Pope, Alisson Becker and Aaron Ramsdale). This coveted award I would imagine is the award that most ambitious goalkeepers would be proud of to add to their achievements. It is meant to be a symbolic relic that defies one as the best goalkeeper in the league for the season. An accomplishment derived from the dedication of the mental and physical hard work rigorously deployed pre-season but there is a burning question regarding the authenticity of what Golden Glove award represents.. What is the Golden Glove Award?

A quick search will give you a comprehensive accurate statement that the Golden Glove award is based on the performance and overall excellence of the goalkeeper throughout a tournament. How this is determined consists of experts (notably from goalkeeping backgrounds), tournaments organisers, data statistics/analytic technicians that work with a list of criteria that has to be met such as saves made, clean sheets kept, and the overall impact and influence of game play that goalkeeper had on team performance. Crucially, its recognition is focused on the goalkeepers’ outstanding contributions and skillset to prevent goals and make crucial saves that can significantly impact games. With this comprehensive description of what the Golden Glove award entails, does the Premier League award sponsored by Castrol oil petroleum match the criteria? The short answer is no. The only criteria required to win the coveted award is to accumulate the highest number of clean sheets during the course of the season, and for a prestigious league to base their decision solely on one criteria is a travesty to what the award represents and the goalkeepers of the league. I am actually perplexed that no one has raised any concerns in the professional game and the current associated institutions about the imbalance and absurdity of the current system. Let us be clear about this issue, to continue with the current system is to keep feeding the ever growing distortion of reality with overt illusions, which only serve to devalue the true nature and substance of the art of goalkeeping.

These are my findings to support the arguments which I am complied to share for your discernment.. These are statistics from the Squawka the football data mining website: –

Golden Glove standings: Most Premier League clean sheets 2022/23 | EPL 

Golden Glove Standings: Most Premier League saves 2022/23 | EPL 

Players with the same amount of clean sheets are ranked by fewer minutes played. Stats correct as of 19:30, 28/05/23. 

As one can see, we have two separate tables that are meant to reflect the criteria in deciding which goalkeeper wins the Premier League award. Immediately, we are confronted with a number of questions namely: –

• Incomplete information based on just two criteria as part of the requirement
• The lack of information on the process of combining the two tables that defies the winner
• The lack of analytic metrics to aid a holistic process in substantiating the uniqueness of the award. 

Anyone who is an ambassador for advancement and innovation would agree that the time has come for a comprehensive revision on the current system. It is without doubt that the system is totally unbalanced and does not, in any shape or form, qualify the winner as the best goalkeeper for the duration of the season. We have to be aware that the current system is based on one criterion.. clean sheets. Clean sheets are successfully achieved through the defensive unit, and  although arguments can be made in favour of the goalkeeper being responsible for orchestrating the unit, the opposite can also apply. For instance, a goalkeeper can easily keep a clean sheet by having little or next to nothing in a game because of weak opposition or the goalkeeper can have a horrible day in the office with his defensive unit constantly bailing him/her out. Does that make the goalkeeper exceptional for keeping a clean sheet? Mind you, these situations are not uncommon in the Premier league, especially in the case of the current winner of the Golden Glove award. He had, at best, an average season, and his overall performance and shot stopping technical ability have been on a steady decline for the past six seasons. This is an opinion through observation. For instance, when we take a look at the Saves Table Section, David De Gea comes in 7th with 101 saves. David Raya of Brentford FC comes in 1st position with 154 saves. Although the data, published with incomplete information in relation to the degree of difficulty of saves, we can generally conclude with certainty that Raya made 50% + more saves than De Gea. Arguments can be made that Brentford FC will generally be more under pressure than Manchester United over the course of the season but I must point out that the two clubs met twice in the season, home and away results indicating Brentford FC 4 – Manchester United 0, and Manchester United 1 – Brentford FC 0 . Straight off the bat one can easily tell which of the goalkeepers had it tough and De Gea’s performance in the 4-0 defeat was shocking and embarrassing to say the least. Yet he won the coveted Golden Glove award as the best goalkeeper of the season, on the basis of keeping the highest amount of clean sheets. This isn’t progression holistically of the art but stagnation leading to regression if we refuse acknowledge the obvious discrepancies between the definition and our misguided perception  of the Golden Glove award. 

Rational Proposition

It goes without saying that in order for the prestigious Premier League Golden Glove  Award to be valued according to the stipulated definition of its relevance, there must be an overhaul of the system. The complexity of the goalkeeper skillsets and the consistency of application requires a system or criteria that is robust and measurable with statistical and analytical requirements with the  aim to attain a particular objective, like Optimal Game Theory. Statistical and analytical data must be incorporated in the revised system to accurately determine the merits of the Golden Glove award, and these data are already available through data mining organisations like Squawka, Analytics FC, StatsBomb, VentureRadar and many more plus new companies that are still in development. Moreover, it is important to note even though statistical and analytical data are important, they differ in terms of definition of a nature that I will explain in my next blog. Furthermore, a software for gathering specific data that incorporates a point scoring system of addition and subtraction in certain disciplines of the art can be of great use. This is just an example of my opinion and I believe there are other methods that can be explored.

In today’s modern game, it’s hard to believe with all the technology that is readily available for advancement, the Premier League is yet to recognise the deficiency in the outdated system that creates a false reality. On social media were football fans gather to share their thoughts and camadaries, majority of them will dismiss David De Gea as the best goalkeeper for the 2022/2023 Premier League season. Among goalkeepers, goalkeeper fanatics or/and anyone associated with the love of goalkeeping, the verdict is even more damning. If you were to ask for my opinion, I would say that he would be in the mix of the bottom table of the league based on his performance this season if we include statistical and analytical data into the mix.

 

Conclusion

The importance of this subject cannot be ignored because there are many elements that are attached to this prestigious award that goalkeepers vie for. Valuation is one of the primary driving force, and this subjective term is in three parts namely: –

• The achievement of personal growth and development through congruent goal setting from which the team benefits from
• The return on investment for the club that stands to elevate the price valuation of the goalkeeper that is justifiable
• The importance of having a Golden Glove Award winner in a club with established goals of winning championships and trophies.

Also it declares unanimously who the best goalkeeper for the season is, plus it lays down the foundation of requirements for the rest of the goalkeepers in the league to emulate, knowing that keeping clean sheets isn’t the standard. It’s all about the holistic individual performance through the duration of the season. This will in turn incentivise the goalkeepers to challenge their own current abilities to better themselves by adding value because if we want to be honest with ourselves, the quality of goalkeeping hasn’t evolved in comparison to our counterparts, the outfield players. If the Golden Glove Award continues to be decided based on the number of clean sheets kept, then there isn’t any desire for goalkeepers to create an optimal game theory plan to challenge themselves.  Lastly, the younger generation of goalkeepers stand to lose perspective of what constitutes an award winning goalkeeper, which is unfortunately obscured with incomplete information, a product of illusion.

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