Falling down a Mike Penders rabbit hole
Learn about the Belgian's Manuel Neuer impression and Milton Delgado's Platformer clinic
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This Mike Pender’s heat map looks different.
It’s rare to see a greater concentration of events outside the area. Events can spill out, but it’s usually exactly that: a spill, a leak. This is a ball of fire. I had to investigate.
The BlueCo Belgian saved a penalty in spite of Strasbourg’s last-minute defeat to Olympique Lyonnais but only made three saves overall. Usually, goalkeepers stand out for their superhuman shot-stopping, like Guglielmo Vicario against Monaco. His heat map follows the usual pattern: the nucleus is inside the penalty area.
My theory was that the reason Penders’ heat map looks more like a centre-back’s is because of the volume of passes, their (lack of) length, the number of Defensive Actions Outside of the Penalty Area and the Average Distance of those actions from goal.
First, let’s deal with the passes. Penders completed 49 passes against Lyon, one of 31 instances of a goalkeeper completing 45+ in a Big Five League game this season. When sorting those by ascending Average Pass Length, Penders was one of two goalkeepers to appear in the top 10 twice, alongside Metz’s Jonathan Fischer.
Liam Rosenoir clearly instructs his goalkeeper to play out from the back and has not yet succumbed to the evils of going long. To be clear, that’s sarcastic. Being effective is never evil. But even Pender’s display against Lyon saw him crank up the Launch % (Passes longer than 40 yards, excluding goal kicks). He is the only player in our top 10 to go above 20%.
Of course, this could have been influenced by any passes that followed Lyon’s 90+1’ go-ahead goal. Especially considering that Penders holds the number one spot for shortest Average Pass Length.
So, this was not Penders’ most extreme passing display. And if I show you Yvon Mvogo’s heat map from his flawless 51/51 Passes Completed at the weekend, you’ll see that lots of passes is not the only reason why Penders’ heat map must've caught my attention.
Penders made 5 Defensive Actions Outside of the Penalty Area (#OPA) against Lyon, one of 40 instances across Europe’s Big Five Leagues this season. When sorting those by the Average Distance from Goal, the Belgian’s 20.4 yards ranks him 26th. In the context of all goalkeepers, it was nothing super spectacular. But it was in an individual context.
This tally did not just represent Penders’ personal best for Defensive Actions Outside the Penalty Area (#OPA) across his league career, it was the first time he’s recorded more than two in a single match. In fact, Penders has only recorded a #OPA in nine of this 72 league games on the Stathead database, which includes all of his appearances for Jong Genk in the Challenger Pro League. This was unchartered territory for the young ‘keeper.
Although it was an anomalous display for Penders, it still doesn’t explain why I was hypnotised by his heat map. Until we consider in conjunction with the passing. Here are the big boy stats.
It doesn't stop there.
Since the start of of the 2017/18 season, it’s happened in 51 different games across Europe’s Big Five Leagues; Mike Penders is the only goalkeeper under the age of 24 on that list. The only goalkeepers to feature on it for 3+ games are: Alisson Becker, Ederson Moraes, Manuel Riemann, and the name you were waiting to see: Manuel Neuer.
Neuer is the only goalkeeper to record this statline in more than three different games. He has NINE (!!!) on record. It looks like we have discovered the quintessential statline for the Sweeper Keeper, endorsed by the original himself.
Of course I had to take a look at what these Neuer heat maps looked liked…
Let’s see how many Penders can rack up in his career.
