The goalkeepers with the most clean sheets in the top five leagues in Europe

Whilst the best teams tend to have the best attacks, even top teams can't ignore the value of having a goalkeeper who regularly keeps clean sheets.

Every top team needs a reliable goalkeeper. England’s perennial title rivals in recent seasons have demonstrated this. A couple of huge errors from Loris Karius in the Champions League final in 2018 led to them bringing in Alisson from Roma, and they have won a string of trophies since, including the Champions League and Premier League. Meanwhile, Manchester City have been through a number of goalkeepers during Pep Guardiola’s time at the club, finally settling on a world-class performer in Ederson. 

In both cases, the two clubs paid mega fees for goalkeepers, as Alisson cost over £55million, whilst Ederson was £36million. Once upon a time, that kind of fee would have been unheard of for a goalkeeper but top teams now recognise the need for a world-class shot-stopper, as well as somebody who can aid them in build-up play.  

The shot-stopping side of things has become particularly important as the most dominant teams are often playing with very high defensive lines. This means that whilst they don’t give away many goalscoring opportunities, when their opponents do manage to spring an attack behind that line, they are able to fashion high-value opportunities, such as a one-on-ones with the goalkeeper. Considering how those opportunities are weighted towards the attacker, having an elite goalkeeper can make all the difference.  

There are several metrics used to judge a goalkeeper, including advanced ones such as ‘goals prevented’. This metric attempts to quantify how many goals a goalkeeper should conceded based on the quality of chances faced and how likely the shots were to go in. If a goalkeeper conceded fewer goals than their expectation, they are overperforming in the metric, which could suggest they are an elite shot-stopper, or it could mean that they will revert. 

The more basic metrics such as save % and total clean sheets are less fashionable in 2022 but they are still important. It must be kept in context that clean sheets are not just kept by a goalkeeper but also by a team that is defending as a whole but as so many football games can be decided by a single goal, having a goalkeeper who can regularly keep clean sheets makes a huge difference to a team’s overall performance in the league table.  

Here are the top performers in Europe’s top five leagues when it comes to clean sheets:  

 

Alisson - 20 

The Liverpool goalkeeper tops this chart, as he kept a clean sheet in over half of Liverpool’s league fixtures. The Brazilian conceded only 24 goals in the 36 Premier League appearances he made, meaning that he conceded at a rate of 0.66 goals per game.  

However, that was not enough to win Liverpool the title, as City retained their title by a single point.  

 

Ederson - 20 

Ederson was a key part of that, as he kept the same amount of clean sheets, but played one game more than his compatriot. He also conceded two more goals than Ederson. According to fbref, the City goalkeeper actually underperformed in terms of goals prevented though, conceding 2.2 goals more than expected, as opposed to Alisson keeping out 4.2 more than expected.  

 

Alex Remiro - 19 

Next, we have a goalkeeper from a team that finished a little lower in their respective league, in Real Sociedad’s Alex Remiro. The 27-year-old played in 34 of the 38 league fixtures, keeping 19 clean sheets in the process. Sociedad conceded only 32 goals with him between the posts, with five goals being conceded in the four games he was unavailable for. La Real’s strong defensive record helped them to sixth place in La Liga and a place in next season’s Europa Conference League.  

 

Mike Maignan - 17 

Having won the title with French side, Lille in 20/21, Maignan was bought by AC Milan to replace the departing Gianlugi Donnarumma. This proved to be an excellent decision as Maignan’s form was exceptional in keeping 17 clean sheets on the way to Milan’s first scudetto win in over a decade.  

Importantly, he topped the Serie A rankings when it comes to goals prevented, as he finished with eight goals fewer conceded than his expectation. Without that strong individual performance in goal, Milan would likely have finished second behind their city rivals, Inter. The 26-year-old Frenchman looks set to become one of the best goalkeepers in the world.  

 

Thibaut Courtois - 16 

Finally, we have Real Madrid goalkeeper, Courtois. Whilst this list only includes league clean sheets, his performance in the Champions League final, where he kept out a string of goalbound efforts from Liverpool in a fine display of shot-stopping, demonstrate exactly why he’s in the top five. 

Of course, Madrid were the most dominant team in La Liga, but the Belgian goalkeeper’s individual performance was still very strong and a key aspect in them keeping so many clean sheets and conceding the second fewest goals in the league, behind only Sevilla. This is illustrated as Courtois was the fourth best performer in the league according to goals prevented, as he conceded 4.4 fewer than expected.