Newcastle’s new No. 1? Comparing De Gea and Ramsdale’s stats with Nick Pope’s

Quick Reads

Aaron Ramsdale, Nick Pope and David De Gea

Ben Stewart
5th December 2023

With Nick Pope set to be sidelined for the next few months with a dislocated shoulder, Newcastle have been linked with David de Dea and Aaron Ramsdale.

Eddie Howe’s side are known for their defensive stability, but they will be put to the test without Nick Pope. The England international kept 14 clean sheets last season and was without doubt one of the best goalkeepers in the league.

For the time being, Newcastle will have to rely upon Martin Dubravka and Loris Karius, but they are expected to turn to the transfer market in the new year.

“It looks bad,” Howe told TNT Sports following Pope’s injury. “It looks like a dislocation. He’s done it before and had it operated on and come back successfully.

“It will be a massive blow for us if he is ruled out for any length of time. It looked really innocuous, but that is usually the way and they are normally the more serious ones. You could see he was in distress and it looked like he dislocated his shoulder just diving.”

De Gea is one of the names being linked with Newcastle and ESPN have reported that the Spanish shot-stopper would be open to the idea of joining.

The 33-year-old has been a free agent since his release from Manchester United in the summer and this could be the perfect opportunity for him to throw his hat back in the ring.

Along with De Gea, Newcastle have also been linked with Arsenal’s Ramsdale. The 25-year-old has recently lost his starting spot to David Raya and will be carefully considering his options ahead of the January window.

When asked if he would be open to selling Ramsdale to Newcastle, Mikel Arteta replied: “I want Aaron with us.

“I am very happy to have two very, very good goalkeepers and Aaron is staying with us. We want to be better, so we want to add to what we already have. That’s the intention that we have.”

However, later in the interview, Arteta did refuse to completely rule out a January move for Ramsdale, stating: “I won’t do that to any player. Any player. I cannot tell you that any Arsenal player is not going to leave in January. Or he is to stay here for the next three years.”

Given all the speculation surrounding Newcastle’s targets, we thought it would be useful to compare Pope’s Premier League stats from this season with De Gea and Ramsdale’s to see how they compare.

Note: we have used stats from the 2022-23 season for Ramsdale and De Gea due to their lack of game time in 2023-24.

Nick Pope

Games: 14
Wins: 8
Draws: 2
Losses: 4

Win rate: 57.14%
Loss rate: 28.57%

Save percentage: 73.6%
Saves per 90: 2.81

Goals against per 90: 1
Clean sheet percentage: 35.7%

David De Gea

Games: 38
Wins: 23
Draws: 6
Losses: 9

Win rate: 60.53%
Loss rate: 23.68%

Save percentage: 71.1%
Saves per 90: 2.61

Goals against per 90: 1.13
Clean sheet percentage: 44.7%

What a save! How has that not gone in?!

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