Jan Oblak has been named the La Liga player of the season for 20/21. The Slovenian shot stopper was Atletico Madrid’s most crucial player as they lifted the league title for the first time in seven years.
While a good attack can win you matches, a good defense is fundamental to winning a title. And Oblak’s performances throughout the season show exactly that. The player has been beaten at goal 25 times in 38 games, and has a GA90 stat of 0.66.
The most impressive thing about him is his ability to save even the most difficult of shots, which makes his save percentage 80% throughout the league competition. Considering that there is an XG of 31.8 against him, the fact that he has conceded only 25 goals throughout the season shows exactly how good the 28-year-old truly is.
Over the last 365 days, Oblak has had a clean sheet percentage of 44.8%, which is better than almost every other keeper in the world. In practice, the Atletico Madrid keeper kept 18 clean sheets in 38 games for the Rojiblancos. His is the highest number of clean sheets in the league, one more than Thibaut Courtois of Real Madrid with 17.
Oblak beats off competition from elite attackers such as Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Karim Benzema and midfielders such as teammate Marcos Llorente to the player of the season award. This further goes on to cement his status as the best goalkeeper in the world right now.
