Still standing firm between the sticks

The season has continued were it left off for Marc Andre Ter Stegen in terms of great goalkeeping stats. The German stopper is yet to concede a goal in both league matches so far against Getafe (0-0) and Cádiz (2-0). These two games add to the stats that make him the goalkeeper with fewest goals conceded across the five leading leagues in 2023.

17 clean sheets in 25 games

Barça's second captain has played 25 league games in 2023, keeping a clean sheet in 17 of them, i.e. in 68% of games. We have to look  to other keepers in Europe to see how this compares, and Ter Stegen ia actually the only stopper to have kept a clean sheet in over 50% of games played. Second on the list is the Lazio keeper, Ivan Provedel, who has 12 clean sheets in 24 games, five fewer than the Barça man.

We have to turn to Alex Remiro to find anything similar in the Spanish league. Real Sociedad's keeper has played the same number of games as Ter Stegen and kept a clean sheet 10 times, seven fewer than the German.

Fewest goals conceded

Ter Stegen is actually leading the way on every goalkeeping stat. The LaLiga "Zamora" is also the goalkeeper who concedes fewest goals per game. He has conceded 12 goals in 25 league games in 2023, equivalent to 0.48 goals per game. A better ratio than other keepers across Europe who have played at least 10 games.

The goalkeeper who stands out in this statistic apart from Ter Stegen is Jan Oblak, with the Atlético Madrid keeper conceding 0.53 goals per game, or nine in 17 games.

Both Barça and keeper now have the challenge of maintaining those numbers for the rest of the year. Keeping a clean sheet against Villarreal is the next challenge, the first of 15 league games left in this calendar year.