Southampton’s season hasn’t exactly gone to plan this term.
The Saints have had something of a rollercoaster campaign, going from a record-equalling 9-0 loss to Leicester City to being touted for a top-six spot a few months ago.
Any hopes of European football at St Mary’s next season have vanished in recent weeks as they’ve lost four of their last five games, and with the south coast club seven points clear of the drop zone with nine games to go, you’d expect them to be safe from relegation at this point.
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As this campaign looks pretty much done and dusted, some thought has to be put towards how the squad will shape up next term, and the first position to think about is the goalkeeper spot.
Alex McCarthy has cemented his position as Saints’ number one this term, starting each of the last 19 league games, but he may face a bit of competition from the returning Fraser Forster next time out.
At first glance, the stats point towards Forster being the first-choice next term as he outdoes McCarthy in a number of key metrics.
However, it has to be considered that Forster is playing at a lower standard than McCarthy. He’s in a league where a 37-year-old Jermaine Defoe is the top scorer he’s had to face this season, while McCarthy has had to come up against some of the world’s best strikers in the Premier League.
But that doesn’t mean that the Celtic stopper shouldn’t be commended for his incredible stats. You still have to stop the shots that come at you, and he has the second-best save percentage in Scotland’s first division.
McCarthy has also been proving that he can mix it with the big boys though – his save percentage is only 0.3% worse than Man City’s Ederson, and his performance in that metric is actually better than the world’s most expensive goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Ralph Hasenhuttl will be spoilt for choice when it comes to his goalkeeper spot in the summer – let’s not forget £13.5m signing Angus Gunn is at the club as well – and it’ll certainly be interesting to see what conclusion he comes to when 2020/21 rolls around.
In other news, Southampton’s owner may be about to make a huge mistake.