Why Liverpool Should Not Pull out All the Stops to Land Stoke's Asmir Begovic
Asmir Begovic will leave Stoke City this summer, according to reports, but should Liverpool make the Bosnian goalkeeper a transfer priority?
John Percy of The Telegraph reports: "Asmir Begovic is set to leave Stoke City this summer after it emerged contract talks have reached an impasse.
"The stand-off appears no closer to being resolved and Stoke are now ready to trigger a £8 million chase for the Bosnian goalkeeper by allowing him to leave at the end of this season.
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"Begovic will only have 12 months left on his current deal this summer and Stoke are prepared to cash in while his value remains high, with no plans to let him run his contract down and leave on a free transfer next year."
The 27-year-old has been one of the Premier League's most consistent goalkeepers since he arrived at the Britannia Stadium from Portsmouth in 2010, but he was recently dropped in favour of young English stopper Jack Butland.
Simon Osborn of Metro linked Liverpool with a move for Begovic on Wednesday, along with Manchester United, Real Madrid and Chelsea, and this represents tough competition for the Reds.
While Begovic would undoubtedly be a good signing for manager Brendan Rodgers, whether he should be made a priority this summer is another matter entirely.
Asmir Begovic
Begovic was a key target for Rodgers back in 2013, when the Stoke keeper was looking to replace the waning Pepe Reina as Liverpool's No. 1, as reported by Jamie Sanderson of Metro. Speaking to the Bosnian media, the 27-year-old declared: "I'll start preparing on July 10, with all the players of Liverpool."
With Begovic eventually preferring to stay at the Britannia, however, Rodgers turned his focus on Mignolet, who joined in a BBC Sport-reported £9 million move from Sunderland a month later.
Rodgers was right to be interested in the Stoke stopper, as he is a very solid Premier League goalkeeper—this can be shown via statistical comparison with Mignolet's performances for the Reds this season:
(Statistics via Squawka.com, all output averaged per league game, barring totals for appearances and clean sheets. Mignolet's clean sheets statistic amended to reflect general consensus.)
As is apparent, Begovic and Mignolet are hugely similar propositions in goal:
- They both average a similar number of saves per game, with the pair boasting great reflexes.
- They have both conceded a similar number of goals per game.
- Their aerial prowess is comparable, with Begovic's 100 percent claim success highlighting his tendency to hold the ball, whereas Mignolet's much higher average of punches per game, 68 percent, suggests he is more inclined to clear the ball from danger.
- With Liverpool typically favouring a build-from-the-back approach, the pair's identical distribution success rate of 68 percent highlights how both suit this system equally.
However, Mignolet's record of clean sheets is considerably higher—on course to challenge for the Premier League Golden Glove award this season, he represents one of the league's top performers.
Of course, the Belgian was in abysmal form for much of the first half of the season, with Rodgers forced to drop Mignolet "indefinitely" ahead of December's 3-0 loss away to Manchester United, as reported by BBC Sport, and this suggests something must be done about Rodgers' goalkeeping situation this summer.
Two's Company
For that Old Trafford defeat, Rodgers plumped for current backup option Brad Jones, but the Australian was completely out of sync with his defensive colleagues and often, bizarrely, dived the wrong way when faced with simple attempts on goal such as Wayne Rooney's opening strike.
Jones lasted just two games, and a 15-minute stint against Burnley on Boxing Day, conceding five goals and making just one save per game on average, before injury forced him off the field—Mignolet resumed his role and hasn't looked back since.
That Jones was so poor serving as Mignolet's deputy could point to a factor in why Liverpool's No. 22 had struggled for form and, seemingly, confidence for the first half of the season.
He clearly wasn't being challenged, with his position as Rodgers' first choice under no threat.
Jones is set to leave Merseyside at the end of the season, with James Pearce of the Liverpool Echo suggesting this month that his expiring contract will not be renewed, and now Rodgers has the opportunity to keep Mignolet on his toes by signing a competitive option this summer.
This is a growing trend in the Premier League and beyond, with clubs favouring a stronger backup option in order to solidify their squad further—Arsenal's summer signing of David Ospina is the perfect example.
Ospina has supplanted Wojciech Szczesny as Arsenal's No. 1, and former Arsenal and England goalkeeper David Seaman told Ben Grounds of MailOnline last month how this is the way forward:
"Either of them could be Arsenal's number one, it is about who is on form—and if Ospina keeps his form, then he is going to stay there.
It is not a difficult situation, but it keeps you on your toes to know that there is quality behind you. It is not just the games which make you play better, it is the training.
The goalkeepers train together, and you see the other guy, you think "I want to be better than him" or "I am going to show him how good I am". That is day to day and is good because it brings the best out of you and tests you, so you become a better goalkeeper.
"
For Mignolet to continue to improve, he needs this pressure on the training ground.
So Rodgers desperately needs to sign a new goalkeeper this summer, but is Stoke wantaway Begovic the right fit?
Is Begovic the Right Option for Liverpool?
As Percy continues: "Mark Hughes, the [Stoke] manager, admitted that Begovic reacted badly to being dropped and has left him out of both matchday squads."
On this evidence, Begovic rightly considers himself an indisputable first-choice option.
At Liverpool, while Begovic's talents would bolster Rodgers' options in goal significantly, with the Bosnian a considerable upgrade on the departing Jones, there should be no guarantee that he would start over Mignolet.
With just nine months separating the two, it's not as if one is likely to wane long before the other, either.
Instead, Rodgers may be wiser turning his attention to a younger option, such as Club Brugge's Mathew Ryan (23), linked by the Telegraph's Chris Bascombe back in January, or Genoa's Mattia Perin (22), as rumoured by Fabrizio Romano at This is Anfield in November of last year.
This would keep Mignolet on his toes as No. 1 for the time being, with one eye on the long-term future of the position on Merseyside; Ryan or Perin could develop much like Butland has at Stoke.
Otherwise, a move for a high-level, experienced goalkeeper reaching the end of his career, such as the quietly impressive Rob Green (35), who was linked with a £2 million move from Queens Park Rangers to Chelsea this week by Simon Johnson of the London Evening Standard, could be a more suitable option in terms of game management for Rodgers.
Begovic seemingly passed up the opportunity to become Rodgers' No. 1 at Liverpool in 2013.
Now, with the rise of Mignolet in the second half of this season, the Reds manager may well be wise to look elsewhere in the transfer market as he aims to provide the Belgian with some much-needed competition.
Statistics via Squawka.com.
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