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To Keys to Stoke City' Success (January 2)

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Asmir Begovic: Standing on his head

In 2011-12, Asmir Begovic tussled with Thomas Sorensen for the Stoke City top spot, and neither covered themselves in glory. However, in 2012 Begovic was a new man, and his performances have lead Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko to salute his countryman as “the best keeper in the league” this term over his City teammate and England number one Joe Hart. The Bosnian ‘keeper has overseen 9 Stoke clean sheets this season, already equaling last year’s number. Furthermore, Begovic has only conceded twenty goals, and without the crapshoot of penalties (Stoke’s conceded 4) that number decreases to 16. Where Begovic truly begins to sparkle is in comparison to some of the Premier League’s leading shot-stoppers, Manchester City’s Hart and Chelsea’s Petr Cech. Begovic leads the trio with nine clean sheets to the other pair’s eight, and his 59 saves only trail Cech’s 61 (Hart has 37). Both Cech and Hart have conceded only 19 goals, while Begovic has allowed 20, but subtracting penalties Begovic would lead all Premier League ‘keepers with 16 open play goals allowed (Cech has 17, Hart 18). In true Stoke City fashion, though, the area where the Bosnian shines is in the air; although neither Cech nor Hart is noticeably vulnerable to high crosses, Begovic has claimed 44 high crosses this season to Cech’s 20 catches and Joe Hart’s mere 16. Furthermore, he has yet to mishandle a high cross, a reliable stat that Hart and Cech cannot claim.



Perhaps more important to the Stoke revolution, though, is Begovic’s serious improvement from his shakiness last season. Besides scuffling with Thomas Sorensen for playing time, Begovic made four errors that lead directly to goals while only playing about half his side’s games. This season Begovic has made three errors leading to goals, half of Stoke’s six from last year. Stoke as a whole have renewed their focus at the back, in fact: the team has committed only four errors leading to goals, contrasting last year’s ten such mistakes.

luckylaka wrote:Begovicu opasniji ovi njegovi odbrambeni nego protivnicki napadaci.Za koje levate on brani

cindrlimindrli wrote:Joj likova, opet autogol

ljevoruki wrote:Kod ovog drugog gola je morao izaci na loptu, primio je gol glavom iz peterca.