Adrián San Miguel
DOB: 03/01/1986
Age: 26
Position: Goalkeeper
Previous Club: Real Betis
Previous Division: La Liga
Transfer Date: 01/07/2013 (announced 05/06/2013)
Reported Fee: Free Transfer
Analysis
The second incoming transfer for West Ham United this summer has arrived in the form of Spanish goalkeeper, Adrián San Miguel del Castillo, or simply Adrián.
The 26 year old has spent the past year as the first choice keeper for Real Betis in La Liga, after having come through a youth system he had been a part of since the age of 10. Despite being relatively inexperienced in the top flight, Adrián burst onto the scene in September 2012 taking his chance as a substitute, and started the following 31 games.
Signing a goalkeeper wouldn't have been my personal priority for this summer's business, but I do understand that there are a lot of Hammers out there who are pleased to be seeing someone come in to challenge the current incumbent, Jussi Jääskeläinen.
Jussi has come in for a range of criticisms in his debut season for West Ham, so let's see if Adrián's stats suggest he can improve on the experienced Finn. Initially, the pair seem evenly matched. 11 clean sheets each (although Adrián made 6 less appearances), and a similar number of goals conceded (46 - 53). However, delving deeper into the numbers starts to show some differences.
To begin, I'll look at some of Jääskeläinen's criticisms. There have been suggestions that Jussi struggles when facing shots from range. Of the 53 goals that beat him in the Premier League this season, 15 (28%) came from outside of the box. Adrián, on the other hand, conceded just two from outside the area, equating to 4% of the goals he conceded (46).
The images below shows the goals conceded by Adrián and Jussi respectively.
Another area for which Jääskeläinen has come in for criticism is his distribution. Spanish goalkeepers are often championed for their distribution, so, is Adrián an upgrade in this area?
Well, there are a couple of areas in which we can expect a change. Firstly, Adrián doesn't possess as long a kick as Jussi. Whilst Jääskeläinen averaged 60.3 metres with goal kicks, Adrián averaged 55.4 meters. On the other hand, Adrián actually averaged further with kicks from hand (56.9 to 54.8).
However, the real difference between the two comes in the way in which they choose to distribute. When a goalkeeper has the ball in hand, he has two main options: kick it or throw it. Jussi opted to kick 55% of the time, Adrián threw 51% of the time.
Although Adrián had a lightly worse accuracy rate with throws (92% to 97%), he attempted a higher number (132 to 101). The slightly lower success rate could suggest that the Spaniard attempts slightly more daring throw outs than his new team mate. Should this prove true, it could lead to a change in the style in which West Ham build attacks, looking to break quickly from defence, rather than getting the ball forward in just a few passes.
On the other hand, there are areas in which Spanish goalkeepers haven't covered themselves in glory when playing in the Premier League. European keepers have traditionally struggled when dealing with crosses. So how does Adrián stack up?
Well, he has a fantastic record when claiming crosses, having successful claimed 114 of the 115 he had to deal with in La Liga this season. This is slightly better than Jääskeläinen's 97% (89 of 92). Not only does this suggest Adrián can handle himself in the air, the fact that he claimed more than 1 per game than Jussi (3.6 to 2.4) hopefully stands him in good stead when playing in the Premier League.
However, where Adrián does play to the European stereotype is the manner in which he claims crosses. 21% of crosses claimed by the Spaniard were dealt with by punching clear, whilst Jussi punched just 5% of his. In England, punching tends to be frowned upon, so it remains to be seen whether this element of Adrián's game will be stamped out by Sam Allardyce and his goalkeeping coaches Martyn Margetson and Jerome John.
One thing we can say for sure about this signing, is that it gives us a different option. Stephen Henderson doesn't appear to feature in the managers plans, which led to very little competition for Jääskeläinen to contend with last season. Personally, I believe Jussi deserves to retain the number one spot come August, but this time he knows that he has to fend off a challenger who has proven himself more than capable of dislodging a more experienced goalkeeper.
All that remains to say is: Welcome to West Ham United, Adrián!
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