Kepa Arrizabalaga’s underwhelming performances since signing for Chelsea have been well documented. The Spaniard had one of the lowest save percentages within the top five leagues throughout the 2019/20 season. However, Chelsea will be hoping they’ve found a replacement for Kepa in the form of Édouard Mendy. With Chelsea already spending over £200m this transfer window, they’ve now recently added 28-year-old Mendy to their squad.
This tactical analysis will look at how Mendy can improve a Chelsea team that have their eyes set on the Premier League title, and how he will fit into Frank Lampard’s tactics. This analysis will look at his shot-stopping performances and whether he is an improvement on Kepa, his sweeping and passing abilities and whether his playstyle will be a good fit for Chelsea.
How does Mendy compare to Kepa and the top five leagues?
To get a good understanding of Mendy’s signature and how he compares against Europe’s best goalkeepers, we can compare him to his peers in shot-stopping and passing.
The above graph measures post-shot xG conceded and actual goals conceded. The players furthest above the trend line have performed much better than expected. Mendy is slightly above the line. With the chances he’s faced, he was expected to concede 19.7 goals, but he only conceded 19. We can see how far Kepa is beneath the trend line, he conceded 11.5 more goals than he was expected to, performing far worse than Mendy.
