Sky Sports pundit Darren Bent has been left in awe of Martin Dubravka’s recent performances, but feels the Newcastle United goalkeeper is being let down by his teammates.
Dubravka has started all 27 of our Premier League fixtures this season, in which he has kept the division’s joint-seventh-most clean sheets with seven shut outs to date.
Bent feels the Slovakian’s record could be higher, too, were he not subjected to so much action, having frequently been relied on to pull off saves that either keep us in matches or keep the scoreline respectable.
“He was making some world-class saves, some absolutely brilliant, brilliant saves but it’s not enough at times,” the former Sunderland striker told Football Insider.
“The goalkeeper can only do so much, he can make save after save after save, it’s very rare that you can make all these amount of saves and you don’t concede. If you keep giving the opposition the opportunity to score, they will take one.
“It’s a positive he’s playing so well but now other people have got to step up.”
Will Dubravka be at St. James' Park next season?
Yes
No
No top-flight ‘keeper has made more saves than Dubravka has so far this season with 114 – Arsenal’s Bernd Leno is second with 98. The 31-year-old has also made the most saves from shots taken inside the box (79), while making the fourth-most punches (14) and ninth-most high claims (12) and runs out (eight) per Sofa Score.
While we would lose 1-0 last time out at Crystal Palace, Dubravka made a staggering eight saves at Selhurst Park, as our defence were only able to block three of the host’s 18 efforts on goal, per WhoScored.
Dubravka also made three saves in our 4-0 defeat to Arsenal, with each of the Gunners’ goals coming from their only shots on target to beat him.
But the results in North and South London proved we can not always rely on Dubravka bailing us out and like Bent suggests, the Slovakian may have been a rare ‘positive’ but still needs the defence to step up a level to help him out.
In other Newcastle United news, a £35k-p/w player will not feature against Burnley in the absence of a £20m international.