Albion Analytics: Bart Verbruggen

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What makes Bart Verbruggen a good match for Albion?

Liam Tharme

Albion Analytics

2023-04-25T06:00:00Z

Bart Verbruggen made his first Albion appearance in our Premier League Summer Series opener against Chelsea on Saturday.

Albion added significant depth and competition to the goalkeeper department with the acquisition of Bart Verbruggen from Anderlecht.

Verbruggen only made his Juliper Pro League debut in November, in Anderlecht’s final match before the World Cup — a 1-0 away win over RSC Charleroi where the goalkeeper saved both shots he faced, had 36 total touches and completed 20 of his 28 attempted passes (9/17 for long passes).

In Anderlecht’s first 16 games of the season, where Verbruggen did not play at all and was on the bench in three-quarters of those matches, Anderlecht lost half the time (eight games) and won just six, only keeping three clean sheets and averaging 1.25 points per game.

In the 17 games that he played, Anderlecht won seven (six wins to-nil) and lost just five times, most impressively keeping eight clean sheets and averaging 1.44 points per game. Accounting for games played, that is a higher win rate (41.1% vs 37.5%) and better clean sheet rate (47.1% vs 18.8%) with Verbruggen in between the sticks.

In fact, across the entire league, Verbruggen had the highest save rate (75.3%), the third-most additional goals prevented (2.9 more than an average goalkeeper based on underlying metrics) and his clean sheet rate was the second-highest in the competition.

Impressively, the 20-year-old maintained those excellent performance levels in the UEFA Europa Conference League — Anderlecht reached the semi-finals with Verbruggen the youngest goalkeeper in the competition.

He ranked seventh for passes among goalkeepers in the UECL, attempting 33 per game and launching (kicking 40+ yards) marginally over one-quarter of his open-play passes. “I have one core quality and that is my feet. I feel very comfortable on the ball, I excel at that,” said Verbruggen last season, with Roberto De Zerbi noting that “he is used to playing a type of football similar to ours."

Verbruggen was one of just 6 keepers to record a 10% or higher cross stop rate, as well as being one of just six in his position to play at least five matches and concede less than one goal per game. Based on xG, he prevented more than three additional goals than an average goalkeeper, in accordance with the quality of chances he faced, the second-best of any individual.

And the Dutchman is a record-setter. In Anderlecht’s knockout round win over Ludogorets, he became the first goalkeeper to not concede a single goal in a major European penalty shootout in the last 35 years. He saved all three penalties.

SofaScore’s algorithm rates his second-leg performance against Villareal in the round of 16 as the best game by a goalkeeper in the competition in 2022/23. Verbruggen made 39 total touches, completing 15 of his 29 passes (5/18 long passes), claimed two crosses and punched one other, but most significantly saved all nine shots that he faced, five of which were from inside the penalty area.

That performance was not a one-off — Verbruggen is consistently able to produce outstanding shot-stopping performances. Including that Villarreal game, Verbruggen recorded 5+ saves in seven different matches last season.

He continued his excellent club form into the international scene this summer, playing all three games for Netherlands U21s at the Euros. They exited in the group stages without a win but only conceded twice in three games, and owed a lot of their defensive record to Verbruggen.

In the opening group stage game against Belgium, he saved all 6 shots faced (4 from inside the box) and completed 37 of 39 passes, including all 30 short passes. Based on SofaScore’s algorithm, only Romanian goalkeeper Stefan Tarnovanu produced a better single-match display at the Euros than Verbruggen against Belgium.