Albion Analytics: A tonne (plus one) of appearances for Bart Verbruggen

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Goalkeeper hasn't missed a minute of Premier League football this campaign.

Liam Tharme

Albion Analytics

2026-04-30T06:00+01:00

Bart Verbruggen has made a number of sensational stops so far this campaign. 📸 by BHAFC.

Bart Verbruggen brought up a century of Albion appearances in the 2-2 draw away to Tottenham Hotspur, before making his 101st with a clean sheet as Brighton beat Chelsea 3-0 at the Amex.

As per Transfermarkt, he’s the fifth-most capped goalkeeper in club history, behind Michel Kuipers (241 games), David Stockdale (139), Graham Moseley (130) and Mathew Ryan (123), with the latter the only stopper with more Premier League appearances for the club than Verbruggen.

Since his debut in August 2023, the Dutchman ranks ninth for total saves (251), 11th for crosses claimed (63) and tops the charts for what Opta call “smothers,” where goalkeepers come to the edge of the box to pounce on a low ball put into the area.

Bart Verbruggen has kept 24 cleansheets in 101 games for Albion. 📸 by Paul Hazlewood.

This season, Verbruggen has shown his best form yet. He’s had the most touches and attempted the most passes of any goalkeeper, playing an integral role to Fabian Hurzeler’s build-up, often working the ball into midfielders who bounce it to the centre-backs. So good has he been that Hurzeler likened Verbruggen to legendary German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer earlier this campaign.

In fact, he played 69 passes (completing 54 of them and playing 15 into the final-third) in the recent win over Chelsea, the highest by any goalkeeper in a Premier League match over the past two seasons.

His shotstopping has flourished. Verbruggen ranks second in the league behind Manchester United’s Senne Lammens for goals prevented above average, which uses post-shot xG to determine the likelihood of a shot going in based on the location into the goal — he’s prevented better than five goals over what an ‘average’ goalkeeper would be expected to.

The goalkeeper joined us from Anderlecht in 2023. 📸 by Paul Hazlewood.

This is a contributing reason to why he has kept four clean sheets in the past eight league matches and is on nine shutouts for the season — with four games to go he can feasibly become the third Albion goalkeeper to register double-digit clean sheets in a Premier League season, after Ryan in 2017/18 (10) and Robert Sanchez in 2020/21 (10) and 2021-22 (11).

A World Cup is on the horizon for the 27-cap Netherlands man, who kept three clean sheets and only conceded four times in six qualifying matches for the tournament. He debuted for the national team under Ronald Koeman in 2023 for a European Championship qualifying match against France, then the following year he became the youngest goalkeeper at a European Championships for 60 years. Verbruggen and the Netherlands made the semi-finals — their best finish for two decades — before being knocked out by England.

Hurzeler has praised his goalkeeper for improving his physical robustness and preventing injury.

Bart Verbruggen has represented the Netherlands on 27 occasions, ahead of this summer's World Cup. 📸 by Paul Hazlewood.

“He has this potential to be one of the best goalkeepers in the world,” the head coach said earlier this season.

That potential is being fulfilled. Only compatriot Jan Paul van Hecke (75 times) has appeared more under Hurzeler than Verbruggen (74 matches). Goalkeepers typically peak later in their careers and often in their 30s, but aged 23, Verbruggen is showing that he is already among the very elite.