Mark Flek will not be there this winter during the World Cup in Qatar, according to the definitive list that national coach Louis van Gaal announced on Friday afternoon. The 29-year-old goalkeeper of SC Freiburg has not been called up for the final tournament. Justin Bijlow (Feyenoord), Remko Pasveer (Ajax) and Andries Noppert (sc Heerenveen) will board the plane to the Gulf state as keepers on Monday. Friday morning made The Gelderlander already known that Jasper Cillessen has also lost weight and will remain in Nijmegen.
Cillessen would have erupted in anger because of this. The absence of the final list will also be quite a disappointment for Fleks. At Freiburg the closing post from Kerkrade was in excellent shape. On Friday morning, Pieter Zwart, editor-in-chief of Football International another bizarre statistic from Fleks via Twitter. The four-time international of the Dutch came out significantly better than his competitors.
Figures of the potential the Dutch goalkeepers this season. Mark Fleks stands head and shoulders above the rest pic.twitter.com/FnleU0YEEz
— Pieter Zwart (@PieterZwartNL) Nov 11, 2022
The stat is about Expected Goals on Target, where only goals scored within the goalposts count. A shot towards the intersection has a higher value than a roller through the middle. Based on this statistic, Fleks would be the best goalkeeper and would have prevented 4.7 goals. Heerenveen keeper Noppert prevented 2.7 goals, while Cillessen occupies third place with exactly one prevented goal.
Only Bijlow and Pasveer provide negative figures, although they play at top clubs, which generally concede fewer shots on goal. Both goalkeepers can still dream of a role as first goalkeeper during the World Cup. Noppert seems to be the ideal penalty keeper for Van Gaal, who has therefore not chosen to take four keepers with him to Qatar. Bijlow is currently on six international matches for the the Dutch, Pasveer only goalkeeper twice and Noppert has never been under the bar in the Dutch national team.