Introducing Edouard Mendy – A thread on his strengths, weaknesses, areas to improve and fit at Chelsea.

The thread will mainly focus on three keepers – Alphonse Areola, Mike Maignan and Kepa Arrizabalaga - along with Edouard Mendy.

Data for Areola is from the 2018-19 season because he didn’t play enough in 19-20.

Data has been taken from the amazing people at @fbref.

While Mendy is a very solid shot-stopper, Alphonse Areola stands out as the best option in this regard. All 4 options play behind good defences and therefore face few shots.

Maignan is average and Kepa is bad at shot-stopping.

Mendy is a very competent cross-collector but Maignan truly stands out in this regard. Despite his relatively small size when compared to Areola and Mendy, he is very efficient off his line.

Areola is surprisingly poor but his numbers in 17-18 were good.

In what might come as surprise to many, Mendy is an accomplished passer. While Areola is better, Mendy is no slouch either.

Keep in mind team tactics affect pass numbers too. As he moves to Chelsea, you can expect him to improve even further as a passer.

In terms of sweeping, Mendy, Kepa and Areola all perform a similar number of defensive actions outside the box. Their average distance from the goal varies, however.

Maignan doesn’t seem to be a great sweeper but this may be down to tactics too.

Mike Maignan doesn’t seem to be a particularly sensible option for Chelsea given his price and his skillset.

He is a very good GK, make no mistake about it, but does he fit what Chelsea need right now?

That leaves us with three options – Alphonse Areola, Edouard Mendy and Kepa.

The below chart shows how they compare statistically.

- Alphonse Areola is *superb* in some aspects and has big-club experience but also has a few caveats. (more on this later)

- Edouard Mendy is perhaps the best all-round GK among the three.

- I’ll leave the conclusion about Kepa to you.

Judging by just numbers, Areola should be a no-brainer target. However, there is a big catch.

He is 27 and is yet to be fully trusted at a big club. However you twist it, this is a big worry. Kevin Trapp and a past-it Buffon (his previous rivals at PSG) are hardly world-beaters.

If you want another example of a player who had good stats at big clubs without ever cementing himself as a starter – look at Alvaro Morata.

Areola is pretty good but other big clubs haven’t trusted him over the course of a season. Can we?

That leaves us with Edouard Mendy.

Edouard Mendy is the only option to rank in the 50th percentile or better in all metrics shown above.

He is not world-class, he might never be, but he is a reliable all-round GK. He is no one-season wonder either.

Edouard Mendy is not going to pull off close-range saves like Oblak but he keeps out what you would expect him to and is above-average at tougher chances.

Unless he takes a huge step up, he might never be a "world-class" shot-stopper.

Kepa hasn’t been helped by our defence allowed a lot of big chances but this is a problem associated with most pressing teams.

No one is asking Kepa to keep out tough chances anyway. The sheer number of low and medium-quality chances he has conceded is mind-boggling.

The most important question is how Mendy is going to cope mentally. With all due respect, playing at Rennes and playing at Chelsea aren't the same.

Is he mentally ready to play at a club where every defeat is a disaster? No numbers can predict that, we can only wait and watch.

If he makes even a slight error leading to a goal, he will receive a storm of criticism from the media and sadly, a part of our fanbase. Can he cope with that? Let's hope so.

His parrying might worry some but it seems to be improving with time.

Chelsea right now don't need their goalkeeper to be Alisson, Oblak or Ter Stegen. They just need their keeper to not be the worst in Europe.

If Mendy improves over the course of this season, he might well become our long-term #1. Otherwise, we'll buy someone better. Win-win.

To conclude, Mendy is a smart choice. A price of £20m or thereabouts is totally justified.

In pure footballing terms, Mendy is substantially better than what Chelsea have right now. If he can take the step up mentally, Chelsea have a really solid GK on their hands.

If you’ve come this far, thanks for reading. I hope the thread was useful in explaining what kind of a player Edouard Mendy is and what you can expect from him.

I’d genuinely appreciate RTs, follows and feedback.