Jan Oblak: About the Anfield darling.

One of the finest goalkeepers of today, Jan Oblak, gave a mesmerising performance at Anfield to knock out Liverpool and earn himself a prodigious name. Thanks to cameos from the likes of Alvaro Morata and Marcos Llorente, but the hero undoubtedly was Jan Oblak. He nine saves in the victory over Liverpool out of which six were from inside the box at Anfield. This was more than any other goalkeeper has made in a Champions League knockout game this season.

Oblak is one of the athletes that never got sufficient praise for his consistent performances. There are more prominent names in European football, but the consistency is not as much. Oblak usually is cut out because of Atletico Madrid’s defensive approach to significant games. So there is very little work for the Slovenian for illustrating his brilliance.



Jan Oblak is not cut out for being a Sweeper-keeper like a lot of keepers these days like Ter Stegen, Manuel Neuer. This is due to the fact that Atletico plays a deep defensive-reserved line, so Oblak has minimal work to take part in the offensive areas.

About Atletico:

In 2014, Oblak arrived at Wanda Metropolitano in a €16m deal from Benfica, which portrayed him as the most expensive goalkeeper in La Liga history. However, Oblak had to wait for a year to be able to start for Los Rojiblancos finally. He arrived as the backup for Courtois, and in 5 years, he is more or less on-par his level.



Oblak has a fantastic footwork ratio and a good reaction ability and quick reflexes, making him a rough blend of Manuel Neuer and a bit of De Gea.

Prestige:

Jan Oblak has many records to his same. This also includes 4 Zamora trophies from the 15/16, 16/17, 17/18, and 18/19 season. This is more than any other goalkeeper in history. This also reflects how consistent he is from over the years. Apart from these, he has also won Slovenian Player of the Year in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 while losing the 2019th award to Illicic. From the past two seasons, Oblak has made some insane saves and has given praise-worthy performances.

In the 2017/18 season, out of the 100 league games, he kept 59 clean sheets and conceded only 54 goals, five less than the number of clean sheets. That is a save percentage of 80.2% and is the greatest since 2014 by a goalkeeper.

In the 19/20 season, the Slovenian has kept 19 clean sheets out of the 47 they played. But this doesn’t rule out the number of crucial saves he has made for Atletico in the process.

Form Analysis:

October 3, 2018 – Jan Oblak of Atletico de Madrid can not stop the shoot of Arnaut Groeneveld of Brugge.

Oblak concedes an average of 0.71 goals for every 90 minutes that he’s on the pitch. His Clean Sheets ratio is currently at 41%. [ This season ]

In total for Atletico Madrid, Oblak has made 245 appearances, where he conceded 168 goals and kept 133 clean sheets. He has saved 431 out of the 537 shots on target he has faced.

MADRID, SPAIN: Coach Diego Simeone of Atletico de Madrid (L) gives instructions to Goalkeeper Jan Oblak of Atletico de Madrid.

Oblak’s current market value is €80.00m, which is the most of any goalkeeper, even more than Alisson. He is one of the few players who are underpraised due to Diego Simeone’s different brand of football.

Diego Simeone refers to him as the Lionel Messi of the goalkeepers for his stunning guard. It only gets difficult to find flaws in the Slovenian’s game over the days.

Robert Volk, the goalkeeper coach at Olimpija, mentioned that the 16-year old Oblak was even better than him and nobody could believe it. And that was the beginning of the sensation named Oblak.