Four save shutout and a 1-0 for Luton, overcoming a missed penalty. Horvath with high ratings but I haven't seen any highlighted saves yet.
Actually Steffen has a higher Save % than Horvath: https://fbref.com/en/comps/10/keepers/Championship-Stats Save % [(shots on goal - goals)/ (shots on goal)] Steffen 68.5% Horvath 66.7%
Save percentage isn't a very useful stat. 95 saves on 100 shots from 50 yards count the same as 95 saves on 100 shots from 5 yards. Post-shot xG is way better for goalkeeper evaluation, and Horvath and Steffen are basically even there, both below average in the Championship at 3.6 and 3 goals worse than expected, respectively.
FBref @fbref 2022-2023 Championship Clean Sheets Leaders Ben Wilson (13) Freddie Woodman (12) Daniel Bachmann (12) Ethan Horvath (11) Wes Foderingham (10) Thomas Kaminski (10) Ryan Allsop (9)
Luton Town 1-0 Stoke City, Luton still climbing nicely, now joint-3rd with Steffen's Middlesbrough, Luton trailing on goal difference but with a game in hand.
Horvath starts, Luton Town with a 4th-Round FA Cup replay, today's match at Grimsby Town, following a 2-2 draw last time out at home. Several Championship teams kinda-sorta tanked their FA Cup matches, presumably to focus their energy and efforts in fighting for promotion. Not so Luton - today is their reward.
It would take an implosion of improbable magnitude for either of them to catch SheffU, which is too bad as it would be hysterical for them both to promote the same season and us suddenly have 2 USMNT keepers starters and one backup in the EPL (at least on paper.) Tho a US keeper battle for promotion would be kind of fun too.
Unfortunately for Horvath, Luton players got the message this time: Promotion chase - yes; FA Cup run - no. Grimsby Town 3-0 Luton Town, with still a (painful) half to play.
What’s going on at Nottingham Forest? Why did they go out and get Navas? I thought they had so many good keepers that Horvath had to leave to get playing time?
Because Navas was available and is a massive upgrade on what Forest already had, fit or otherwise. As for his wages, even a mid-table EPL side - which is what Forest are shaping up to be - can outspend anyone in Ligue 1 that's not called PSG or anyone in La Liga that's not called Real or Barcaelona. Nobody outside the EPL could afford him, even on a free transfer
Navas is perhaps the best keeper in world in last decade. Certainly one of the best. He's older now but still excellent,
Without him, Leeds would have scored at least once in the first half on Saturday and at least two of those saves were genuinely impressive, of the kind that even very good GKs often fail to make.
In any case, isn't it time to stop referencing Nottingham Forest and which GK they sign or don't sign with regard to Ethan's future. Yes, he's under contract there, but only until June 2024 and there is virtually no chance he's going to be suiting up for them next season or any other season after that. They signed him for a specific purpose - to get them out of the Championship. With that already achieved, they're going to be shopping at very different level come July, one that Ethan hasn't come close to yet. A parting of the ways is in everyone's interests, and since they signed him on a free, they might even be willing to release him for nothing if it gets his fairly substantial wages off the books. Ethan being available on a free will make it a lot easier for him to maintain his current salary or make up for any pay cut by spreading his signing-on fee over the duration of his next contract. Since he's shown that he can perform at the business end of this level, he isn't going to be short of offers.
Started in 1-1 draw: First start for @Nakamba_11 ✅Your Hatters to take on Coventry. 👊#COVLUT | #COYH pic.twitter.com/MlDFZwH6JQ— Luton Town FC (@LutonTown) February 11, 2023 The goal was a PK.
He was supposedly making 200k a week - and Forest are playing half of that, if reports are true. 100k is not too bad, 200k for an aging - albeit very exceptional - keeper is pretty good take home pay.
Back in the day, Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest paid 375k sterling, a world record for a GK, to sign Peter Shilton. The chairman and the board of directors were very reluctant to do the deal because a club like Forest didn't spend world record transfer fees, and certainly not on GK. Clough's answer was succinct: "Peter Shilton wins you football matches." Newly-promoted Forest won the Division 1 title that season, the European Cup and the League Cup the following season and another European Cup the following season with a UEFA Super Cup in between. If Forest stay up, it'll be money well spent. Doubly so when you consider that a team gets an extra 2 million pounds for every step higher they finish in the table - 17th place gets 8.8 million pounds and 15th gets 13.2 million.