Alright, so yesterday I got curious about Real Madrid’s goalkeeper situation after watching that wild Champions League match. Wanted to dig into actual stats instead of just vibes. Started simple: grabbed my laptop around 9 PM, chugged some instant coffee, and fired up that stats website everybody uses.
First thing, I searched “Real Madrid keepers 2023-2024 season” – nope. Too broad. Then tried “Courtois Lunin stats comparison.” Bingo! The page loaded slower than my grandma’s flip phone. Had to refresh three times before it showed actual numbers instead of error messages.
The Data Dump
Found messy tables with abbreviations nobody understands. Had to google what “PSxG” stood for (Expected Goals stuff apparently). Jotted down these on a notepad:
- Thibaut Courtois: Played 4 games before injury. 70% save rate? Looked wrong since I remembered him being brick wall early season.
- Andriy Lunin: Surprise! 42 appearances. 80% saves in UCL games? Almost spilled coffee. Kid’s been quietly carrying.
- Goals Conceded: Lunin shipped 1.2 goals per match average – decent with that shaky defense.
Reality Check
Cross-referenced with league standings because stats lie. Noticed Lunin’s clean sheets disappeared whenever Nacho played center-back. Also realized Courtois’ “4 games” included preseason friendlies! Had to manually filter those out.
Finally threw everything into my notes app around midnight:
- Cold Truth: Lunin’s Europa League saves were higher than La Liga stats
- Weird Pattern: Both keepers conceded more from headers than ground shots
- Mystery: Why Courtois had better stats vs weak teams? Small sample size probably
Finished by screaming at YouTube highlight reels to confirm stats weren’t hallucinating. Spoiler: Lunin really did pull off impossible saves against Leipzig. Stats don’t show how clutch he looked though!