Things are looking a lot more positive at Leicester City as Steve Cooper oversaw a first Premier League win of the season at the weekend.
Facundo Buonanotte scored the only goal of the game as Leicester City beat Bournemouth 1-0 at the King Power.
As well as a first three points of the season, it was also Leicester’s first clean sheet since returning to the Premier League in what will be a satisfying display for Steve Cooper.
Wout Faes expertly marshalled the Leicester defence to help shut out a decent Bournemouth side, with Caleb Okoli more than doing his part alongside him.
This meant it was a relatively quiet afternoon for goalkeeper Mads Hermansen, but the Dane fully deserved a first clean sheet of the season.
Leicester City’s Mads Hermansen best goalkeeper in the Premier League this season
Somewhat ironically, Hermansen’s best performance of the season also came in the game he conceded the most goals.
The Leicester goalkeeper earned widespread praise for his heroics in the 4-2 defeat away at Arsenal a week prior to the Bournemouth win.
Now, data posted by The Other 14 on X shows that Hermansen is not only the best performing goalkeeper of the 14 clubs not in the traditional ‘Big Six’, but in the league as a whole.
The account has compared the difference between post-shot expected goals (PSxG) and goals conceded for each goalkeeper to make ten or more saves in the Premier League this season, which shows that Hermansen has stopped 4.4 more goals than he would be expected to.
This puts him 1.2 goals ahead of Nick Pope on second, with the 33 saves the Leicester ‘keeper has made also joint-highest with Brentford’s Mark Flekken.
Leicester City’s Hermansen has ‘huge potential’
One thing is for certain and that is that Leicester will need Hermansen to be at his absolute best if the Foxes are to stay in the top flight this season.
The evidence shows he has been outstanding so far this season and the £6 million Leicester spent to sign the Dane from Brondby last summer now looks an absolute steal.
BBC journalist John Bennet certainly thinks so, as he posted on X after Hermansen’s performance against Arsenal: “Leicester City’s recruitment has been very hit and miss over the last few years… But you can very comfortably put Mads Hermansen in the hit column, and then some.
“Top, modern keeper already and huge potential to get even better.”
A real gem, Hermansen will be vital for Cooper this season.