Emiliano Martinez: Aston Villa keeper approaching a crossroads
It is unquestionable that Martinez is as authoritarian as he once was. However, it is difficult to pinpoint the cause.
The player, who won the World Cup with Argentina in 2022 and joined Villa for £ 17 million in 2020, became one of the club’s best performers.
However, this season the cracks started to show; It’s easy to blame his failed move to United for this.
An emotional Martinez appeared to be bidding farewell after Villa’s final home game against Tottenham in May last season.
Villa were open to letting him go, looking at Brentford’s Mark Flekken among others, but Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim subsequently lost the battle to bring him to Old Trafford.
United’s data showed that Senne Lammens would be one of the best in Europe, and although he was not as good as Martinez at the moment, signing a contract with the Belgian player made more sense financially and for the future.
They wanted to spend money on attacking areas by signing Matheus Cunha, Benjamin Sesko and Bryan Mbuemo, and Amorim rejected a move for Martinez, with Lammens joining from Royal Antwerp.
On 31 August, the day before the transfer deadline, Martinez made his debut in a 3–0 home defeat to Crystal Palace. When asked about Martinez’s whereabouts, head coach Unai Emery repeated backup goalkeeper Marco Bizot’s name several times.
He returned after the international break in a 0–0 draw at Everton on 13 September; Emery described him as “the best goalkeeper in the world” and someone with “tremendous” loyalty to Villa.
So has Martinez been this consistent this season?
There was more than one late withdrawal from a match; Two of these took place after warm-ups before the matches against Brighton and Feyenoord.
He has saved 76.1% of the shots he has faced this season, the most in the league, and sits fifth on Opta’s “goals blocked” statistics list with 17 points.
He made 55 saves, the 12th most among Premier League goalkeepers this season. The “Goals expected to be conceded on goal” tally, which measures the probability that a shot on target will result in a goal, is 20.85.
Villa have conceded 25 goals this season, but eight of them came from Bizot, so Martinez’s stats shouldn’t be worrying.
But three mistakes that resulted in a goal, the highest in the league, will eat away at the team.
The most obvious was the mistake he made at Anfield in November; He gifted the ball to Mohamed Salah to score, giving Liverpool the platform for a 2-0 win.
Nevertheless, Villa went on to win their next 11 games, losing 4–1 to Arsenal on 30 December, with Martinez facing renewed scrutiny.
He cleared the ball under pressure from Gabriel from a corner, allowing the defender to score, but Villa argued the goal should have been disallowed due to the Arsenal player’s high elbow.
His mistake last Sunday, failing to catch or clear Dwight McNeil’s shot, contributed to Thierno Barry securing the win for Everton.
Bizot, who missed the 1-0 Europa League win on Thursday with a calf injury, achieved his fifth clean sheet in 11 matches this season.
Dutchman Bizot, who was transferred from Brest in the summer, is 34 years old and is not a long-term replacement for Martinez.
However, the Argentine football player has agreed with Inter and Villa is expected to evaluate his future in the summer.
