Martin Dúbravka

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Meet Martin Dubravka, the Premier League’s busiest goalkeeper

Newcastle’s Martin Dubravka, who has made 103 saves this season, tells Martin Hardy why he is comfortable being so heavily relied upon

Martin Dubravka is staring intently at a computer screen, scrolling down a page, digesting the statistics that show he has made more saves than any other goalkeeper in the top five leagues in Europe this season.

“What does that say to you?” he is asked.

“That I’m a busy man,” he replies, smiling.

There is more evidence to suggest that the £4 million Newcastle United paid Sparta Prague in the summer of 2018, after a successful loan spell, is one of the best bits of business undertaken in recent seasons.

There is the percentage of saves made from shots taken in his team’s penalty area — his 65 per cent being bettered only by Liverpool’s Alisson and Hugo Lloris, of Tottenham Hotspur, over his past 50 Premier League appearances. There are his seven clean sheets this term and the statistic which says he saved eight shots that would have been expected to result in a goal.

But digesting information is not new.

When the Newcastle team bus pulls out of Emirates Stadium tomorrow evening, Dubravka will be able to instantly review his performance on any device through stats and video provided by a sports performance analysis company. Dubravka is 31 and has held a dream to play in England since he was young. The desire to learn has not changed. In the immediate aftermath of a match he will watch every save, move and miss while the game is still whirring in his head. At that point his father, Joseph, a former professional goalkeeper in Slovakia, will call. There will be another deconstruction of what went right and what went wrong — as they have done since he was eight. It takes about four days for the game to slip out of his mind.

“Am I a perfectionist?” he says. “Oh yes. You can see all the touches, all the saves, the right decisions and the wrong decisions. After the game I always watch it. The club’s analysis department send me a report and you have your mistakes and the clips. You have some kind of feeling after the game, whether you win or lose.

“Mostly I call my father because he’s watching. He’s telling me his ideas and his opinions. Then I come home and watch the game. Who’s harder on me, me or my father? Probably me, I’m very critical of myself. My father always tells me the truth — ‘I think you should do better there’ — then we argue.”

His father played for Zilina, where he grew up, a small city in the northwest of Slovakia. Martin followed the career path of his father and his grandfather, who were both goalkeepers — after a brief spell as a winger as a child — and then went to Esbjerg in Denmark, Slovan Liberec and Sparta, his boyhood club. That was before his chaotic transfer deadline-day move in January 2018, when he knocked on the hotel door of Zdenek Scasny, the club’s sporting director, at 2am for an update on his proposed move to Newcastle. He would fly to Tyneside and sign 20 minutes before the window closed.

By then he had called his girlfriend Lucia to tell her they were moving countries.

“At that time she was in Malaysia because she represents Slovakia in a beauty competition,” he says. “She was very excited. I recorded a video from the hotel room and said, ‘Listen, this is probably our new home.’ She said, ‘Brilliant, I’m really looking forward to coming there.’ She is a very supportive person.”

“You have to learn, every time. Different league. Different country. Different culture. Everything is different. The first week for me was tough. Everything was faster, much more powerful. The pace, I had to get used to it and I had a short time [Dubravka made his debut 11 days after signing]. The night before my debut was a Saturday night in Newcastle and we were living in a hotel. The city is crazy and people were very noisy in the hotel. I couldn’t sleep.”

He found out two hours before kick-off he would play against Manchester United. In the 35th minute he blocked a one-on-one from Anthony Martial with his studs. In the 93rd minute he saved from Michael Carrick. Newcastle had their first league win at home in four months, thanks to Matt Ritchie’s goal and Dubravka’s excellence. The stadium rose for him. Lucia was in the stands.

The couple have made the city their home. Six months ago, when talk of a six-year contract started, they moved out of a city apartment and bought a new house. “They said six years and I said give me a pen,” he says when talking about his new deal. “I signed the extension and I realised I want to have my home here so I bought a house. Is the house finished? No. It takes ages. It’s a new building and there are cracks. I know it’s called snagging. We did that, but every day something happens.”

Dubravka is tall and lean. He was hyperactive as a child. His mother, Gabriella, is a judge in Zilina, so he spent part of his childhood with his grandmother, also Gabriella. “I was jumping from sofa to sofa and running round and she said ‘You have to stop, you have so much energy.’”

He took up ice hockey and then, at a family barbecue, injured his leg with an axe. “My mum told me, ‘Please don’t tell this story. You were so small, how can you use the axe?’ I was trying to cut the food and finished on my leg. There was so much blood and we went to the hospital and that finished my hockey career.”

The Dubravkas lived next to Stadion pod Dubnom, Zilina’s home ground. “We climbed the fence and we played after training. I was not in goal then, no chance. I said to my friends, ‘I don’t want to be in goal, I want to score the goal.’

“Would I want to appear in court before my mum? Oh my God. It’s hard when you’re young, you grow up with a judge. She judged you all the time, but she was always supportive with me, as was my sister and my father.

“She gets so scared when she comes to watch me play. When she’s in the stadium, hiding her face, and then to my sister or my girlfriend, ‘What happened? What happened?’ They can get annoyed with her. I said, ‘Mum, if you cannot look, stay at home.’ ”

Dubravka has made 103 saves this season, ahead of Arsenal’s Bernd Leno, who has the second most in the Premier League with 93. He has not missed a Premier League game since his debut under Rafa Benítez.

“Every day I was with him in his office from when I joined,” Dubravka says. “With Mr Benítez you are going to spend at least one hour with him there, every day. Talking everything, football, life, which was great for me.

“Both coaches were crucial for us. Obviously, they have their own ideas, maybe different ideas than the other one, but we are trying to improve and Steve Bruce is trying to improve us as well. It is very important that he is open to talk.

“I’m very ambitious. I always wanted to play in the Europa League and the Champions League, which this club deserves. Can I achieve it here? I hope so, but it is step by step.

“I have to do more, show myself even more in training, work after training, doing my sessions. You have to work on your first touches, your handling, jumping. You have to make the right decision very quickly in the game. You have to study. The balls change direction, they dip and you have to watch the ball until the last second.”

He talks of a lap of honour at St James’ Park at the end of his first season, when his name was chanted around the stadium. “I was in heaven in that moment. It was a beautiful, beautiful experience in my life. My mum was always telling me, ‘You should not be a goalkeeper, you should be a striker because if you don’t score a goal, it’s OK, but if you lose a goal, you’re so responsible. I say, ‘Yes, but that’s the thing — I want to have this responsibility.’”

Arsenal v Newcastle United

Tomorrow, 4.30pm, live on Sky Sports Main Event and BBC Radio 5 Live

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/meet-martin-dubravka-the-premier-leagues-busiest-goalkeeper-cfkfxqlfk

We don't really deserve him, but he seems to love it here.

It's hard to like players nowadays but him i adore, but as TRon just said, we don't deserve such a great GK and bloke.

All we deserve is Colback.

Love this bloke.

Hopefully he gets a decent move and gets to play a higher level of footy/chance to win things.

Hopefully he gets a decent move and gets to play a higher level of footy/chance to win things.

Same with Schar.

Hopefully he gets a decent move and gets to play a higher level of footy/chance to win things.

 

 

Same with Schar.

And Lejeune

Hopefully he gets a decent move and gets to play a higher level of footy/chance to win things.

 

 

Same with Schar.

And Lejeune

And the Longstaffs

Hopefully he gets a decent move and gets to play a higher level of footy/chance to win things.

 

 

Same with Schar.

And Lejeune

 

And the Longstaffs

And almiron....

This list could go on

Just like Man United, Leicester, Norwich and now Arsenal away matches if Dubravka is not able to turn out 10/10 performances then the team gets the results if has deserved according to xG statistics.

Its a total myth that Bruce has retained the defensive structure Benitez left behind. Its gone and its only due to Dubravka and lots of luck as to why Newcastle haven't conceded a lot more this season.

Just some statistics to prove the point.

Goalkeeper saves.

2019/20 - 26 matches - 106 saves - 1st.

2018/19 - 38 matches - 95 saves - 15th.

2017/18 - 38 matches - 105 - 12th.

Goals conceded.

2019/20 - 26 matches - 40 goals - 16th.

2018/19 - 38 matches - 48 goals - 8th.

2017/18 - 38 matches - 47 goals - 7th.

Bruce doesn't need a chance to put his stamp on the team because he already has and he has taken it backwards. His supporters can point to better points total compared this time last season, but the team was in better hands under Benitez in fact even if Pulis or Dyche were in charge they would at least be safer hands than Bruce because at least put an organised team on the pitch. Next season under Bruce will be a disaster regardless of who he signs and how much he gets to spend.

Arsenal fans were criticizing him and said he was a useless keeper

Arsenal fans were criticizing him and said he was a useless keeper

They're just jealous of him because of his Slavic cheekbones.

To be fair to them they haven't had a decent keeper in forever.

He’s going to do a Given soon and think what on Earth is he doing playing for this shambles.

114 saves in 27 games this season. 121 in his 50 games before this season. That’s scary.

He's been very solid these last few months.

He’s going to do a Given soon and think what on Earth is he doing playing for this shambles.

 

114 saves in 27 games this season. 121 in his 50 games before this season. That’s scary.

Better clubs will surely be circling this summer

Good player. Will pop them bottles when we receive good money for him.

Good player. Will pop them bottles when we receive good money for him.

Woodman will be dressed up as the number 1 and 50,000 will lap it up.

He’s going to do a Given soon and think what on Earth is he doing playing for this shambles.

 

114 saves in 27 games this season. 121 in his 50 games before this season. That’s scary.

 

Better clubs will surely be circling this summer

Apparently Lampard wants him

Lad I know who thinks we should “ give Bruce a chance”, and that Pardew is our “best manager of the Ashley era”,because he “finished fifth”, and that  “Rafa is overrated”, and played “ the most boring football ever”. And also considered not going last season because it was that bad, but definitely was going to be there this season, says Dubravka is average and makes too many mistakes.

You should lure him deep in to the woods and tie him to a tree.