With Asmir Begovic departing for Chelsea last summer, the 2015/16 campaign was always destined to be a breakthrough season for Stoke’s Jack Butland. The England international had long been earmarked as the Bosnian’s long-term replacement following a £3.5m move from Birmingham in January 2013, and established himself as one of the leading goalkeepers in the top flight this time around. Butland’s season was curtailed by an ankle injury suffered during England’s 3-2 victory over Germany in March, but such was the impression he made up to that point, he takes the goalkeeper spot in our Team of the Season with 33% of the vote.
The Statistics
A popular choice for many Fantasy Premier League (FPL) bosses heading into the campaign due to a lowly 4.5 price tag, Butland struggled to live up to the pre-season hype, failing to register a clean sheet in his first seven matches.
Mark Hughes’ decision to call upon Philipp Wollscheid to help shore up the defence saw the Potters record consecutive shut-outs in away matches against Aston Villa and Swansea. The Stoke rearguard was then further boosted once captain Ryan Shawcross returned from a back injury, racking up a further six clean sheets between Gameweeks 11 and 18. By that stage, Butland’s price in FPL had already risen to 5.1, and peaked at 5.3 just a few weeks later. He only managed a further two clean sheets in his final 13 appearances, though, before injury struck in Berlin.
Butland ended the season with ten shut-outs from his 31 league appearances, with an equal split of five at home and five on the road. Up until he suffered that fractured ankle while on international duty, he led all goalkeepers for saves (102), which was a crucial element to his popularity this season – indeed, Butland earned at least one save point on 18 occasions. The Stoke stopper averaged 3.3 saves per game, which is on a par with Watford’s Heurelho Gomes, the highest scoring goalkeeper in FPL this season, and compares favourably to David de Gea (2.4), who finished second in our vote.
Perhaps the most telling statistic is that the Potters have failed to keep a clean sheet in the seven matches since Butland has been sidelined, conceding an average of 2.6 goals per game, compared to just 1.2 goals per game when Butland played.
With 14 bonus points also accrued, Butland served up 4.3 points per game in 2015/16 – put into perspective, Glen Johnson (3.7) was the only other Stoke defensive regular to average more than 3.0.
A total of 132 points placed the keeper second only to Marko Arnautovic (165) at the Britannia, despite missing the final seven league outings through injury.
The Prospects
Butland’s ankle complaint cruelly ruled him out of Euro 2016, but the Potters stopper has recently done away with his crutches, and has his eyes set on a return ahead of pre-season, tweeting:
“On the way back from seeing the surgeon, walked in with crutches, walked out without them… But all focus now on being fully fit for pre-season.”
That will be music to the ears of Mark Hughes, with confidence in the Stoke backline likely to be largely restored upon his return to action. The injury problems suffered by Shawcross may also mean that the Potters manager looks to enter the market for another centre-back, which could also further boost the prospects of Butland ahead of the new season.
The downside, though, is that Butland will surely be subject to a price hike from his original valuation of 4.5, with a likely shift to 5.0 in line with options such as West Ham’s Adrian and Swansea’s Lukasz Fabianski. This will take him out of the budget bracket and lessens his appeal for those who prefer to select a pair of cheap rotation options between the sticks.
Ultimately, it’s debatable whether Butland will remain in the forefront of our Fantasy thinking as we look for alternative 4.5-priced options in goal. Stoke’s regular backline options all seem likely to start the following season at 5.0, though if they fail to up their resilience – only Everton and the bottom six shipped more – Hughes’ defence may struggle to offer us value for money in 2016/17, regardless of Butland’s exploits between the posts.
