One LaLiga expert has given Liverpool fans an idea of what they can expect from Giorgi Mamardashvili when the Georgia international comes to Anfield next year.
The Reds recently clinched a deal for the 23-year-old which sees him remain on loan at Valencia for this season before relocating to Merseyside in the summer of 2025.
Dermot Corrigan, who covers the Spanish top flight for The Athletic, spoke to liverpoolfc.com about the traits of the goalkeeper in terms of his strongest attributes – and one aspect where perhaps he remains something of an unknown quantity.
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The journalist outlined: “Last season he was excellent and it was definitely his best season. His xG prevented stat last season in La Liga was the best in the division – it showed that he had reached a new level.
“He’s a big, physically imposing guy with a lot of personality, he likes to be involved in the game. Penalties are where goalkeepers get a chance to shine. He saved three of six penalties faced in La Liga last season, which is a pretty good record.”
Corrigan added: “He is kind of a traditional goalkeeper. At Valencia, he hasn’t played under coaches in the more modern school of building it out from the back, splitting the centre-backs and the goalkeeper being a playmaker from the back.
“I don’t think he’s done that for Valencia or Georgia – I’m not saying that he’s not capable of it but it’s something that he hasn’t really had that much experience of so far in his career.”
As per OptaJoe, Mamardashvili’s tally of 39 goals conceded in LaLiga last season was 11.3 lesser than the xG from the shots on target that he faced, the most positive discrepancy of any goalkeeper in the Spanish top flight in 2023/24.
Furthermore, the penalty-saving record to which Corrigan alluded places the 23-year-old among the top 7% of ‘keepers in Europe’s five main leagues over the past year (FBref). For comparison, Alisson Becker has stopped just three out of the 12 in-game spot kicks that he’s faced (25%) in his six years at Liverpool (Transfermarkt).
The Georgian’s personality also shone through at the end of his country’s 4-1 win over Czechia at the weekend, after which he climbed into the stands, grabbed a megaphone and led a series of euphoric chants among the supporters in Tbilisi.
From The Athletic reporter’s insight, the biggest unknown about Mamardashvili seems to surround his ability in terms of playing out from the back, something which has been a feature of Arne Slot’s Liverpool in the early weeks of the Dutchman’s tenure at Anfield.
A completion rate of 98.1% for short passes during his career (FBref) suggests that the ‘keeper will adapt to the Reds’ playing style with comfort, and the club surely wouldn’t have signed him if they didn’t think he’d be a good fit for the team’s tactical approach.
There appears to be plenty of reason to eagerly anticipate the 23-year-old’s arrival on Merseyside next year, and thankfully we already have two outstanding goalkeepers in the first-team squad in Alisson and Caoimhin Kelleher – an abundance of riches which’d be the envy of even some of Europe’s top clubs.
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