Bartłomiej Drągowski: The heir to the number one shirt at Borussia Dortmund?

Play-style and the Bürki comparison test

As we’ve already mentioned, Bartłomiej Drągowski has been on the path of developing himself into one of the world’s most promising goalkeepers since emerging as a talent with Jagiellonia Białystok. This has of course coincided with the development of his own unique play style that is bolstered by a set of strengths that have made him such a sought after target for big clubs in Europe.

Drągowski has exuded a level of composure and mentality over the course of his career, showing maturity beyond his age of 23. The struggles he has had to go through both via competition for play time and injury have strengthened his mentality and resolve, but also given him the will and motivation to succeed. It can’t be said that Drągowski is a player who doesn’t give his all for his team, and that is certainly a trait Dortmund will want to look at when choosing players to add to their squad in coming transfer window.

In addition to his mentality, Drągowski is lauded for his reflexes and ability to make impossible saves a possibility. This, coupled with his situational awareness would make him quite the coup for a team like Borussia Dortmund. While Bürki may also possess the ability to make some impressive saves, he hasn’t looked fully confident in the face of opposition attacks, especially from set pieces for quite a while now. We’ve mentioned that this is in part due to the performances put in by the defence, but in looking for an upgrade, Dortmund will want to look for a keeper that is decisive and strong in the air.

Drągowski’s aerial strength has been on display quite a few times for Fiorentina, showing he is able to aggressively attack the ball from an incoming cross to punch it away and nullify the threat in any given situation. He has also shown his ability to be more than competent when it comes to stopping long range, surprising strikes, something Dortmund have had an immense amount of trouble with over the last couple seasons.

The one weakness I can see in Drągowski’s game, at least from a Dortmund perspective, is that he is not really a sweeper keeper, a trait that may be useful for a team that plays with such a high defensive line. As per Viola Nation, however, Drągowski’s utility far exceeds this point and his statistics, which, even when compared with Dortmund’s current number one, may not make him seem like an outright upgrade. In 22 appearances this season, Drągowski has kept 5 clean sheets and conceded 35 goals, while Bürki has gone on to concede 26 goals in 16 appearances, keeping 4 clean sheets the process. This has to be taken into context with the quality each keeper is surrounded by on the pitch, however. It’s no secret that, at least on paper if not performances per se, Dortmund have much more quality than Fiorentina.

With the players surrounding him, Drągowski has been able to impress in terms of a crucial stat: his post shot expected goals per 90, “…which tallies how likely he is to stop any given shot he faces in comparison to every other goalkeeper in the league compared to how many goals he’s actually conceded.”

In terms of this particular statistic, Drągowski sits 5th in the Serie A with a number of 0.05. This would go on to indicate that with Drągowski in goal, Fiorentina would be projected to concede 2 less goals than they would normally be expected to, which could be overall crucial for any team, especially one like Fiorentina where fine margins often decide the course of the season. I think that given the chance to play with a more secure back line, Drągowski could really shine and his other statistics, including the number of clean sheets, would go up immeasurably.

In terms of feasibility, I think the signing of Drągowski would be actually far more easy to accomplish than some of Dortmund’s other targets. Recent rumors suggest that Fiorentina would like Drągowski to sign a contract extension, but there have also been rumors indicating they would be willing to sell the Polish international for 20 million euros. With Péter Gulácsi’s recent comments playing down the possibility of a move, it may make it difficult for Dortmund to tempt the Hungarian international to join their ranks, even if there is a release clause in his contract. Drągowski’s current contract runs until 2023, which would mean that Fiorentina should be willing to let him go if he does not wish to renew, making him a solid and affordable option for Dortmund to focus on.

Borussia Dortmund would be ensuring that their goal was in safe hands by signing Drągowski. He has more than enough ability to become a very solid and imposing presence in goal for many years to come.

The general hope would be that, in tandem with a quality keeper, the BVB bosses would bring in the right defensive reinforcements to help back up whoever ends up between the sticks. Defensive stability and security are a change to welcome with open arms; and perhaps it’ll be Drągowski’s outstretched arms that help usher in this new era for Borussia Dortmund.