Jan Oblak: Atlético Madrid's last line of defence is top in 2019
The Slovenian stopper has had another impressive year for Diego Simeone and has shown himself to be top of the tree once again for clean sheets.
Jan Oblak has closed off yet another year having given an outstanding performance for Atlético Madrid. He is a key piece in Diego Simeone's set up, and has proved himself to many as one of the leaders in the squad, providing an insurance at the back for the team. Across Europe's biggest leagues, the Slovenian has kept the most clean sheets across the calendar year.
Oblak: Atlético's superman
2019 has seen Oblak, aided by his Atleti teammates, go 25 games out of 46 without conceding a goal, an impressive 54.3%. The only goalkeeper that gets close to him in this regard has been Marc Ter Stegen, who has prevented the opposition getting the better of him in 22 of 49 matches (44.9%). Challenging him on the percentage stakes, if playing several games less, is Keylor Navas, who moved from Real Madrid to PSG in the summer, and kept 16 clean sheets in 31, the bulk of them coming in Ligue 1 (12 of 18).
In 2018 Oblak played 50 games and did not concede in 27 (54%), and taking a more holistic look, since arriving at the Madrid club in the summer of 2014 he has achieved it in 128 of his 232 matches, an incredible 55.2%. There is no doubt that he has demonstrated time and again that he is one of the very best in the world, and Atleti have done very well to hold onto him.
Goalkeeping performances in 2019 (big five European leagues)
| Goalkeeper | Clean sheets | Games played | Goals conceded | |
| 1 | Oblak (Atlético) | 25 | 46 | 34 |
| 2 | Ter Stegen (Barça) | 22 | 49 | 43 |
| 3 | Ederson (Man City) | 21 | 45 | 32 |
| 4 | Handanovic (Inter Milan) | 18 | 46 | 43 |
| 5 | Alisson (Liverpool) | 17 | 39 | 27 |
| 6 | Keylor (Madrid/PSG) | 16 | 31 | 22 |
| 7 | Maignan (Lille) | 16 | 44 | 49 |
| 8 | Pickford (Everton) | 15 | 37 | 45 |
| 9 | Butelle (Angers) | 15 | 39 | 51 |
| 10 | Vaclik (Sevilla) | 14 | 39 | 50 |
| 11 | Soria (Getafe) | 14 | 39 | 38 |
Once again Oblak found himself nominated for the Yashin award for the world's best goalkeeper, but Alisson Becker, Champions League and Copa América winner with Liverpool and Brazil respectively took the award. The Slovenian knows that titles will bring him closer to those gongs, but his individual performances and value to his team are beyond doubt.