Dundee’s battle of the goalkeepers is at its fiercest point yet.
Manager Tony Docherty has a real conundrum to ponder – does he stick with Jon McCracken, star man at Kilmarnock, or is Trevor Carson back in?
“He made some great saves,” Docherty said of McCracken after the Killie game.
“That illustrates what I want with competition for places. I want that all over the pitch.
“It was a good performance on Saturday [from Jon McCracken].”
Was it good enough to keep his place, though?
Courier Sport weighs up the challenge for the Dens Park boss.
McCracken
The younger of the pair by 12 years, McCracken had the head start on his more experienced team-mate.
Carson was still getting over a troublesome knee issue at the start of the campaign and that saw McCracken start as first choice.
He has since started 14 of Dundee’s 20 matches with Carson initially used as a cup goalkeeper.
McCracken, however, made a glaring error against Kilmarnock before conceding four at Aberdeen to give Carson his route back in.
With too many goals being conceded it was time for a change.
Swiftly, though, opportunity arose for a recall thanks to the plastic park at Rugby Park.
McCracken took it and showed why he’s twice been called up to the Scotland squad this season.
Against Kilmarnock, the former Norwich man made four saves, two of them denying one-on-one chances.
In total this season, he’s made 31 saves in 11 matches – more than Scotland No 1 Craig Gordon – and is fifth in the division for saves per 90 minutes (2.8), one place behind Aberdeen stopper Dimitar Mitov.
He has, though, conceded 23 goals in 11 Premiership matches and only Hibs goalie Josef Bursik is lower on the goals prevented metric (how many goals above average a goalkeeper has prevented). McCracken is on -4.3 while Motherwell keeper Aston Oxborough tops the chart on an impressive 6.3.
One other aspect to McCracken’s game is his long kicking ability – despite being in goal, no other player made more passes in the final third for Dundee on Saturday.
Carson
Dundee have kept one clean sheet in the league this season and it was Trevor Carson who kept it.
His first league appearance of the season came at his old side Motherwell as the Dark Blues ran out 1-0 winners.
He has since faced St Johnstone and Hibs, helping his side to two victories in that small run.
It is difficult to compare saves made for Carson because he has faced so few shots in his handful of matches.
Last time out against Hibs he didn’t make a single save – the visitors scored their first shot on goal and then failed to hit the target for the rest of the game.
He made two saves against St Johnstone and three saves at Motherwell.
The experienced keeper does, though, have a body of work to fall back on. Last season he kept eight clean sheets in the Premiership.
And that experience does count.
Carson has played 434 matches in his lengthy senior career, compared to McCracken’s 57.
Who gets the gloves?
The beauty of this decision is there is no wrong call to be made – both are accomplished goalkeepers in good form.
Before the weekend clash at Rugby Park the expectation would be that Carson would be back between the sticks.
However, McCracken’s performance has given his manager a headache.
Docherty, though, did not go overboard in his praise for McCracken on Saturday – the quotes at the top of this piece were as effusive as he got.
The likelihood is Carson gets the nod.
He had the gloves and missed out on Saturday through no fault of his own.
His experience is a major factor and has already earned a clean sheet against Wednesday’s opponents.
But there is no bad call for Dundee boss Tony Docherty for one of the biggest matches of the season.
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