Emiliano Martinez was awarded with the Yashin Trophy recently and some rival fans have called the Aston Villa man ‘overrated’, but this is not the case.
Back in the summer of 2020, Aston Villa signed FA Cup winner, Emi Martinez from Arsenal in a deal worth a reported £17 million.
The deal did pose a risk at the time given the lack of top-level experience the Argentine had. It has gone very well, to say the least.
Dibu set the tone early with a penalty save on his debut against Sheffield United at Villa Park.
Things have only got better from there with the Villans going from strength to strength under Unai Emery. Last season the Villans achieved Martinez’s goal of European football returning to B6, “let’s go to Europe, baby!!“.
On the international stage, with his best mate Lionel Messi, he has won the Copa America and World Cup. The keeper played a huge role, especially saving penalties, as La Albiceleste won back-to-back major honours.
In the Qatar World Cup final, the Villa man made what Ben Foster described as ‘the biggest save you will ever see in your life’.
With his performances on the world stage, combined with a European finish in the Premier League, Dibu was named the best goalkeeper in the world.
Why Emi Martinez is called overrated
With any success comes criticism from different corners. Following him being named as the Yashin Trophy winner, many people took to social media to voice their discontent.
This wasn’t helped by an “error” against Nottingham Forest which led to more criticism and overrated comments coming his way.
This comment sums up all the rival fans’ opinions. He was labelled as ‘overrated’ by many different groups of fans. (To call him the ‘most overrated keeper of all time’ is a stretch).
This couldn’t be further from the case and he is often underrated and misprofiled by fans outside of B6.
Underrated, not overrated
Under the tutelage of Emery, Martinez has become one of the best examples of keepers playing out from the back in the Premier League.
Often the Argentine is characterised as erratic and just good at shotstopping. This may be due to his penalty heroics in the World Cup, paired with his slightly strange and out-there celebrations.
With that being said, anyone who has watched Dibu for Villa in the past year will know just how good he is.
When looking at his stats on Fbref, at a glance you can see exactly how good he is. The Villa man ranks in the top 3% for distance of defensive actions, top 2% for crosses stopped and top 1% of defensive actions outside the box (all per 90).
When you consider these stats are compared to all goalkeepers in Europe’s top five leagues, these stats are top-class. It may sound like jargon to some, but especially his defensive actions outside the box show him to be one of the best sweeper keepers in the world.
He is calm under pressure and is an important cog that helps Aston Villa to tick under their Spanish manager. Alongside Pau Torres and Ezri Konsa, there is a solid base to the Villans team.
Following his World Cup heroics and his top club form, if anything he is underrated. To call him overrated, to any Villa fan, would show you haven’t watched him properly in the past 12 months.
