Giorgi Mamardashvili was one of the stars of Euro 2024 last summer and subsequently earned a move to Liverpool as well a Yachine Trophy nomination, but his fortunes since then have taken a turn for the worse.
Whereas the club he’ll join in a few months’ time could be Premier League champions by then, his current side are at serious risk of relegation, with Valencia second from bottom in LaLiga and enduring a 7-1 humiliation by Barcelona on Sunday.
The 24-year-old won’t want to watch back the third goal of the night as, not dissimilar to Robert Sanchez against Manchester City at the weekend, he charged out of his penalty area but found himself in no man’s land as Raphinha got on the end of a loose ball and easily rounded the goalkeeper before slotting into an empty net.
It should be noted that, despite seven goals going past him at Camp Nou, that was the only one where fingers could be pointed at Mamardashvili in terms of culpability.
How has Mamardashvili performed overall this season?
With Alisson Becker now 32 and worryingly injury-prone, it was understadable why Liverpool sought to clinch a deal for the Georgia international five months ago, but the subsequent performances of Caoimhin Kelleher beg the question as to whether the Valencia stopper is actually an upgrade on the Irishman.
The latter looks increasingly likely to leave the Reds in the summer in search of the regular game-time that his talents deserve, which’d shine an even more intense spotlight on the man coming in on Merseyside.
Mamardashvili’s goal concession record hadn’t actually been terrible prior to this weekend (23 in 16 LaLiga games), and he hasn’t been helped by playing in the worst Valencia team since relegation almost 40 years ago.
However, some stats which might worry Liverpool fans is that his side have the worst record in the Spanish top flight for goals conceded per shot faced (0.14) and the joint-worst average for goals conceded per shot on target against (0.41), as per FBref.
The Georgian’s error for Raphinha’s goal won’t have gone down well among those of an LFC persuasion, either, and his save percentage of 66.7% over the past 12 months is among the bottom 24% for goalkeepers in Europe’s five main leagues (FBref).
Let’s hope that we get the version of Mamardashvili who made 11 saves in one match at Euro 2024, and not the one who presented a gift to Barcelona on a horrendous night for his team on Sunday.
You can view the Georgian’s error for Raphinha’s goal below (from 1:21), via Premier Sports on YouTube:
