Death of the number 1?

By Ed Stopps

• See here for Ed’s recent article on players retaining high numbers

Even three decades after the introduction of squad numbers, ‘number 1’ remains shorthand for the first-choice goalkeeping position.

However, David Raya displacing Aaron Ramsale at Arsenal left another top-flight club with the man between the sticks wearing a number other than the traditional digit.

Recent memory reminds us that, before Ramsdale took the number 1 shirt at Arsenal, he ousted then-number 1, Bernd Leno (more on him later) while wearing 32.

Taking a look up and down the Premier League table shows just how many first-choice keepers are either choosing not to take number 1 or have ousted a previous keeper and had to settle for a higher squad number.

After 16 games (up to December 10), the following number 1s have played more than ten times:

Just nine of the 20 – Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brentford, Burnley, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Everton, Liverpool and Wolverhampton Wanderers – can be said to have their number 1 as the clear first-choice custodian.

While the man that Arsenal sold to make room for Raya, Matt Turner, took the number 1 shirt at Nottingham Forest and began the campaign in goal, he has of late been usurped by Odysseas Vlachodimos, who wears number 23.

The non-number 1s to have started more than ten of the 16 games so far are:

Groups of ten and nine obviously only add up to 19 – the missing club are Brighton & Hove Albion, where number 1 Bart Verbruggen (seven PL games) and 23 Jason Steele (nine) have shared duties so far.

The players wearing 1 but currently not in favour are Ramsdale (Arsenal), Marek Rodák (Fulham), James Shea (Luton Town), Altay Bayındır (Manchester United), Adam Davies (Sheffield United), Hugo Lloris (Tottenham Hotspur).

Martin Dúbravka started the season on the bench for Newcastle United but has been pressed into action due to Pope’s injury while West Ham United’s Łukasz Fabiański has been chosen for recent games with Areola unavailable.

Champions Manchester City are the only club not have a player allocated the number 1 shirt. Ederson has worn 31 since he joined Man City with other first-team keepers Stefan Ortega and Scott Carson opting against taking 1.

In terms of the numbers assigned, 13, 22, 23 and 31 are more modern-traditional goalkeeper numbers, 17 is very left-field for Leno and the 18, although popular in the US and a far more regularly in the women’s game, is seen a lot less frequently in the mens modern game.

Of the goalkeepers wearing something other than 1, five have ousted the current wearer of the number 1 jersey at their club (Raya, Leno, Pope, Vicario, Areola) or the current wearer has been first choice at one point (Shea – Ethan Horvath was first choice prior to Luton’s promotion wearing 34 on loan from Nottingham Forest).

Verbruggen was a new signing at Brighton while Steele has worn 23 since 2018-19. making the champions the only club in the Premier League with no current number 1. Onana has worn 24 at Ajax and Inter Milan previously so always looked like taking that shirt, even though 1 was vacant when he arrived – he had briefly switched to 1 at Ajax only to experience poor fortune, precipitating a return.

Nick Pope has previously worn 1 at Burnley after it was vacated by Tom Heaton and he moved from 29, so we can only imagine he is playing a waiting game and will move into the traditional number as and when Dubravka moves on.

Vicario’s preferred shirt number appears to be 13, having worn it at his previous club Empoli and Areola has changed to 23 from 13 this season at West Ham, to mirror the number he has worn for the French national team for a number of years.

While the number 1 still holds some gravitas to many traditionalists, the numbers speak for themselves. For me, it’s 1, 13, 31 at club level and 1, 13, 22 at international but these are few and far between now.

With the January transfer window approaching, it remains to be seen if there are any number 1s vacated. Either way, it won’t be until the summer that we see whether or not those first-choice keepers change to make the name at the top of their clubs’ teamsheets, number 1.