Top LaLiga Goalkeepers in 2018/19 – Jan Oblak

Jan Oblak

Widely regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in world football, Slovenian international Jan Oblak had another outstanding season for Atletico Madrid in LaLiga.

Incredibly, in terms of fantasy LaLiga, Oblak was actually the second-highest points earner out of all players in the league.

Coming in at a cost of 11.0 million, Oblak earned 119 points, only bettered by Lionel Messi’s 172-point haul.

Oblak joined Atletico Madrid in 2014 and became a regular in the team from the 2015/16 season onwards. He has played a vital role in the club’s growth under Diego Simeone during that time.

Starting all but one of Atletico’s 38 league games, Oblak kept 20 clean sheets during the season.

He was awarded 7 points – generally the maximum possible for a goalkeeper – in 19 LaLiga fixtures.

Oblak had a minus-points total in eight games throughout 2018/19. His worst score, fantasy LaLiga-wise, was -4 which he got on two occasions.

The first time was in Atleti’s 3-1 derby defeat at home to Real Madrid in early February. The second was in their 3-0 defeat at Espanyol in their penultimate LaLiga fixture of the season.

Priced at 11.0 million, Oblak might have seemed a touch expensive to many fantasy LaLiga managers. However, his almost guaranteed ever-presence along with Atletico Madrid’s top-class defensive record means he was an ideal pick to start off any fantasy LaLiga team.

Still only 26, Oblak has been considered one of the best goalkeepers in the game for at least two years now. With David De Gea’s dip in form at Manchester United, he is certainly in the top three now alongside Liverpool’s Alisson Becker and Manchester City’s Ederson.

Oblak and his team were eliminated from the Champions League in the last-sixteen after losing 3-0 to Juventus in Turin, going down 3-2 on aggregate after they had achieved what should’ve been a healthy two-goal lead from the first leg at the Wanda Metropolitano.

Oblak has already been nominated for two Ballon d’Or awards, in 2017 and 2018 – a fantastic achievement for any goalkeeper. He was part of the Atleti team who were Champions League runners-up in the 2015/16 season and was a Europa League winner in 2018.

At Benfica, Oblak really caught Atletico’s attention in the 2013/14 campaign as the Portuguese giants won their domestic league title and reached the final of the Europa League. Oblak was still only 21 but Atletico Madrid had seen enough to know the immense talent he possessed.

Oblak seems very settled at Atletico Madrid under Simeone so he may well be the best goalkeeper pick for all fantasy LaLiga teams for many seasons to come.

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