Giorgi Mamardashvili is set to officially join Liverpool at the end of his final season at Valencia, but how has the goalkeeper been performing?
Mamardashvili has been a name rarely mentioned since his £25 million move from Valencia to Liverpool was confirmed last August.
The Georgian, who remains at Valencia for the 2024/25 campaign, has remained effectively out of sight and out of mind in La Liga, with the likes of Alisson and Caoimhin Kelleher impressing at his future club.
The performances of Alisson and Kelleher have raised eyebrows among supporters as the arrival of a new goalkeeper expected to take the top spot is imminent.
So how has Mamardashvili performed since news of his 2025 transfer, and can Liverpool fans expect a changing of the guard this summer?
To hear more about Mamardashvili’s season so far, This Is Anfield spoke to Ruairidh Barlow.@Ruribarou), editor of Football Espana.
First, how has Mamardashvili’s season been going so far?
Frankly, it’s been a much more cautious season for Mamardashvili so far. This is much closer to Valencia’s current form than to his own performances.
There are still games where Valencia fans say things would have been much worse if not for Mamardashvili.
There are exceptions to every rule, and Mamardashvili, who made a brilliant save in a goalless game, conceded Sevilla’s stoppage-time equalizer with a weak hand on his return from injury in January.
It was a cruel mistake, but not a typical one, and the shock of the Valencia fans afterwards was proof of that. From his perspective, that would be the low point of the season.
That said, it was pretty clear last year that he was one of the top two or three goalkeepers in La Liga. Mamardashvili was the tallest player at Valencia last season, both metaphorically and literally.
He’s been a little less prominent this season.
What stands out about his performance in the first half of the campaign?
If there’s one thing that stands out, it’s his double save against Getafe.
With his weight in the wrong direction, he stuck out a big foot to fire a shot from close range, then miraculously got back up and pushed the volley off the rebound to the max.
His reactions appear fast even though they are in slow motion.
This is being talked about as the save of the season so far in Spain, and it’s pretty hard to argue with that. It never hurt when that save came in stoppage time and saved Valencia a point in the process.
Otherwise, the biggest news for Mamardashvili has been the praise he has received since the beginning of the year.
He finished seventh in the voting for the Ballon d’Or Lev Yashin and also won the Georgian Player of the Year award, the latter beating national hero Kvicha Kvaratskelia.
Valencia are clearly struggling. Despite Mamardashvili or was he part of the problem?
Despite Mamardashvili, I would like to say.
His save percentage dropped to 59.2%, and he has never dipped below 70% in the past three seasons. He’s also making fewer saves per game.
Despite this, his expected goals and goals against are pretty close.
Valencia had a pretty solid defense last year, but they are giving up 0.3 more goals per game, and that kind of reflects in his stats as well.
If Los Che were more porous, they are by no means a disaster in defence, and only one of the bottom seven teams has a better defensive record. At the time of writing, I am sitting on the floor.
Not that Valencia fans tend to criticize him considering his previous service, but I’ve never seen anything like it and there’s been no suggestion he was responsible.
Mamardashvili has missed the last three games of 2024 due to injury and good competition Stole Dimitrievski failed to spark any hints of a top spot as the Georgian regained his footing at the weekend.
Mamardashvili isn’t quite at last year’s level, he just produced a few fewer miracles and still remains one of the best players in LaLiga.
In our last conversation you said he was less ‘active’ than a goalkeeper like Alisson. Are there any signs of that changing?
Honestly, it’s not a big amount.
He worked under the same manager (Ruben Baraja before he was fired in December) and in the same system, so he wasn’t really asked to.
Valencia were on a downward trend again this season, so they didn’t go for high saves in the dying moments of the game.
It should be noted that he is still one of the goalkeepers in La Liga who gives the most confidence and stability to his defensive line. But to simplify, there has been no real progress in terms of front-foot Champions League football.
He’s playing about 5% fewer long balls and slightly shorter balls, but I think that’s a natural change rather than a conscious one.
Mamardashvili could start next season on the back foot with Liverpool fans. Such is the popularity of Alisson and Kelleher. Do you think he can rise to that challenge?
entirely.
From what I know about the Kop, they are unlikely to betray him, even if they have affection for Kelleher and Alisson.
However, Mamardashvili came as Valencia’s third goalkeeper and actually signed a contract to play for the B team.
Despite being sidelined through injury in the first two games, he was playing for the first team within a month of his arrival and has never left the team since.
He’s used to doing things the hard way.
For Valencia, he beat out Jaume Domenech and Iago Herrerin, two La Liga veterans who have experienced European football with Valencia and Athletic Club.
Mamardashvili was first called up to the Georgia national team at the age of 21 and was also Georgia’s first choice player at the age of 22.
He’s far from a household name, but he’s a veteran and replaced Giorgi Loria, who had been number one for most of the last decade.
If anything, he was used to starting on the back foot by this point, often facing situations far more adverse than what he would face at Liverpool, even if the pressure wasn’t quite the same.
* Thanks to Ruairidh Barlow for the update on Mamardashvili. You can follow Ruairidh on @Ruribarou.
