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Mary Earps under real pressure for England spot as Hannah Hampton and Khiara Keating raise bar
Two up-coming goalkeepers have been in excellent form this season and outperforming Earps in the WSL
She is the back-to-back winner of the Fifa Best goalkeeper award, the BBC Sports Personality of the Year and the standout crowd favourite at Lionesses fixtures, but could Mary Earps’s position as England’s No 1 be under threat?
The increasingly impressive form of two up-and-coming young shot-stoppers might give head coach Sarina Wiegman a tough decision to make for England’s Women’s European Championship qualifiers against Sweden and the Republic of Ireland in April. Wiegman will name her squad on Tuesday morning, with Earps, Hannah Hampton and all expected to fill the three goalkeeper positions.
Earps’s performances at last year’s World Cup contributed to her being named England’s Women’s Player of the Year and BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year. However, in the Women’s Super League this season the Manchester United goalkeeper is currently being outperformed by her two compatriots.
Statistically, Manchester City 19-year-old Keating has been the best-performing goalkeeper in the WSL this season. Since grabbing the starting spot at her club in September, she leads the way with seven clean sheets in the league, one ahead of last season’s Golden Glove winner Earps. Hampton is third with five, and she has reached that figure from just eight WSL appearances having been Chelsea’s regular starting keeper since Dec 17.
Keating has, according to Stats Perform’s data, prevented more than seven goals that would otherwise have been expected to be scored in the WSL this season, significantly more than anybody else. Hampton ranks second in the division for that metric having prevented just over three goals, while Earps is third at 1.68 goals prevented. So the English trio lead the way across the entire league.
Earps has made fractionally more saves (47) than Keating (46), but when it comes to the percentage of shots they face that they save, Keating and Hampton have been edging out Earps. Hampton’s save percentage is the second highest in the league at 85 per cent, behind only her Chelsea team-mate Zecira Musovic (85.71 per cent), and Keating is third on 80.7 per cent. Earps has saved just over two thirds of the shots she has faced this season by comparison. Keating also ranks highest in the division when it comes to acting as a sweeper-keeper and successfully intercepting.
There is one key area where Earps sweeps the board, though, and that is senior international experience and know-how. The 31-year-old has 48 caps for her country, has kept a clean sheet in more than half of those fixtures (25) and won the Golden Glove at last year’s World Cup under the watching eyes of millions around the world. She has been Wiegman’s trusted No 1 since the coach’s first match in charge of the Lionesses in September 2021 and helping her country win the Euros at Wembley the following year.
So replacing her would be seen as something of a risk. For Wiegman to potentially drop one of her most reliable performers and one of the fans’ most popular players would be a huge call – and the type of decision the Dutchwoman has never tended to make lightly, keeping rotation to a minimum during competitive games.
The repeated chants of “Mary, Mary, Mary” ringing all around the ground at Leicester City whilst England were facing Belgium last autumn were unforgettable because of how rare it is for any goalkeeper to receive such acclaim.
Keating is uncapped, while Hampton has three caps and most recently started England’s 7-2 friendly victory over Austria in Spain in February. Earps started England’s second friendly fixture of that February camp, the 5-1 win over Italy.
Former Aston Villa and Birmingham City goalkeeper Hampton has conceded just once in her past four games for Chelsea, including keeping a clean sheet away at Ajax in the Women’s Champions League last week, and she has been impressing her club manager Emma Hayes, who told reporters earlier this month: “I say this as the future USA coach: England are so lucky.
“I remember watching her [Hampton] play at Birmingham and I said, ‘She is going to be a top, top goalkeeper’ and I genuinely believe Hannah has all the ability to become the best in the world.”
That title currently belongs to Earps, but the strength of the competition for the England jersey now appears fiercer than at any other time in Wiegman’s tenure.