In less than a year, Matz Sels has gone from being regarded as a potential stopgap mid-season signing to establishing himself as one of the best-performing goalkeepers in the Premier League.
The Belgium international’s evolution reflects the transformation Nottingham Forest have gone through as a side during that time, as then newly-appointed head coach Nuno Espirito Santo has taken a team who faced relegation in the previous two seasons and turned them into challengers for a top-four finish and the Champions League place that comes with one.
Sels was sixth or seventh on Forest’s list of goalkeeper targets during the winter window a year ago — which even saw them test the water over a move for a clubless David de Gea, who hadn’t played since the previous season after leaving Manchester United — before a £5million ($6.1m at the current exchange rate) deal was agreed for him with French club Strasbourg in the final hours of it. He might not have been a panic signing — Nuno, a goalkeeper himself in his playing days, was a fan of Sels before he joined — but the now 32-year-old arrived in anxious circumstances, landing at East Midlands airport with only a few hours of the window left.
Forest had invested close to £20million to sign two new goalkeepers in Matt Turner and Odysseas Vlachodimos the previous summer. But neither the USMNT international nor his Greece counterpart had made the desired impact under manager Steve Cooper and successor Nuno. Inside and outside the club, there was a feeling Sels might be a short-term solution to an unexpected problem.
But his performance in the 1-1 draw with league leaders Liverpool this week underlined, not for the first time, why that notion has been firmly dispelled.
With Sels an ever-present in the Premier League this season, Forest have kept nine clean sheets — most in the division; Liverpool and Newcastle have eight each — and conceded 20 goals in 21 games, a figure only bettered by Arsenal (19).
He has a save percentage of 77.1, according to fbref.com, which is bettered only by Robert Sanchez of Chelsea (78.2), and a clean sheet percentage (42.9) which is the division’s highest by a street — among players who have started more than 10 league games this season, the next best is Everton’s Jordan Pickford at 35.0.
Sanchez is top of the saves percentage charts (Photo: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
The defensive fragility that had so often undermined Forest during last season’s fight against relegation — when they conceded 67 goals in the 38 league games — is a long-forgotten memory.
It is not just down to Sels — the centre-back partnership of Murillo and summer 2024 signing Nikola Milenkovic is formidable — but he has earned the respect of his team-mates.
“We are very, very happy with Matz and the way he has been handling things,” said playmaker Morgan Gibbs-White in a recent interview with journalists. “He has been giving confidence to the team and has saved us in so many moments and given us points, which is huge.”
Milenkovic concurs. “Matz is just a goalkeeper with great experience,” says the Serbia captain. “He is very good with his feet and he makes good saves.”
Sels’ display against Liverpool at the City Ground on Tuesday, which was a major factor in ensuring Forest have taken four points from the title favourites this season, personified everything that has made him so impressive. He made five often-vital saves, taking his tally to 63 this season from 83 shots on target faced.
“Both saves he made from (Diogo) Jota, when he closed down the angle so quickly, were massive,” says The Athletic’s goalkeeping expert Matt Pyzdrowski, who played the position professionally in his native United States and Sweden and is now a goalkeeping coach in the latter. “That is one of his strengths. When the ball is in tight areas in and around his goal, Matz excels. He is a big guy (6ft 2in/188cm) and he is very, very good at closing the angle quickly and keeping his chest square to the ball.”
The first of those two stops came after Jota cut in from the right, for once leaving Murillo in his wake.
Sels is on his line initially but is quick to see the danger, and comes rushing out.
When Jota gets his shot away, he is close enough to block it.
The second save from Jota comes after good work from Trent Alexander-Arnold on the right.
The England right-back’s cross is dangerous…
…but Milenkovic does enough to prevent Cody Gakpo getting a shot away.
But even as the ball then bounces out to Jota, Sels is already reacting…
…and gets his body in the way again.
“The second one in particular is very good. He takes the decision very quickly, when the ball goes across the six-yard box. Even though he has players around him, he very quickly goes out and throws himself, as big as he can, to make an incredible save,” adds Pyzdrowski.
Is Sels’ alertness in coming off the line instinctive, or something that was drilled into him on the training ground?
“It is something that can be learned,” says Pyzdrowski. “But there are certain traits that are just naturally ingrained in certain ’keepers, as they are in other players. Bravery is a very big thing.
“Not every ’keeper is comfortable in those situations. A lot will have to do with his physical attributes. If you are a big, stocky guy, naturally that might make him a little bit braver. Again, the decision-making can be taught, but also you just have a lot of it in you. Some guys are just better at reading the game and are very confident about getting out quickly and spreading.”
Sels also made an impressive stop from Dominik Szoboszlai when he hit a crisp shot from outside the penalty area…
…and demonstrated his reflexes again when Mohamed Salah curled one around Neco Williams.
“I thought the final save he made, from Cody Gakpo, was the best save (of them all). It even took a deflection,” says Pyzdrowski. “It will have been so tough for him to get a clean view of the ball and where it was going.”
“He does an excellent job of getting down so fast, which is another of his strengths,” says Pyzdrowski.
Pyzdrowski believes having a consistent defence in front of Sels — Murillo, Milenkovic, Williams and Ola Aina have started six of the past seven games in the Premier League together — also helps, along with allowing Forest’s centre-backs to deal with some of the crosses, so Sels can concentrate on his key strength of shot stopping.
But what sold Nuno — who played in goal for clubs including Porto, Dynamo Moscow and Deportivo La Coruna and for Portugal, at the 1996 Olympic Games and making their 2008 European Championship squad, during an 18-year career — on Sels?
“The job of the ’keeper is to give the team confidence, and that is what he gives us,” said Nuno in his pre-match press conference before the visit of Southampton tomorrow. “He has experience, his positioning is always very accurate, which gives him a big advantage. He is good at reducing the angles and the space available to the opponent.
“Improvement, improvement, improvement. Matz is continually improving. He is getting more confidence; he is getting more vocal. He is giving us what really we need: Stability, confidence (in him), solving problems, fantastic saves… credit for him but also to the group of ’keepers, who push him on.
“We had an issue with our goalkeepers and we were able to solve it with Matt.”
Nuno has confirmed Miguel, the £3.4million signing last summer from Brazilian club Corinthians, will play in Forest’s FA Cup ties — they beat Luton of the second-tier Championship last weekend and face third-tier Exeter in the fourth round next month — but for now, Sels’ position as No 1 in the league must be set in stone.
Pyzdrowski believes the fact Forest obviously backed Sels in the summer — with Vlachodimos sold to Newcastle in a remarkable £20million deal and Turner joining Crystal Palace on a season’s loan — will only have helped his confidence. “They have put their faith in him. They shipped out Turner and Vlachodimos and said ‘You are our guy’,” he adds. “I did not think he would be a long-term solution for Forest. It felt as though he was brought in just to solve a problem. But he has done an excellent job.”
Nuno calls his goalkeepers “the society”, and places particular value in the harmony that exists within the group.
Wayne Hennessey, the former Wales international, was released by Forest last summer but continued to be part of the setup while he recovered from an Achilles tendon injury. The fact the club have now given the 37-year-old a contract until the end of the season is further evidence that signing another ’keeper is not a priority. Nuno values the influence of the experienced former Wolves, Palace and Burnley man, and there is an expectation Hennessey will be offered a coaching role at Forest when he does retire.
“In a goalkeeper unit, you need to have that tightness — a bunch of guys who coach each other, help each other and give that support,” says Pyzdrowski. “You want each other to succeed, despite being rivals. The unit that they have together, plays such a big role for the ’keeper who plays.”
Since cult hero Brice Samba left in summer 2022 after playing a key role in winning Premier League promotion that season, goalkeeper has been a problem position for Forest; none of Dean Henderson, Keylor Navas, Turner or Vlachodimos has proved a permanent solution. But Sels, who had two previous seasons in England with Newcastle from 2016-18 but made just nine league appearances, has.
He has even earned his own chant, from the terraces, to the tune of Our House, by Madness, an English band who rose to fame in the 1980s: “Matz Sels, in the middle of our goal.”
He is not (yet) the best goalkeeper in the Premier League, but he is among the best-performing.
For Forest and Sels, another Madness song feels resonant: It Must Be Love.
(Top photo: MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
