Dean Henderson will be examined after limping off the field in his Crystal Palace debut against Man United after just 19 minutes due to a leg injury.

Dean Henderson will be tested after seeing his Crystal Palace debut disrupted by injury last night.

Henderson made his debut for the Eagles, following his £20m summer move from Manchester United, in the Carabao Cup third round tie against his former club at Old Trafford.

But the goalkeeper had to leave the field after just 19 minutes after suffering a leg injury while clearing the ball.

Henderson saw his last season’s loan spell at Nottingham Forest end prematurely due to a thigh injury suffered at Leicester in January which ultimately required surgery.

While there was initial hope about the seriousness of the issue that forced Henderson off last night, Palace will await the result of tests, potentially in the next 48 hours, before having a clearer idea of the extent of the injury.

Palace were already without seven outfield players due to injury significantly reducing manager Roy Hodgson’s options for the League Cup meeting with United.

Though in goal they do have another England goalkeeper Sam Johnstone to call on, who replaced Henderson last night and had started all their games this season before last night.

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It is no easy feat to make the transition from academy to first-team football, and even more so when you are a goalkeeper. This, however, is precisely what former Manchester United youth keeper Dean Henderson did when he took the reins from David De Gea in the United goal.

After impressing in loan spells at EFL League One side Shrewsbury and back-to-back seasons at Sheffield United, Henderson was vocal in stating his desire to become the number-one choice at Old Trafford. He grasped the opportunity to do so in the 2020/21 season, recording 12 clean sheets from 26 matches in all competitions. Despite assurances that he would be the United number one for the following campaign, he predominantly featured on the bench, much to Henderson’s frustration.

The Cumbrian-born keeper continued expressing his desire to play regularly and secured a loan switch to then-newly promoted Nottingham Forest for the 2022/23 season. Injury cut short his campaign in January 2023, but he impressed at the City Ground. The East Midlands side tried to make the deal permanent in the recent transfer window, but United were reluctant to sell without a replacement brought in first. Forest subsequently opted for Arsenal’s Matt Turner, and Henderson had to wait towards the end of the window to finalise his move away from the north-west.

Henderson eventually moved to Premier League side Crystal Palace for a reported £20 million fee. However, interestingly, it is not a foregone conclusion that Henderson will be the first-choice keeper for the Eagles. The present holder of the number one jersey at Palace is current England international Sam Johnstone, who, like Henderson, is a product of the Manchester United academy. In further parallels, Johnstone has also plied his trade in the lower divisions on loan spells.

In this tactical analysis, we will analyse the performance of the current first choice, Johnstone, to determine why he is the preferred option in goal. This analysis will look at the statistics from previous seasons to compare the two goalkeepers at the disposal of Palace boss Roy Hodgson. We will also analyse the possession attributes of Johnstone and Henderson to determine whether they conform to Palace’s tactics.

Johnstone, the current first-choice

When Hodgson arrived back at Selhurst Park for his second stint as manager, Palace were in freefall. They had failed to win in their previous 12 league matches. During this 12-game period, prior to Hodgson’s arrival, the South London side had been conceding 1.42 goals per match.

The former England manager was able to guide his side to five wins, and three draws from the remaining 10 matches to secure the club’s Premier League survival. Furthermore, Palace reduced their goals against rate during this time and were conceding 1.1 goals per match following Hodgson’s appointment.

Hodgson didn’t vary much from his predecessor, Patrick Vieira, with his chosen back four. However, the veteran manager did opt to change his goalkeeper as Johnstone’s introduction to the matchday line-up coincided with the reappointment of Hodgson. Johnstone made an immediate impact in his first league match, in which the Eagles defeated Leeds United 5-1.

The graphic shows that Johnstone saved 85% of the shots on target at Elland Road. All of these saves came in the first half prior to Palace’s equaliser on the stroke of half-time. Palace were then able to dominate the second half and would go on to win the game. It is demonstrated that Johnstone’s performance enabled Palace to keep a foothold in the match and record a vital victory.

In the 2022/23 season, Johnstone made nine league appearances and kept three clean sheets. Therefore, his 33.3% clean sheets equalled Henderson’s percentage of clean sheets at Forest last season. When comparing with goalkeepers who had played in at least nine league games, only five goalkeepers recorded higher rates than the current Palace keepers last season.

Following on from his impressive displays at the end of last season, Johnstone retained his place in the Palace starting XI for the current campaign. Palace boast one of the best defences in the league this season, conceding 1.17 goals per match and 0.83 non-penalty goals per match. Moreover, compared to other goalkeepers this 2023/24 season, Johnstone’s performances in goal have been above the average.

The scatter plot shows Johnstone has saved 73.7% of shots and kept a clean sheet in 33.3% of matches. This is above the average save percentage of 69.6% and the average clean sheet percentage of 20.2%. Furthermore, Johnstone currently ranks in the top five in the division for percentage of clean sheets. These impressive figures suggest Henderson may have a difficult task ahead in displacing Johnstone. Nevertheless, Johnstone has so far only prevented 0.42 goals this campaign.

The graphic shows that Johnstone has conceded goals with low expected goal values. This indicates an underperformance at times from the England international. The 30-year-old will look to improve this aspect as the season progresses. Nonetheless, only Manchester City and Arsenal have faced fewer shots on target in the division this season. This suggests the strong organisation of the Palace defence, spearheaded by Johnstone.

Head-to-head through the seasons

When Henderson went out on loan for experience in the earlier stages of his career, he impressed. Henderson was named in the EFL League One PFA Team of the Year in 2018, as Shrewsbury reached the finals of the EFL trophy and the playoffs. The 26-year-old was also named the Blades Young Player of the Year in 2019 as Sheffield United won promotion from the EFL Championship. During the 2018-19 season, Henderson won the Championship Golden Glove award, having kept 21 clean sheets.

Only three other goalkeepers conceded fewer goals per 90 minutes in the EFL Championship that season, and only Sheffield Wednesday’s Keiren Westwood had a higher percentage of clean sheets in the league. Given Henderson was part of a promotion-winning side that season, it is somewhat unsurprising that he had such impressive statistics.

However, Henderson was the lowest-ranked keeper in the division that season for defensive actions outside the penalty area per 90. On the other hand, Johnstone was ranked in the top three goalkeepers for the same statistic whilst playing for West Brom.

Johnstone was able to recover quickly, however, by getting to his feet to make another tackle. This time, the ball went out of play, allowing West Brom to regain their defensive shape, and the counterattack was successfully halted.

Johnstone has accumulated more experience than Henderson in the EFL Championship over the years, representing Yeovil, Doncaster, Preston, Aston Villa, and West Brom. During his time at Villa and the Baggies, he was part of promotion-vying sides and was able to help clinch promotion to the Premier League at the Hawthorns in the 2019/20 season.