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Former EFL star Adrian Clarke has dubbed Crystal Palace goalkeeper Joe Whitworth ‘phenomenal’ due to his shot-saving percentage this season.
The 20-year-old Crystal Palace academy product made his debut last season for the Eagles in the Premier League when they were going through an injury crisis in their goalkeeper department.
Crystal Palace agreed to send Whitworth on loan to Exeter City this summer and the goalkeeper has been excellent so far this season.
Clarke pointed out that Whitworth is boasting an 86.02 per cent save ratio in the league, which he thinks is a phenomenal achievement for the Crystal Palace loanee.
The former EFL star also pointed out that Whitworth, who is 5.8 feet, is not very tall for a goalkeeper but is confident that the Palace youngster is among one of the best goalkeepers in his height ratio.
“On loan from Crystal Palace Joe Whitworth, the Eagles fans will know about him because he played in the Premier League last season when they were short and bit of having an injury crisis”, Clarke said on What The EFL.
“He came in and had a couple of games; he was under-21s player of the season last year as well, and he is out on loan at Exeter, and he is the only goalkeeper to have a better save percentage than Sam Tickle, 86.05 per cent save accuracy. That is phenomenal!
“Just to give you an idea, in the Premier League last year, Muric [Arijanet Muric] had the highest with 79 per cent and only did it from a sample size of ten games. 86 per cent is excellent.
“What makes Joe Whitworth so interesting is that he is smaller than me.
“He is under 5.9 feet, which I think must make him one of the shortest goalkeepers in English football and certainly one of the best goalkeepers of his height that we have seen in many, many years.”
Whitworth has kept six clean sheets for Exeter City in nine league games and he will be keen on impressing Oliver Glasner before he returns to Crystal Palace at the end of this season.
