Thibaut Courtois

[lionsden 4,689]

So he has to come here, after all he did in Spain, and accept sitting on the bench cause Cech is a legend? That doesn't sound fair to me.

No because Cech is quite frankly a better goalkeeper and one of the very best the league as ever seen and he only gets to displace Cech by actually earning it through outperforming Cech in a chelsea uniform in an ideal world.

[lionsden 4,689]

Okay, then what about the Champions League? He was great throughout.

Great throughout? this is the type of overrating that I'm talking about, The barca fixture where the only matches where he produced impressive performance. Majority of their matches in the group stages were absolutely cake walk (Atleti were hardly threatened at the back as was often the case in la liga due to their great defensive organisation) and in the other two games were he was tested during the entire competition, games against Zenith and Real, he made huge errors that led to goals.

This is a classic case of rewriting history.

As always, atleti defend resolutely, limit their opponents to barely half chances and courtois maybe makes a couple of easy/routine saves that any keeper at the top level would be expected to make, AM keep clean sheet and Thibaut is praised to high heavens for the record he contributed little to. wash rinse and repeat.

[lionsden 4,689]

if we start petr over courtois, we risk losing him permanently. not only is the difference between chec and courtois not worth losing courtois; many would argue courtois is better than chec and is the 2nd best gk in the world

#sigh

[Sheva. 5,373]

This is a classic case of rewriting history.

As always, atleti defend resolutely, limit their opponents to barely half chances and courtois maybe makes a couple of easy/routine saves that any keeper at the top level would be expected to make, AM keep clean sheet and Thibaut is praised to high heavens for the record he contributed little to. wash rinse and repeat.

This is funny because the same pretty much applies to Cech. A lot of his clean sheets he doesn't even touch the ball more than 5 times.

[lionsden 4,689]

This is funny because Cech doesn't have to do much also, and still concedes cheap goals on corners.

Cech usually has to do alot actually. a whole lot more than Thibaut.. . .The presence of David Luiz alone makes that impossible. Even in our best defensive year 04/05 I remember vividly spectacular saves cech had to make like against Barca, Blackburn, Liverpool,Newcastle, Fulham just to name a few. His award as the best goalkeeper that year was well earned and fully deserved.

Atleti on the otherhand are just a different beast collectively, they are arguably the most stingy and annoyingly resolute team I have seen in recent years, they simply do not allow their opponent to create clear cut chances

[Tomo 21,681]

Cech usually has to do alot actually. a whole lot more than Thibaut.. . .The presence of David Luiz alone makes that impossible. Even in our best defensive year 04/05 I remember vividly spectacular saves cech had to make like against Barca, Blackburn, Liverpool,Newcastle, Fulham just to name a few. His award as the best goalkeeper that year was well earned and fully deserved.

Atleti on the otherhand are just a different beast collectively, they are arguably the most stingy and annoyingly resolute team I have seen in recent years, they simply do not allow their opponent to create clear cut chances

Behind every great defence is a great keeper.

The Rio, Vidic and Evra defensive axis that was lauded to high heaven, Rio himself admitted they wouldn't have been half as good if it weren't for VDS. If Leti started playing Ross Turnbull then there great defence would quickly look a shadow of it's former self.

[Chelsea? 892]

#sigh

yea, they're people out there that rate Courtois more than Petr. Sorry you had to find out this way.

[lionsden 4,689]

yea, they're people out there that rate Courtois more than Petr. Sorry you had to find out this way.

Fair enough. everyone has the right to have an opinion.

[Sheva. 5,373]

Cech usually has to do alot actually. a whole lot more than Thibaut.. . .The presence of David Luiz alone makes that impossible. Even in our best defensive year 04/05 I remember vividly spectacular saves cech had to make like against Barca, Blackburn, Liverpool,Newcastle, Fulham just to name a few. His award as the best goalkeeper that year was well earned and fully deserved.

Atleti on the otherhand are just a different beast collectively, they are arguably the most stingy and annoyingly resolute team I have seen in recent years, they simply do not allow their opponent to create clear cut chances

Courtois also has to make great saves. I remember in the Copa final against Jose's madrid, he saved more than 1 clear goal. Also against Milan last season, he made a great save on Kaka. (Obviously i can't list all his great saves since i don't watch him for 60 games a season, like with Cech)

Atletico fans rate him highly for a reason, and it's not just because he makes easy, routine saves

Behind every great defence is a great keeper.

The Rio, Vidic and Evra defensive axis that was lauded to high heaven, Rio himself admitted they wouldn't have been half as good if it weren't for VDS. If Leti started playing Ross Turnbull then there great defence would quickly look a shadow of it's former self.

Everything about this. Atletico defence was better because Courtois is solid and reliable.

I watched one la liga game last season when they used their backup GK, was a shitshow. He was so shaky and they ended up conceding i believe 2 goals because of him.

[Chelsea? 892]

Fair enough. everyone has the right to have an opinion.

lol, wasn't expecting a subtle responds. had my sword and shield out.

In all seriousness i don't really know much about GK's to know which player is better. I just want to see Courtois get the spot because I don't want to lose him. But letting Petr go would be the first of the old guard I'll be sad to see leaving. (maybe cole and essien too)

[manpe 10,855]

But letting Petr go would be the first of the old guard I'll be sad to see leaving.

Drogba? Lampard?

[burrogol 16]

Where in La Liga. Is that we play? How many times have we seen top players in other leagues come to the EPL and fail?

Sounds like Romelu upon Costa's arrival...

On topic: I think also in la liga they have pacey/physical situations tbh - especially for GKs-

Hasn't he shown last year he can deal with intense games vs. British opponents?

[CMS 382]

My god what a load of shite.

Jose isn't going to play Courtois simply because he has demanded he won't sit on a bench. He will play him if hes done enough in training to prove hes the better goalkeeper out of him and Petr. You said people are writing thinking they know what they are talking about even though what you said is pretty fucking stupid. Jose isn't going to make someone first choice because they demand it. Look at what happened with Lukaku. Idiot.

You are the idiot and the stupid one here. If you are not able to discuss intelligently then shut up. What's with the insults? I'm having a conversation with intelligent people who can also agree to disagree. Who let you sign on here anyways? No one invited you into it.

[CMS 382]

Sounds like Romelu upon Costa's arrival...

On topic: I think also in la liga they have pacey/physical situations tbh - especially for GKs-

Hasn't he shown last year he can deal with intense games vs. British opponents?

La liga does not have big tall extremely physical players like the EPl. He's not going to have a free roam in the box to pick up flighted balls like he did over there. We have huge players like Kompany, Lescott, Jones,Ager, Etc etc., who will challenge and block you from all that. Plus players like Kevin nolan, Lambert, etcc are very hard and taller than average Joes in Spain. So its not going to be that easy. He will be successful, but not what some are thinking like its going to be a cakewalk.

[CMS 382]

#sigh

I feel you. Most top goalies play till they are like 40 or 41. Van Der Sar at Man U played till 40+, Buffon is how old, etc. etc. GK position is not like a field player where you need fresh legs as in younger players. 32 is very young in GK age. Our own Schwarzer Nigel Martin, David Seaman kept till how old? Gordon Banks, Peter Schmeichel (sp) Scary guy.David James, Jan Tomaszeweski, Harald Schumacher, Angelo Peruzzi, Jose Luis Felix Chilavert , Fabian Barthez , Etc. The guy is young, so we should just discard of club legends, because we are scared of losing him. If he really loved Chelsea, it should not an issue in the first place. Every player will have his up and down part of his career, and clearly, Petr has not shown us that he is in a downward spiral.

[Stingray 9,441]

This guy comes in and acts like a petulant child arrogant prick and gets what he wants without doing a damn thing to earn it in return

Now that is surely not an exaggerated interpretation :-)

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

Easy guys.

Actually I think the media make it looks like there is a heat condition about this GK competition, the one who will be benched today will be unhappy for their entire life and want to leave. I don't think it is that bad. Probably Jose, Courtois and Cech are laughing together right now.

[The only place to be 11,313]

What has he done to earn the first spot ahead of Cech? performance wise, cech has always been better than him and premier league proven.

Cech was flakey at crosses last season and made enough mistakes to be dropped for Mark Schwarzer.

You're referring to Cech of about 18 months ago and if his form was still at that level then you'd be right.

Ofcourse Thibaut "parry shots back into dangerous zone" Courtois is better.

And Petr 'flaps at crosses and costs us goals' Cech is better?

You can pick moments out of matches and extrapolate larger issues if you want, but for me it comes down to this.

I want Courtois to continue his form of the last 12 months.

But I want Cech to REDISCOVER his form of about 18 months ago. That's the real difference between the two. Courtois is the better keeper right now.