Thibaut Courtois

[BlueLion. 21,491]

And still a few non Man Utd fans say that DDG is better, maybe they should look for a moment how many time DDG needed to get used to the PL and how many time both our goalkeepers needed. And DDG is only a shotstopper, Courtois is at least as good in stopping shots and he is a complete goalkeeper. And make a compilation video of the mistakes of DDG and one of Courtois of their careers, and you will see 50 times more mistakes in the first video. Can't believe some people have that opinion.

I agree with this post in most aspects. I think a lot of people on this forum are dismissive of de Gea. I think he is a very good goalkeeper. He has always been a good shotstopper - I think he is slightly better than Thibaut in this regard, but there is only a small difference; Courtois is still a very good shotstopper - but now de Gea is also starting to improve his all-round game. His distribution is excellent and his strength and physical conditioning has allowed him to become a good goalkeeper aerially as well. However, apart from shotstopping, I think Courtois beats de Gea on almost every other element of his game. As you say, he has adapted to the Premier League in a third of the time it took de Gea. Courtois is still also young; I think by the time he reaches the age of 24 he will probably be even better than he already is.

Its a very subjective thing to list, but I think the impressive thing about Courtois is that when you talk about the world's five best goalkeepers - who in my opinion are Neuer, Courtois, Cech, Buffon and Hugo Lloris, Courtois is by far the youngest on that list. He has room to grow and I think when he reaches Neuer's age he will have surpassed him, or at least equalled him. Even so there is little difference even now. But my point is that whilst there are many impressive and exciting young goalkeepers - de Gea, Lopes (Olympique Lyonnais), Leno (Leverkusen), ter Stegen, Scuffet (Udinese) to name but a few - Courtois is already head and shoulders above them. That excites me!

I can't remember when our first choice keeper wasn't good .

But can you remember when we had two genuinely world class goalkeepers? I can't. No other club in the history of world football has (probably, anyway). Not to Cech and Courtois' level.

[zolayes 14,489]

I agree with this post in most aspects. I think a lot of people on this forum are dismissive of de Gea. I think he is a very good goalkeeper. He has always been a good shotstopper - I think he is slightly better than Thibaut in this regard, but there is only a small difference; Courtois is still a very good shotstopper - but now de Gea is also starting to improve his all-round game. His distribution is excellent and his strength and physical conditioning has allowed him to become a good goalkeeper aerially as well. However, apart from shotstopping, I think Courtois beats de Gea on almost every other element of his game. As you say, he has adapted to the Premier League in a third of the time it took de Gea. Courtois is still also young; I think by the time he reaches the age of 24 he will probably be even better than he already is.

Its a very subjective thing to list, but I think the impressive thing about Courtois is that when you talk about the world's five best goalkeepers - who in my opinion are Neuer, Courtois, Cech, Buffon and Hugo Lloris, Courtois is by far the youngest on that list. He has room to grow and I think when he reaches Neuer's age he will have surpassed him, or at least equalled him. Even so there is little difference even now. But my point is that whilst there are many impressive and exciting young goalkeepers - de Gea, Lopes (Olympique Lyonnais), Leno (Leverkusen), ter Stegen, Scuffet (Udinese) to name but a few - Courtois is already head and shoulders above them. That excites me!

But can you remember when we had two genuinely world class goalkeepers? I can't. No other club in the history of world football has (probably, anyway). Not to Cech and Courtois' level.

cudicini and cech were the best pair I can remember ...I might be time for me to do a Keeper article going as far back as The Cat

[BlueLion. 21,491]

cudicini and cech were the best pair I can remember ...I might be time for me to do a Keeper article going as far back as The Cat

Cudicini was a wonderful goalkeeper and one of my idols, but there is no way on this good earth he is anywhere near either Cech or Courtois. If he was, he'd have been capped by Italy.

[zolayes 14,489]

Cudicini was a wonderful goalkeeper and one of my idols, but there is no way on this good earth he is anywhere near either Cech or Courtois. If he was, he'd have been capped by Italy.

The Italians disliked players playing outside Italy . Even Zola got only a few games after joining us .But agree he was a level down from our current pair.

He was also too honourable too switch his nationality to play for England as was suggested by the press at the time.

[Milan 17,835]

Burnley all over again. A fantastic save and then boom from the very next corner. It's like the goal was just meant to be seconds before so the destiny plays its role....... nah, it's just a shit defending unfortunately.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

He's a teeny tiny bit at fault for me. Started to come and then backtracked. Off balance and retreating constantly meant he was never going to make the save. A great header but a bit of inexperience from him, a shame as it came seconds after a miraculous save. But he is still learning and is continuing to make good performances in big matches. Feel a bit sorry for him, but in truth, without him, PSG should have done us about 7-3 on agg.

[iseah100 5,612]

He's a teeny tiny bit at fault for me. Started to come and then backtracked. Off balance and retreating constantly meant he was never going to make the save. A great header but a bit of inexperience from him, a shame as it came seconds after a miraculous save. But he is still learning and is continuing to make good performances in big matches. Feel a bit sorry for him, but in truth, without him, PSG should have done us about 7-3 on agg.

Can't blame him at all. He did everything he could. I'm sure he didn't expect the defending to be that poor.

[The Chels 2,502]

Before the game:

'We're confident, but we expect a very difficult game. Paris are going to come here to score goals. It'll be a very complicated game. We're ready, and we hope to win in front of our fans. We'll have to see the tactics the coach puts in place. What is certain is that we cannot sit back and wait.

'We have to defend well, but we mustn't go for the 0-0 because if we concede a goal, Paris will qualify by winning 1-0. We have to play to our strengths by trying to score goals and win the game.'

I wonder what he thinks of our big game approach and (in)ability to protect his goal compared to the team he was in last year. I honestly think that if the (intelligent) players were allowed to devise the setup for this game themselves then we would have done a better job.

[iseah100 5,612]

Before the game:

I wonder what he thinks of our big game approach and (in)ability to protect his goal compared to the team he was in last year. I honestly think that if the (intelligent) players were allowed to devise the setup for this game themselves then we would have done a better job.

He obviously doesn't have faith in our defense. Feel for him Filipe and Costa. The team they were in last year was infinitely better than this one.

[The Chels 2,502]

He obviously doesn't have faith in our defense. Feel for him Filipe and Costa. The team they were in last year was infinitely better than this one.

From being one minute away from winning the CL to being knocked out at home in the round of 16 against 10 men... Just a bit of a drop then. It will be a real kick in the teeth for them (and very embarassing for us) if Atletico go on to win the CL, especially Luis as the other two are still young enough to win it. Seeing 'partidazo de PSG' and 'PSG con 10' trending on twitter tonight it's clear the Atleti (and Real/Barca) fans are especially basking in our misery. Bloody annoying!

[iseah100 5,612]

From being one minute away from winning the CL to being knocked out at home in the round of 16 against 10 men... Just a bit of a drop then. It will be a real kick in the teeth for them (and very embarassing for us) if Atletico go on to win the CL, especially Luis as the other two are still young enough to win it. Seeing 'partidazo de PSG' and 'PSG con 10' trending on twitter tonight it's clear the Atleti (and Real/Barca) fans are especially basking in our misery. Bloody annoying!

As they should. We took Atleti's 3 best players and couldn't do shit. Ridiculous. Luis can't get a sniff, Costa did fuck all in Europe. Tibo did all he could but at a certain point there is only so much he can do.

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

I don't give a fuck about Atletico, what I do give a fuck is Courtois' reaction that led to Silva lobing him with his head from 14 yards out. Terribl piece of goalkeeping there.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

As they should. We took Atleti's 3 best players and couldn't do shit. Ridiculous. Luis can't get a sniff, Costa did fuck all in Europe. Tibo did all he could but at a certain point there is only so much he can do.

Costa was not that good last year in Europe anyway, 3 of his goals against a terrible Milan side that ended up finishing 8th, 3-4 against the likes of Zenit, some Austria side...etc. Against us it was a pen.

[mikeholiday 209]

As they should. We took Atleti's 3 best players and couldn't do shit. Ridiculous. Luis can't get a sniff, Costa did fuck all in Europe. Tibo did all he could but at a certain point there is only so much he can do.

Would you start Luis over Azpi?

[iseah100 5,612]

I don't give a fuck about Atletico, what I do give a fuck is Courtois' reaction that led to Silva lobing him with his head from 14 yards out. Terribl piece of goalkeeping there.

Lol what? He can only get JT and Cahill off the hook so many times. Silva got free twice in a row. Horrible set piece defending cost us, not Tibo. He and Hazard were our only good players.

[The Chels 2,502]

I don't give a fuck about Atletico, what I do give a fuck is Courtois' reaction that led to Silva lobing him with his head from 14 yards out. Terribl piece of goalkeeping there.

Does it matter? We would have ended up conceding anyway.

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

Does it matter? We would have ended up conceding anyway.

Not saying he's guilty, we deserved to go out and he did make a great save before that, but this was pretty poor from him.

[Zyphus 1]

Not saying he's guilty, we deserved to go out and he did make a great save before that, but this was pretty poor from him.

It depends... Silva should never be able to score a lobbed header from that area. If you defend properly, the attacking player can't put that much feel in a header like that.