SykikJV

Greet save indeed!

Can't blame him for the goal, now can you?

It's about what your coach and team are expecting of you, isn't it? At Wolfsburg KDB plays very high up the pitch. Most of the time when he has the ball, he's in the final third of the pitch, where coach and team are expecting him to be decisive. Wolfsburg are playing a very direct and fast style of football too. When they have the ball, they play it forward very fast, reminding me a bit about Klopps Dortmund. They score lots of goals after breaking fast when winning back the ball. So yes, KDB's pass-percentage is a bit low, but this isn't necessarily a part of KDB's game. At Genk he played a few games as CM, he played more safe in that position. Although I agree that KDB is a player that likes to play on the break and likes to play direct.

Said in a post-match interview that Agbonlahor was trying everthing to prevent Courtois from rushing out to catch the ball. Agbonlahor even tried to stand on Courtois' foot in the beginning of the game when Villa crossed the ball. Maybe he lost his focus a bit and was focussing too much on Agbonlahor after that. It's something he'll have to cope with in the Premier League. No reason to drop him at the moment, if he doesn't make a big error in the next game, he'll be fine.

He's proving to everyone just how good he is mentally. Coming into the team at Chelsea, knowing that a player like Cech well be on the bench, people shouldn't underestimate just how difficult that is for a young player. He knows that no-one would complain if Mourinho decides to keep Cech in goal after Cechs recent displays. That's a lot of pressure for a player in his first season in the Premier League. Courtois just comes back into the team and puts in a few wonderfull performances. Courtois either doesn't feel pressure or he thrives under pressure. Courtois will turn out to be a bargain. Without Chelsea selling, there will be a world class goalkeeper at Chelsea for the next 10-13 years.

Also ran the third most miles in the first half of the season. Junuzovic ran the most miles.

Why would you even compare those two? De Bruyne plays higher up the pitch at the moment, even drifting to the wings a lot. Further in his career he may play in Fabregas' position, that's true. De Bruyne broke the Bundesliga's record for most assists in 11 games. The previous record was Diego with 8 assists in 11 games, De Bruyne now has 9. If he continues like this, Ribery's record with 22 for the season is reachable. If Wolfsburg still had a striker like Dzeko, he could already have had 14-15 assists this season.

2 More assists yesterday, could have had 4-5 assists with a bit of decent finishing from his teammates : De Bruyne's game yesterday : http://sporza.be/permalink/1.2141444 (don't know if you can view the video abroad?)

In every team he's played in, KDB has been one of the hardest working players. Ran the most miles in the Bundesliga at a certain stage last season. His workrate has been brilliant for the national team as well, both offensive and defensive with pressing the opponent. You could say that he needed to improve on his ball-winning-skills, as he lost quite a few battles for 50-50-balls in his Chelsea-period. But he wouldn't be the first to need some adapting entering the PL. Blaming him a lack of work-rate would be wrong though. Can't stop to think that, would he have gotten Willian's playing time last season, KDB would be a first team player for Chelsea this year.

² The biggest mistake conceding the goal was the defensive organisation that was all over the place. Matic covering for Ivanovic who's gone AWOL so nobody is covering the space in front of defense. Punching the ball to the sides maybe would have been better, but would have difficult/risky too. He punched the ball pretty high, so with a good defensive setup, it would always have been cleared.

That is indeed the difference. De Bruyne always has been a player who needs games to be at his best, a bit of a slow starter. He wasn't going to get those games at Chelsea last season so he chose to leave. A bit of a shame, because he fits this season's Chelsea's game perfectly and would have fitted in nicely with Hazard, Fabregas en Oscar. And a striker like Costa is ideal for someone like De Bruyne who can play every type of assists (through balls, crosses,...). But with the WC in mind, he never would have stayed an entire season playing only a few games now and then. Curious where he'll go next, because he won't stay for long at Wolfsburg. He's playing at top form at the moment and really made the number 10 position his own at Wolfsburg : 15 games, 8 assists, 4 goals.

Scored twice yesterday. Played as a number 10 and was Belgium's driving force, especially in the first half. Origi is a really good player too, Liverpool will enjoy him a lot.

I honestly don't see him getting to De Bruyne's level. De Bruyne didn't make it at Chelsea for a number of reasons, so I don't really see a Chelsea-future for Hazard.

Arnold, Malanda, Rodriguez, Perisic and Gustavo are pretty decent players too, but none of them are strikers. With a quality striker their midfield would get a lot more assists. They should have bought one in the summer, they got Bendtner instead.

Was even more difficult then Jagielka's goal imo. Quality strike. Created a few good chances yesterday, sadly his teammates aren't capable of quality finishing. Would love to see him move to a bigger club (f.e. Atletico when Koke leaves).

Azpi wasn't completely innocent either, waited a long time before he reacted to Courtois' throw.

He'll extend, pretty sure of that. Mourinho wouldn't have put him in front of Cech unless he was absolutely sure that Courtois will extend his contract.

Even if he thinks Courtois is the better goalkeeper at the moment, he would never say it in public.

His Genk-trainer calls it the 5-point-stance and he said Courtois can execute this to perfection. A goalkeeper has to use 5 points of his body to create the biggest block possible to block shots 1 vs 1 : 2 legs, 2 arms and upperbody/head. Because Courtois is so tall, but still reasonably quick, and has such long arms, his block is very difficult to pass. In many saves you can see that even Courtois barely can touch the ball, but it's enough to deflect the ball out of the goal. A goalkeeper with a few cm's less in legs, arms and hands wouldn't make those saves.

He'll have to switch back to his training at Genk. At Genk keepers are instructed to quickly distribute the ball in certain situations. But at Atletico he was thought to go and lay down after catching/saving the ball. Yesterday he tried it once after catching the ball from a Burnley corner-kick.

That being his kicking the ball from the ground. His overall distribution was excellent. Costa failed to win most balls, but Drogba did.

Fellaini congratulated him with his move to Everton?

News in Belgium that Courtois didn't get a squad number, together with some other players that are on their way out of Chelsea (Lukaku, Moses, Romeu,...)?

Impressive stats for Belgian national team : 25 appearances 6 goals 11 assists Piet De Visser declared in Belgian press this week that Chelsea never stopped believing in De Bruyne's potential as "the next Frank Lampard". However, they thought he needed a little bit more time, while De Bruyne desperately wanted more playing time. He believes De Bruyne will move back to a top team in the future.

Played as a central midfielder with Witsel toddy. Again, he ran the most miles of the Belgian team.