🇧🇪 Thibaut Courtois

[BlueLion. 21,491]

20 hours ago, Amblève. said:

That 2nd goal was a pretty poor one to concede; he basically did everything wrong there.

I'd love to hear Alex's expertise analysis, though.

 

I hate to sound harsh on him, because frankly, up until that moment, he had a pretty brilliant game, possibly on par with his performance vs Liverpool in the first leg of last season's COC semi-final. The save in the 4th(?) minute from Veratti was especially excellent because of the way the ball dipped so viciously, so late. I heard Michael Owen say it was a regulation save, and, if anything, he should do more to parry it away from the danger zone, but he did very, very well with that strike. Also with the di Maria free-kick, which was a challenging save as it is almost instinctive for every goalkeeper on the planet to move to the side the wall is protecting. 

 

But he is very poor on the second goal, I have to say. He has two choices - one is to "stay and pray", i.e. simply to assume what is known as the A-position, on his goal-line, to make himself as big as possible and to narrow the angle, making it almost impossible to score; or he has to go and sweep up and clear the ball. It seems he was caught between both, hence why he led with his feet on the save attempt. He really ought to have made himself a big object in a smaller target, by advancing very slightly, in that A-position stance, in which case the Cavani shot is easily saved. That was the only blot on an otherwise perfect copy book. This is something endemic in the professional game, as many goalkeepers tend to launch themselves at the ball in order to block the shot, but the striker almost always has the composure to slot under the onrushing goalkeeper. An example of this is Thibaut last night, as opposed to someone like Cech, who only ever goes to ground or launches himself in when he is at most 1.5/2 yards from the ball, which is the correct application of the technique.

 

 

[DYC. 7,542]

On 17/02/2016 at 6:02 PM, DaddysHobby said:

 

 

Well over 100 clean sheets before the age of 23  ... yet you claim that Courtois isn't a clean sheet GK.

 

That's not what I meant. There are GKs who will have games in which they make save after save after save, refusing to concede and saving their teams. I haven't seen that from Courtois, not for Chelsea anyway. He'll play a great game but concede anyway.

But it's not a big deal.

[xPetrCechx 13,571]

Courtois: "This season has been different. I was sad when a top manager like Mourinho got sacked, but you have to move forward.“ [Telegraph]

Courtois: "You cannot look to the past, you have to look forwards and we were in a bad situation so the club took a decision.“ [Telegraph]

Courtois: "Top four is out of the question. The most important is the FA Cup and the Champions League. That’s our main aim.“ [Telegraph]

Courtois: "It’s nice to win every season. Winning a trophy would be a good way to finish a bad season in a positive way.“ [Telegraph]

Courtois: "But I’m not obsessed by the fact I have to win a trophy every year – it’s a nice thing, but sometimes impossible.“ [Telegraph]

Courtois: "Obviously, you want to play in the Champions League. "But Man United missed it as well and they stayed the same.“ [Telegraph]

Courtois: "When you have a bad year, the next is most important and we have to try to fight back and gain that top spot again.“ [Telegraph]

 

I think He wIll stay.

 

[Ledg 643]

Hope so.

We'll look like the biggest idiots if we let Courtois leave after we gave Cech to Arsenal last year.

[Gilvorak 3,734]

He's been so erratic since his return. Can't believe he took ages to come out for Long's chance. Could've easily swept it up after his heavy first touch.

[LondonsFinest 692]

Big Big BIG howler from him. And Yes. HIM. In no way would anybody else not gather that after Long's first touch.

[Weckerz 3,781]

He's been too hot and cold this season, wouldn't mind Begovic for a few games

[DYC. 7,542]

This had to happen. Players/young players always go through a rough patch. He'll bounce back but there's no denying he's been far from his best in 15/16. Not as confident with him in goal as I used to be.

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,920]

11 minutes ago, Gilvorak said:

He's been so erratic since his return. Can't believe he took ages to come out for Long's chance. Could've easily swept it up after his heavy first touch.

Yeah. That goal really looked like it happened in slow motion. I just knew he would be out there after the touch got away from long, but alas Courtois was nowhere to be seen.

 

He's still a young keeper though. Easy to forget that when you consider his big status. We need a solid group in front of him.

[Blue_Fox_ 2,086]

Drink that camomile bro. It's gonna help.

[Tautvix 1,321]

What is he thinking??? What's the problem with this guy?

[Milan 17,957]

That was a complete fuck up Even Chelsea players were like WTF and watching the ref what is going to happen. The refs were the only ones failing to see that. Luckily.

Anyway, the real problem remains to be his distribution. Piss poor.

[MefiX19 1,092]

It was actualy a deflection from Jerome, you could easily see that in replay. But he still shoudn't risk.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

Not a backpass. The Norwich player was the last one to touch the ball so it doesn't count as a backpass.

[MCM4PR3Z 411]

38 minutes ago, Tautvix said:

What is he thinking??? What's the problem with this guy?

Lol, what's your problem? It wasn't a backward.pass and the referee knew that

[bababoom 4,478]

Beaten at his near post again....

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

Hot Damn! That distribution was atrocious tonight. Just kept hoofing it up to a Norwich player. 

[kellzfresh 7,229]

I don't know if it's because of the previous injury but, 

Cech >>>> Courtois 

And it's not close 

[LAM09 7,054]

Didn't realise his distribution was so bad.

[Jase 43,479]

Would Begovic really do any worse than Courtois right now...?