Thibaut Courtois

[Blue Colored Sky 1,807]

8 hours ago, MCM4PR3Z said:

The goalkeeper is the last of our problems. Against Everton he made 2 class saves and the 3 goals were unstoppable. For me he was 8/10 that game. Begovic would have conceded 4 goals imo, so I think it's a stupid solution.

Cech isn't a better goalkeeper or a better coacher (in terms of ability, ofcourse he has more experience), but he knew the other players for over 10 years. Courtois is a new kid and has to let Terry do the defensive coaching. That's the only difference.

Hello again.

Thibaut is my favorite Chelsea player, but there's no question he declined. Even I have doubts now. The third goal should be saved ! How the hell he managed to concede from that angle ?

But I think we really should stop looking at individuals. Every player declined. Even clear world class players like Hazard and Courtois can be doubted now. How's that possible ? Courtois is clearly top 2 goalkeeper alongside Neuer and there's a gap between them and the rest. At least in normal circumstances. Not now. Thibaut was nominated for Ballon D'or as a goalkeeper while not doing fancy moves like Neuer. I don't know where Thibaut stands now.

 

Mourinho broke this team, broke every player. If that happened to one, two, three, four players it could be deeply analysed but every player is shadow of himself. Our cornerstone players, the most reliable ones, who gives consistent performances that weigh between good or world-class ones can't be relied upon anymore. Courtois, Hazard, Azpilicueta, even the last one is not the rock he used to be.

I will defend Thibaut always and will always try to find excuse for him. He has to quickly back to his normal self when he's unquestionable one of the two best goalkeepers. Remember his performances from August to January last season ? He didn't concede one goal from corner as he was collecting every long ball. How you can compare then and now ? Every corner looks dangerous. I know who I can blame for this but there's no doubt that Thibaut has to come back to his level in the next season.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

48 minutes ago, BlueLion said:

 

I disagree with that, but each to their own. His decision making is particularly poor at the moment. Versus Everton, the first and third were avoidable from a team perspective, and though Courtois wasn't directly at fault for the Funes Mori goal, I would say that's amongst a number of goals he's conceded that he should arguably be stopping. He is nowhere near his best at the minute but frankly he's getting no help from his defence whatsoever.

Thought he was a bit slow to react to the Funes Mori goal (certainly not as slow as Zouma and Iva, though. Legend has it that both are still rooted to the spot watching the ball). It seemed he lost the flight of the ball for a second. Obviously not the main culprit for the goal, though. 

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Just now, CHOULO19 said:

Thought he was a bit slow to react to the Funes Mori goal (certainly not as slow as Zouma and Iva, though. Legend has it that both are still rooted to the spot watching the ball). It seemed he lost the flight of the ball for a second. Obviously not the main culprit for the goal, though. 

Agreed. It's mainly me being a hypercritical bastard when it comes to goalkeeping, more than anything else.

[Fulham Broadway 16,835]

3 minutes ago, BlueLion said:

Agreed. It's mainly me being a hypercritical bastard when it comes to goalkeeping, more than anything else.

Well being a keeper, you know the ins and outs. I just dont see Courtois beings as commanding as Cech, verbally, though that may change with time  -how important is that ? Also there needs to be a chemistry between the back four and or at least the central two for the defence to work as a unit I understand, this was superb with Cudicini, Terry and Ricardo, and maybe this takes time to develop.

Bottom line Jose saw something that made Courtois No1 over Cech so he is still an exceptional keeper

[MCM4PR3Z 411]

The third goal is not a mistake for me. Even though the angle was sharp, the goal was completely open. So Thibaut had to gamble where he would place the ball, he gambled the short corner and the ball went long. And his 10 metres arms were just too short to grap the ball. Still the reflex was excellent and not slow at all imo.

Sometimes a wondersave will avoid the goal, but that's just the goalkeeper getting lucky. Skill alone is never enough to save that ball.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

7 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Well being a keeper, you know the ins and outs. I just dont see Courtois beings as commanding as Cech, verbally, though that may change with time  -how important is that ? Also there needs to be a chemistry between the back four and or at least the central two for the defence to work as a unit I understand, this was superb with Cudicini, Terry and Ricardo, and maybe this takes time to develop.

Bottom line Jose saw something that made Courtois No1 over Cech so he is still an exceptional keeper

 

A fair point, but Cech had Terry and Carvalho, who, IMO, is the only defender in our recent history who you could say was better than Terry ever was, in front of him. Courtois has an ageing Terry and either a youngster in Zouma or a bang average defender in Cahill in front of him. A keeper really is only as good as his defence. Courtois isn't as good as Cech yet, but we shouldn't expect him to be. He's 23. He's better at 23 than Cech was, IMO. 

 

5 hours ago, MCM4PR3Z said:

The third goal is not a mistake for me. Even though the angle was sharp, the goal was completely open. So Thibaut had to gamble where he would place the ball, he gambled the short corner and the ball went long. And his 10 metres arms were just too short to grap the ball. Still the reflex was excellent and not slow at all imo.

Sometimes a wondersave will avoid the goal, but that's just the goalkeeper getting lucky. Skill alone is never enough to save that ball.

I didn't say it was a mistake. I'm saying he should arguably be saving it. It was an acute angle from which Funes Mori scored. Yes he had to gamble on his positioning but the instinctive position would have been to have held the final quarter of the six yard box. He made it harder for himself by gambling on the near post. It was an error of judgement, more so than a mistake.

[Blue Armour 4,278]

Like FB said, I'm hoping that this is just a bad period for him...Cech had a torrid time in the second half of 2008-2009, especially in the league, but came back to finish the season strong...with the highlight being the semi-final leg at Camp Nuo

[Blue Armour 4,278]

Like FB said, I'm hoping that this is just a bad period for him...Cech had a torrid time in the second half of 2008-2009, especially in the league, but came back to finish the season strong...with the highlight being the semi-final leg at Camp Nuo

[Stats 7,053]

17 hours ago, BlueLion said:

 

A fair point, but Cech had Terry and Carvalho, who, IMO, is the only defender in our recent history who you could say was better than Terry ever was, in front of him. Courtois has an ageing Terry and either a youngster in Zouma or a bang average defender in Cahill in front of him. A keeper really is only as good as his defence. Courtois isn't as good as Cech yet, but we shouldn't expect him to be. He's 23. He's better at 23 than Cech was, IMO. 

Courtois is better than Cech imo. Cech is a top goalie but I think from the time Courtois was at Atletico he had overtaken Cech and it was timef or him to be no.1. Although Cech has helped Arsenal this season, he has also made several mistakes. Arsenal's first game against West Ham. Both goals which West Ham scored were down to 2 huge errors from him. When they lost to Southampton 4-0, I would say he made poor error of judgemen's for at least 3 goals there.

Even in Arsenal's 2-1 victory over Palace earlier on in the season, the angle in which he let Joel Ward score,a  top goalie should really not be letting that in but luckily they held on that game. I think they have many similariites, but Courtois is better than Cech as a whole imo. But I would say both are prone to the odd mistakes. Cech more so.

[DANILA 290]

I think Cech is better; maybe not now, but before this season. Courtois has let in some soft goals, i.e. both goals against west brom. I love courtois, and I really hope he gets back to form sooner rather then later.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Courtois is better than cech at commanding his area, predicting play and catching crosses. But when it comes to pure shot stopping, Cech is clearly better. 

[It's too big 625]

Cech is an experienced keeper now, though. Remember when he was Courtois' age? I don't like how people are so fast to jump to criticise him when he lets in a goal. The defence in front of him should be doing better to protect him from having to concede those silly goals. 

[MCM4PR3Z 411]

I understand that everybody is pissed off because of our poor ranking and that people are thinking about the old times with the previous group of players. But that doesn't mean that every player is sh*t now and that every past player is better. Cech vs Courtois is a good example of that. Courtois played a great game versus Everton, but everybody is pissed off because we received 3 goals that were impossible to stop for Courtois (the last one could be stopped if he was lucky, but not having luck is not his fault) and everybody forgets he made 2 class saves. With a normal goalkeeper we would have received 5 goals, it's a disaster but it's not Thibaut's fault.

 

2 hours ago, DANILA said:

I think Cech is better; maybe not now, but before this season. Courtois has let in some soft goals, i.e. both goals against west brom. I love courtois, and I really hope he gets back to form sooner rather then later.

Yeah, 2 hard shots right in the corner. Goalkeepers should always save those. Imo people are seeing ghosts here. Letting simple balls (soft and in the centre) go in like De Gea did frequently in December, those are real mistakes. Not making a miracle save is not a mistake. He has made enough miracle saves, maybe people get used to it too much.

Again, reacting extremely fast and tapping balls out of the corner of the goal with his 2 metres body and his 10 metres arms may look easy, because he makes it look easy. But those are truely world class saves and not normal at all.

[Blue_Fox_ 2,086]

lol, someone points out that he isn't up to his standards lately and here come the lawyers.

[Blue_Fox_ 2,086]

He should drink a nice camomile and calm his nerves.

[MefiX19 1,092]

2 hours ago, Blue_Fox_ said:

He should drink a nice camomile and calm his nerves.

Better give him a bottle of vodka.

[Tomo 21,733]

One thing I got to say, that Flamini heel at the end that deflected off Mikel could have been a problem with another keeper, but his positioning was so good it wasn't even a remote issue.

De Gea would probably have been standing closer to centre of goal and been forces into a world class save which triggered a wankfest but Tibo won't get credit for making it look so easy.

[Jase 43,479]

His goal kicks are absolutely rubbish.