Thibaut Courtois

[LondonsFinest 692]

Don't hate me for making this post.

It is often said in football that a good GK is half the team. True. Although, good GK's can be found EVERYWHERE and need to be good at one thing, shot stopping and Commanding of his area. While I do agree, Courtois is a great talent and would be stupid to lose him, you only need to open your eyes a tad more to see that, everything has a price and there is quality everywhere.

People saying going for Forster would make us the new AC Milan. Really? Because everytime I watch Forster he can take my breath away with some unreal saves. 

Don't let this sound extremely negative towards TBO, but you can find a good keeper everywhere. Unlike the WC player you need in every position, a GK isn't divided into a different bracket for every skill he posesses, because its minimal. This is not me taking away anything from the GK role, much rather people being afraid of losing Courtois. If Real are willing to bet on him and are throwing more than 30 mil. POUNDS, by all means, carry him to Madrid immediately. You only need to take a look, basically everywhere and put enough trust in any other GK( accomodation, once in a while cock-up) to have a new gem.

Butland, Forster, Timo Horn, Ren Zieler, Bernd Leno, Donarumma, Perrin, Rulli are just a few of the much and much talented YOUNG goalkeepers in which you can put your trust in and would make us an instant 20m profit on Courtois.

 

I do NOT wish Courtois to leave, quite contrary, but if he doesn't want to be here (100%) and we have the opportunity to sell him for big bucks, by all means, cash in Chels. I watched TBO at Atleti and even at Chels, yes he is great, but there are GKs like him, he hasn't dazzled me like De Gea, like Buffon. I don't know if it is the size that makes his saves look easy or something else, but IN MY PERSONAL OPINION, Courtois is the least of our worries, but definitely one of the most profitable players, right now.

[chelseafan26 293]

18 minutes ago, LondonsFinest said:

Don't hate me for making this post.

It is often said in football that a good GK is half the team. True. Although, good GK's can be found EVERYWHERE and need to be good at one thing, shot stopping and Commanding of his area. While I do agree, Courtois is a great talent and would be stupid to lose him, you only need to open your eyes a tad more to see that, everything has a price and there is quality everywhere.

People saying going for Forster would make us the new AC Milan. Really? Because everytime I watch Forster he can take my breath away with some unreal saves. 

Don't let this sound extremely negative towards TBO, but you can find a good keeper everywhere. Unlike the WC player you need in every position, a GK isn't divided into a different bracket for every skill he posesses, because its minimal. This is not me taking away anything from the GK role, much rather people being afraid of losing Courtois. If Real are willing to bet on him and are throwing more than 30 mil. POUNDS, by all means, carry him to Madrid immediately. You only need to take a look, basically everywhere and put enough trust in any other GK( accomodation, once in a while cock-up) to have a new gem.

Butland, Forster, Timo Horn, Ren Zieler, Bernd Leno, Donarumma, Perrin, Rulli are just a few of the much and much talented YOUNG goalkeepers in which you can put your trust in and would make us an instant 20m profit on Courtois.

 

I do NOT wish Courtois to leave, quite contrary, but if he doesn't want to be here (100%) and we have the opportunity to sell him for big bucks, by all means, cash in Chels. I watched TBO at Atleti and even at Chels, yes he is great, but there are GKs like him, he hasn't dazzled me like De Gea, like Buffon. I don't know if it is the size that makes his saves look easy or something else, but IN MY PERSONAL OPINION, Courtois is the least of our worries, but definitely one of the most profitable players, right now.

Well said brother!!! 

[OhForAGreavsie 6,072]

32 minutes ago, LondonsFinest said:

Don't hate me for making this post.

It is often said in football that a good GK is half the team. True. Although, good GK's can be found EVERYWHERE and need to be good at one thing, shot stopping and Commanding of his area. While I do agree, Courtois is a great talent and would be stupid to lose him, you only need to open your eyes a tad more to see that, everything has a price and there is quality everywhere.

People saying going for Forster would make us the new AC Milan. Really? Because everytime I watch Forster he can take my breath away with some unreal saves. 

Don't let this sound extremely negative towards TBO, but you can find a good keeper everywhere. Unlike the WC player you need in every position, a GK isn't divided into a different bracket for every skill he posesses, because its minimal. This is not me taking away anything from the GK role, much rather people being afraid of losing Courtois. If Real are willing to bet on him and are throwing more than 30 mil. POUNDS, by all means, carry him to Madrid immediately. You only need to take a look, basically everywhere and put enough trust in any other GK( accomodation, once in a while cock-up) to have a new gem.

Butland, Forster, Timo Horn, Ren Zieler, Bernd Leno, Donarumma, Perrin, Rulli are just a few of the much and much talented YOUNG goalkeepers in which you can put your trust in and would make us an instant 20m profit on Courtois.

 

I do NOT wish Courtois to leave, quite contrary, but if he doesn't want to be here (100%) and we have the opportunity to sell him for big bucks, by all means, cash in Chels. I watched TBO at Atleti and even at Chels, yes he is great, but there are GKs like him, he hasn't dazzled me like De Gea, like Buffon. I don't know if it is the size that makes his saves look easy or something else, but IN MY PERSONAL OPINION, Courtois is the least of our worries, but definitely one of the most profitable players, right now.

I agree wholeheartedly with your two main points: -

• If Thibaut does not want to stay then we should give his agent permission to find a club willing to meet our valuation. After the trauma of the current season the last thing we need is to drag player disaffection into the new season too. We need to root it out, not replant it.
• There are very many highly competent keepers who can contribute fully to a successful team. Let's face it, at one point last season we had three of them and even now we still have two.

Having said that however: -

• I have never heard the expression that a good goalkeeper is half a team but, in any case, it is absolutely 100 percent not true. As is well argued in the remainder of your post.
• Shot stopping and commanding the area are at least two goalkeeping attributes not one. I say at least because commanding the area probably needs to be broken down into more than one category.
• Even if we say that shot stopping and commanding the area are only two attributes, they are far from the only ones required to be a sound goalkeeper. Kicking with both feet, distribution from hand, speed off the line to sweep up, to name just three.

 

[LondonsFinest 692]

3 hours ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

I agree wholeheartedly with your two main points: -

• If Thibaut does not want to stay then we should give his agent permission to find a club willing to meet our valuation. After the trauma of the current season the last thing we need is to drag player disaffection into the new season too. We need to root it out, not replant it.
• There are very many highly competent keepers who can contribute fully to a successful team. Let's face it, at one point last season we had three of them and even now we still have two.

Having said that however: -

• I have never heard the expression that a good goalkeeper is half a team but, in any case, it is absolutely 100 percent not true. As is well argued in the remainder of your post.
• Shot stopping and commanding the area are at least two goalkeeping attributes not one. I say at least because commanding the area probably needs to be broken down into more than one category.
• Even if we say that shot stopping and commanding the area are only two attributes, they are far from the only ones required to be a sound goalkeeper. Kicking with both feet, distribution from hand, speed off the line to sweep up, to name just three.

 

Ughh, I kind of combined them to be one,but lets say that Kicking with both feet, distribution via feet/hands, speed of coming out can all be worked on with time. What I meant is that a GK can be found everywhere and I believe you agreed on that. 

 

Now there may be a lot of arguing(not solely from you) on whether and how amazing TBO is. Fact is, I only started watched him so closely after the howlers vs Hull and then someone said he can do everything and not keep a clean sheet. Truth be told, I like Tibo, but compared to Neuer, De Gea, Buffon I am yet to see a match in which he just frustrates the opposition. Maybe it is currently psychological and they firmly believe they can bag the three points, but still..

I am willing to bet a lot of money that any other young keeper can have the same impact as he has. At least for the 2 years here that is. I don't want to fault him, but it's his decision making that is really off the chart. For example, De Gea knows he is not great at corners, doesn't risk many clearings. Thibo relies on his height and bottled the CL match vs PSG(last year, which was his better year). Ofcourse he's still very young, but until I've (personally) seen a game in which he completely denies the opposition, then I won't change my mind that if we put Butland or Forster it would be the same. 

I want him to make games like Liverpool COC one at least once a month. It's the always the odd slap, the odd decision, near post, deflection, etc. that make him concede. I don't want to lay into him, because the defence in front of him has been atrocious, but he hasn't look the top 5 GK we expected him to be, at all.

[KevinAshburner 1,270]

this was posted six days ago on : https://news.asianbookie.com/

 

Chelsea directors fear backlash if Real Madrid target Courtois sold

Friday, April 15, 2016 - 6 days ago

https://news.asianbookie.com/news.cfm?id=251245&section=ENGLAND

Chelsea chiefs are weighing up the ramifications of selling Thibaut Courtois.

 

The Belgian has been linked with a summer move to Real Madrid.

The Chelsea-fear-selling-Thibaut-Courtois-backfire-Romelu-Lukaku-Kevin-Bruyne-going-prove-club-chiefs-wrong.html"> says Chelsea are willing to offload one of their top stars this summer to help supplement new manager Antonio Conte's transfer budget, with Courtois one who could be sacrificed.

But there is apprehension at Stamford Bridge over the prospect of the Belgium international leaving this summer.

Blues chiefs fear letting Courtois leave this summer could backfire. the shot-stopper, 23, is viewed as one of Europe's best young goalkeepers, despite an indifferent season.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

It would be nonsensical to sell Courtois after we're seeing the ramifications of selling De Bruyne & co! 

He has no right to demand a move after we sold Cech to accommodate for him and he's on a long-term contract. The number would have to be astronomical to consider it IMO, because of course everyone has their price.

[Muzchap 8,966]

2 hours ago, LDN Blue said:

It would be nonsensical to sell Courtois after we're seeing the ramifications of selling De Bruyne & co! 

He has no right to demand a move after we sold Cech to accommodate for him and he's on a long-term contract. The number would have to be astronomical to consider it IMO, because of course everyone has their price.

Yeah, but that's why people were so pissed at selling Cech. 

Bowing to player power is crazy - SAF didn't do it - ever - and look how successful his teams were. 

I hope this is just media bollox TBH. 

[LDN Blue 7,903]

15 hours ago, Muzchap said:

Yeah, but that's why people were so pissed at selling Cech. 

Bowing to player power is crazy - SAF didn't do it - ever - and look how successful his teams were. 

I hope this is just media bollox TBH. 

But at the same time SAF was happy to let legends go (albeit not to rival clubs). Even though in his case it was players who crossed him (Beckham, Keane) as well as players' natural desire to leave, he usually replaced them adequately. 

Cech was, reasonably, unhappy playing number two. Why wouldn't he be? In theory it was the easiest solution. Get a nice fee for Cech and we still have a potentially world class player to fill the boots. Now the potentially world class player wants out supposedly. 

The model works if we can replace Courtois with a player of equal calibre and there's not many of those around at all.. Hell the closest one is a Madrid target as well! We just have to hope they're successful in acquiring him. I'd entertain an idea of swapping him of Oblak if Courtois' real desire is to be in Spain - regardless of who for.

[Pizy 18,897]

If, IF we sell Courtois (which I can't possibly see us doing) then I hope we bring in a keeper in the De Gea/Lloris/Neuer mould who's very comfortable passing it out from the back. Painful watching Courtois hoof the ball up to Ivanovic and fail over and over again for two seasons now. He basically gives the opposition free possession of the ball time and time again. 

Doesn't have to be a sweeper who takes dumb risks, but someone who doesn't flap and panic like Courtois does with the ball at his feet.

[Tomo 21,751]

Just seen MOTD2 from this weekend, and I wondered why the we should have kept Cech brigade have gone quiet, he was only beaten at his near post

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Storm in a teacup this. There is no way we will be looking to sell him this summer and it would be beyond cuntish from him to push for a move after what the club has done for him.

 

9 hours ago, Tomo said:

Just seen MOTD2 from this weekend, and I wondered why the we should have kept Cech brigade have gone quiet, he was only beaten at his near post

Petr has made mistakes for Arsenal this season, but he is still undoubtedly and objectively better than Thibaut. Not sure anyone can argue otherwise.

We didn't choose Thibaut over Petr based on skill, we chose based on a ten-year age difference and a hope that Thibuat will become better than Petr in the near future. 

[Stats 7,142]

11 hours ago, CHOULO19 said:

Storm in a teacup this. There is no way we will be looking to sell him this summer and it would be beyond cuntish from him to push for a move after what the club has done for him.

 

Petr has made mistakes for Arsenal this season, but he is still undoubtedly and objectively better than Thibaut. Not sure anyone can argue otherwise.

We didn't choose Thibaut over Petr based on skill, we chose based on a ten-year age difference and a hope that Thibuat will become better than Petr in the near future. 

No he is not. Courtois has been poor this season but let's not pretend before that most people thought Courtois should be our no.1 because he was up there with the best GK in the world after Neuer. And no Mourinho chose Courtois over Cech because he rated them both the same however Courtois was a lot younger. It is not because Cech was better with the hope that Courtois would be better than him in the future.

Why do you think Mourinho let players like Lukaku go? Because at the time he rated the likes of Eto'o and Costa as better strikers. However with Courtois and Cech, like he said himself, he rates them on par with each other. Let's not forget as well that at Atletico, Courtois was virtually faultess and Cech made a few mistakes here and I remember a lot of Chelsea fans were saying Courtois is better.

If you take this season away, I think Courtois is the better keeper. Cech makes way too many crucial errors. Not just this season as well. Can't see how you can say that it is a four gone conclusion that Cech is better. That is an opinion, no way a definite.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

6 minutes ago, Stats said:

No he is not. Courtois has been poor this season but let's not pretend before that most people thought Courtois should be our no.1 because he was up there with the best GK in the world after Neuer. And no Mourinho chose Courtois over Cech because he rated them both the same however Courtois was a lot younger. It is not because Cech was better with the hope that Courtois would be better than him in the future.

Why do you think Mourinho let players like Lukaku go? Because at the time he rated the likes of Eto'o and Costa as better strikers. However with Courtois and Cech, like he said himself, he rates them on par with each other. Let's not forget as well that at Atletico, Courtois was virtually faultess and Cech made a few mistakes here and I remember a lot of Chelsea fans were saying Courtois is better.

If you take this season away, I think Courtois is the better keeper. Cech makes way too many crucial errors. Not just this season as well. Can't see how you can say that it is a four gone conclusion that Cech is better. That is an opinion, no way a definite.

No one without blue tinted glasses ever thought that Thibaut was only second to Neuer in the world. 

I don't understand, what exactly had he done at Atletico that was so incredible? He had solid performances along with the odd great save. The clean sheets stats are for the entire team, not just him. I remember watching entire Atleti matches with Thibaut not having to deal with more than one shot on target all game. 

Jose didn't let Lukaku go, Romelu asked to leave. Also striker is VERY different than GK. Incomparable. 

On any account, in what areas do you think Thibaut is better than Petr? For me, while both can be prone to the occosional mistake, Petr is quite clearly better at organizing his defense, decision making (especially in 1vs1s), kicking, and positioning (the most important aspect for the goal keeper) while Thibaut is only better in the air. 

[Stats 7,142]

21 hours ago, CHOULO19 said:

No one without blue tinted glasses ever thought that Thibaut was only second to Neuer in the world. 

I don't understand, what exactly had he done at Atletico that was so incredible? He had solid performances along with the odd great save. The clean sheets stats are for the entire team, not just him. I remember watching entire Atleti matches with Thibaut not having to deal with more than one shot on target all game. 

Jose didn't let Lukaku go, Romelu asked to leave. Also striker is VERY different than GK. Incomparable. 

On any account, in what areas do you think Thibaut is better than Petr? For me, while both can be prone to the occosional mistake, Petr is quite clearly better at organizing his defense, decision making (especially in 1vs1s), kicking, and positioning (the most important aspect for the goal keeper) while Thibaut is only better in the air. 

To underestimate Courtois role in his part of Atletico winning the league is a mistake. He was a big factor. He may not have made the DDG type saves but he was such a huge commander of his area. For instance when we played them second leg whilst he was owned by us, he virtually caught every ball and just made his presence felt. Cech is not better than him in this department like you said.

Yes, but the whole point was that ultimately,Mourinho did not think Lukaku was on Costa and Eto's level. If he did, he would not have got Costa or Eto'o because Lukaku is a lot younger. Courtiois proved in his first season at us that the right decision was made for him to be our no.1.

I disagree about Cech being better at organizing his defence. I am not saying Courtois is great in this department but even to this day, Arsenal have struggled to structure their defence properly from set peices with Cech in goal and Cech has been at fault for those set peice goals they have conceded quite frequently. West Ham , Swansea games at Emirates etc.

And Courtois is as good at one on one saves as Cech is imo. The amount of time Courtois has redeemed us by making key one on one saves. Cech for me is more error prone as well. The amount of goals he let's in where a top keeper should be saving quite comfortably. Joel Ward's goal against Arsenal earlier in season at Selhurst. Zarate's goal at Emirates, Bolasie's goal at Emirates, virtually every single Southampton goal against Arsenal in their 4-0 demolition at St Mary's earlier in season. The Martina goal was just world class so I let him off that one. The other three were poor decision making from Cech.

To me they are on the same level really however I think we made the right decision.

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

I think he's off this summer.  I'm okay with it, depending on the fee of course.  He's not irreplaceable and he's not as important for us as De Gea is for Utd.  I see Forster's name being thrown around, but I'd rather go for Butland if we were to go the English route.

I'd like Lloris but that's a pipe dream.  Ter Stegen would be a possible option for us, I think.

[chelseafan26 293]

On 23/04/2016 at 0:37 AM, CHOULO19 said:

No one without blue tinted glasses ever thought that Thibaut was only second to Neuer in the world. 

I don't understand, what exactly had he done at Atletico that was so incredible? He had solid performances along with the odd great save. The clean sheets stats are for the entire team, not just him. I remember watching entire Atleti matches with Thibaut not having to deal with more than one shot on target all game. 

Jose didn't let Lukaku go, Romelu asked to leave. Also striker is VERY different than GK. Incomparable. 

On any account, in what areas do you think Thibaut is better than Petr? For me, while both can be prone to the occosional mistake, Petr is quite clearly better at organizing his defense, decision making (especially in 1vs1s), kicking, and positioning (the most important aspect for the goal keeper) while Thibaut is only better in the air. 

Agree about Tibo but massively disagree about Lukaku.

Yes, Lukaku "asked to leave" but why did he do that? Was it because Jose thought that getting a 33 year old semi retired etoo from russia was better than trusting a player with lukaku's potential in a season where jose repeatedly said things like "We wont win the PL", "we have young eggs","we are small horses" and all the weird things that he said. 

[LondonsFinest 692]

I don't know, if I should post this here, but if Courtois to leave, someone help me with viable options:

Perrin, Forster, Butland, Leno, Horn, Donarumma? , Handanovic, Navas?, Rulli off the top of my head. Anyone else? 

[Tomo 21,751]

On 23/04/2016 at 8:07 PM, CHOULO19 said:

No one without blue tinted glasses ever thought that Thibaut was only second to Neuer in the world. 

I don't understand, what exactly had he done at Atletico that was so incredible? He had solid performances along with the odd great save. The clean sheets stats are for the entire team, not just him. I remember watching entire Atleti matches with Thibaut not having to deal with more than one shot on target all game. 

Jose didn't let Lukaku go, Romelu asked to leave. Also striker is VERY different than GK. Incomparable. 

On any account, in what areas do you think Thibaut is better than Petr? For me, while both can be prone to the occosional mistake, Petr is quite clearly better at organizing his defense, decision making (especially in 1vs1s), kicking, and positioning (the most important aspect for the goal keeper) while Thibaut is only better in the air. 

Then doesn't the same theory apply to Cech for his first six years the club? In fact the first time he had an awful defense infront of him (under AVB) it coincided with the worst form of his career.

Of course the defenders played a big part, but behind any top defense is a top keeper, look at Ferdinand, Vidic and Evra for example at United, with Van Der Sar behind them, they could play their natural game knowing that they have a top keeper behind them, any time Kusack played however they were less assured and panicked more, knowing the keeper wasn't as great.

If we lose Courtois and replace him with Forster, Butland or give Begovic the gig, we will quickly realse just how good we have had it with Cech and Courtois, the only keeper we could get near their level would be Keylor Navas so let's hope he goes Madrid if he does leave.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

3 minutes ago, Tomo said:

Then doesn't the same theory apply to Cech for his first six years the club? In fact the first time he had an awful defense infront of him (under AVB) it coincided with the worst form of his career.

Of course the defenders played a big part, but behind any top defense is a top keeper, look at Ferdinand, Vidic and Evra for example at United, with Van Der Sar behind them, they could play their natural game knowing that they have a top keeper behind them, any time Kusack played however they were less assured and panicked more, knowing the keeper wasn't as great.

If we lose Courtois and replace him with Forster, Butland or give Begovic the gig, we will quickly realse just how good we have had it with Cech and Courtois, the only keeper we could get near their level would be Keylor Navas so let's hope he goes Madrid if he does leave.

But that's the difference, isn't it? Doing it consistently for six years is very different than one season. Also, during those seasons and the seasons after as well, Cech came up with some incredible performances like nothing we've seen from Thibaut so far.

I don't think we should sell Thibaut. Ridiculous thing to do. I was just saying that we had overrated him quite a lot when our fans were claiming that he was the best in the world, as was the case with Matic last season as well. 

[Captain Ahmed 528]

Our club is bigger than any player whatever their name(Courtois,Drake,Mr Bean,etc...). Dont' forget that.