Thibaut Courtois

[CHOULO19 24,332]

7/10 times the ball cannot be knocked away with one hand when you're going backwards and sidewards at the same time. The only way he could made a better attempt at catching was to dive with both hands but that runs the risk of him going head on into the post.

Go try it out Choo Choo, its not easy as you think.

http://rutube.ru/video/aef0e3a3b09aaa0894d80394d87e4558/?ref=logo

See the replay at 1:36. It was supposed to be an easy palming over the bar with one hand, but he completely misjudged the the flight of the ball. I think he thought t was going over without his intervention and just took his eye off it.

EDIT: Here is what I meant by he misjudged the flight of the ball:

[Sidzeret 2,257]

http://rutube.ru/video/aef0e3a3b09aaa0894d80394d87e4558/?ref=logo

See the replay at 1:36. It was supposed to be an easy palming over the bar with one hand, but he completely misjudged the the flight of the ball. I think he thought t was going over without his intervention and just took his eye off it.

EDIT: Here is what I meant by he misjudged the flight of the ball:

He took his eyes off the ball only after it left him. Definitely a mistake but certainly wouldn't come close to 'The Boruc' or 'The Hart'. And i certainly would'nt call this a Courtois An understandable mistake. Not as bad as they get.

[Reddish-Blue 2,501]

Would hate to see this guy end up in Barcelona.

[didierforever 7,349]

He demands to be No. 1 Chelsea can not guarantee it. Then my question..is he another player to say bye bye ?

he does not look like the player who would be willing to sit out an entire season... so if he is not guaranteed no.1, he will leave i guess. and with both the barca gks out of contract in the summer (valdes and pinto), courtoius seems to be their no.1 target. i wonuld not mind if we can get a nice deal going here.

ps - it would be very suprising to me if mou lets him go. courtois' best performances have been against RM/barca specially his performance in the copa del ray final against RM where he was just phenomenol. jose had a first hand experience of courtois' brilliance.

[bushman 2,043]

he does not look like the player who would be willing to sit out an entire season... so if he is not guaranteed no.1, he will leave i guess. and with both the barca gks out of contract in the summer (valdes and pinto), courtoius seems to be their no.1 target. i wonuld not mind if we can get a nice deal going here.

ps - it would be very suprising to me if mou lets him go. courtois' best performances have been against RM/barca specially his performance in the copa del ray final against RM where he was just phenomenol. jose had a first hand experience of courtois' brilliance.

Howdy forever young...

For us to say what will happen, it´s too early or we do not know.

As you might have noticed, I personally like to see him as No. 1 next season, the future of Chelsea lies with him, I feel.

[Stingray 9,441]

http://rutube.ru/video/aef0e3a3b09aaa0894d80394d87e4558/?ref=logo

See the replay at 1:36. It was supposed to be an easy palming over the bar with one hand, but he completely misjudged the the flight of the ball. I think he thought t was going over without his intervention and just took his eye off it.

EDIT: Here is what I meant by he misjudged the flight of the ball:

He took his eyes off the ball only after it left him. Definitely a mistake but certainly wouldn't come close to 'The Boruc' or 'The Hart'. And i certainly would'nt call this a Courtois An understandable mistake. Not as bad as they get.

He said in the belgian media he completely missed the ball due to being blinded by the stadium lights

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

It was a bad mistake but who cares? The best goalies make terrible mistakes from time to time. (As all players, no matter how great do.) People tend to put WAAAAYYYY too much emphasis on individual plays when judging a player and that goes both ways. I've seen players play awful games and then make one great offensive run and have lots of people think they've had a good game. At the same time, you can have a player who is brilliant defensively for 5 games and then makes one glaring error and people say "he sucks defensively". There's nothing wrong with Courtois. He's a top keeper.

[Sidzeret 2,257]

He said in the belgian media he completely missed the ball due to being blinded by the stadium lights

Fixed

[Gilvorak 3,734]

LOL at the people defending him while Cech was being blamed by a poster for not saving that shot by Salah.

It was a terrible error, he'll learn from it.

[Stingray 9,441]

He said in the belgian media he completely missed the ball due to being blinded by the stadium lights

Oh I'm sorry but this is not a reason. he made a mistake, he should save that.

Agree. Just stating what is reported in the media. Not an excuse whatsoever!

[lionsden 4,689]

I'm one of the very few that has major doubts about him. I watch La liga alot and he's always been protected by the (annoyingly cynical but brilliantly solid) Athletico team defensive unit which to me is the best in Europe alongside Bayern. No other team have the defensive cohesion and solidity of those 2. barca under pep were similar.

As a result of this, opposition teams are usually reduced to fewer chance creation and fewer goal attempts against them which is not fair way to judge a goal keeper and makes stats misleading in this case. for example, I have never seen any team (apart from barca on 3 occassions) dominate and create as many clear cut chances against Simeone A.Madrid as the way we have been dominated in the past by Bayern, barca, Basel last night and so on with Cech usually saving our asses from utter humiliation result wise or rescuing a point or even salvaging maximum point under such circumstances.

If anyone has proof of the matches were Atheltico have been dominated and Courtois single handedly rescued points for them, I will like to see it. even the Madrid derby, i could only think of 1 magnificent save he had to make all game. such is the difficulty in breaching their defence. problem is, we are not as solid a defensive unit as the Spanish outfit and I'm not sure he would be as good and reliable as cech at saving our asses.

[edetarod 2,155]

I'm one of the very few that has major doubts about him. I watch La liga alot and he's always been protected by the (annoyingly cynical but brilliantly solid) Athletico team defensive unit which to me is the best in Europe alongside Bayern. No other team have the defensive cohesion and solidity of those 2. barca under pep were similar.

As a result of this, opposition teams are usually reduced to fewer chance creation and fewer goal attempts against them which is not fair way to judge a goal keeper and makes stats misleading in this case. for example, I have never seen any team (apart from barca on 3 occassions) dominate and create as many clear cut chances against Simeone A.Madrid as the way we have been dominated in the past by Bayern, barca, Basel last night and so on with Cech usually saving our asses from utter humiliation result wise or rescuing a point or even salvaging maximum point under such circumstances.

If anyone has proof of the matches were Atheltico have been dominated and Courtois single handedly rescued points for them, I will like to see it. even the Madrid derby, i could only think of 1 magnificent save he had to make all game. such is the difficulty in breaching their defence. problem is, we are not as solid a defensive unit as the Spanish outfit and I'm not sure he would be as good and reliable as cech at saving our asses.

only one way to find out...

but he's been good for Belgium too

[lionsden 4,689]

only one way to find out...

but he's been good for Belgium too

Why fix something that's broken? why take such risk when we don't have to as cech remains one of the best GK's in the world and still has atleast 5 more elite years left in him.

The only way i had be convinced by courtois and comfortable with him replacing cech right now is if A.madrid's defensive unit breaks down and deteriorate and he's tested far more than he's been used to and shows the capability to be genuine match winner on a consistent basis.

The only reason I rate Manuel neuer who's regarded as the best is because I saw what he was capable of at Schalke. if it was up to his bayern performance, he wouldn't make my top 10 as he rarely gets tested, if at all, just like Courtois.

Those two could stay at home to watch game of thrones and their teams would still keep a clean shit.

[Tomo 21,751]

Why fix something that's broken? why take such risk when we don't have to as cech remains one of the best GK's in the world and still has atleast 5 more elite years left in him.

The only way i had be convinced by courtois and comfortable with him replacing cech right now is if A.madrid's defensive unit breaks down and deteriorate and he's tested far more than he's been used to and shows the capability to be genuine match winner on a consistent basis.

The only reason I rate Manuel neuer who's regarded as the best is because I saw what he was capable of at Schalke. if it was up to his bayern performance, he wouldn't make my top 10 as he rarely gets tested, if at all, just like Courtois.

Those two could stay home to watch game of thrones and their teams would still keep a clean shit.

So did you not really rate Cech when before 2009 (when our defense started declining)?

I remember seeing highlight's of Genk's title winning match when it was 1-1 and they would have lost (the title) if they conceded again and Courtois made some top saves (i think it was posted in this thread at some point).

Also being involved in a shit defense and a great one doesn't always go hand in hand, look at Shay Given, he thrived at having his goal battered when he was a Newcastle player but when it came to only being called upon once or twice a game at Man.City, he didn't look half the keeper and lost his place in the side after just over a year.

[lionsden 4,689]

So did you not really rate Cech when before 2009 (when our defense started declining)?

I remember seeing highlight's of Genk's title winning match when it was 1-1 and they would have lost (the title) if they conceded again and Courtois made some top saves (i think it was posted in this thread at some point).

Also being involved in a shit defense and a great one doesn't always go hand in hand, look at Shay Given, he thrived at having his goal battered when he was a Newcastle player but when it came to only being called upon once or twice a game at Man.City, he didn't look half the keeper and lost his place in the side after just over a year.

Despite our defence being generally solid those years, cech still had to make more saves than those two.

So you want to use ONE game as evidence that Thibaut is reliable when called upon? on that basis, Tim Krul must be the best GK in world football as I'm yet to see any goalkeeping performance as dominant as the one he has against spurs this season.

Shay Given's form didn't dip at man city and he wasn't out of favor for performance reasons as there was nothing wrong with his performance in the 09/10. he was just unlucky that there was this young goalkeeper who had just had as brilliant, if not more, a season with Birmingham on loan and mancini simply preferred youthful exuberance over reliability and experience and I was one of those that criticized that decision at the time as Given didn't deserve to be dropped and abandoned.