Thibaut Courtois

[Tomo 21,733]

5 hours ago, Blue_Fox_ said:

I doubt people will want Guus to play the likes of RLC and Traoré if they'd be giving the ball to the opposition for no reason or consistently shooting it out wide and never be in a good position.
Most of us want Guus to play the younger guns simply because we believe they are better than the usual lazy idiotic starting XI.

Courtois is no better than Begovic.

Hell, i'd wager Blackman could defend the near post better than him at the moment.

On current form no, but an on form Courtois is light years ahead of Begovic. Saying Asmir is level/better than Tibo is about as accurate as saying Remy is better than Costa.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

People saying his positioning when one-on-one is poor are gravely mistaken. Thibaut's issue is a psychological issue, of knowing WHAT to do, and WHEN.

 

His position is excellent for the Carroll goal, but rather than being PROACTIVE and SWEEPING, ie. to come out and stay big in the archetypal "A-position", OR being REACTIVE and RESPONDING, ie. to stay on his line in the standard set position and try and make the save as per usual, he is getting caught in two minds. He is coming, then stopping, then coming, and that hesitation is ALL a striker needs to score a goal.

 

When you saw Cech in a 1v1 (I maintain Cech is the single best goalkeeper I have ever seen in 1v1s), he would always come out early, and throw himself at the ball. 90% of the time it worked, though sometimes he would get nutmegged when he went for the lunge (example is Quaresma against us at the Bridge in the UCL in 06/07, this happened several times to my recollection). However, the point I'm making is that Cech always had this mentality of coming out and sweeping, and if he would get beaten, it had to be a good, early finish, such as the example above. Courtois can't decide what he wants to do, and this is something he needs to work on with Lollichon. Thibaut looks like he is more comfortable doing what de Gea does, and staying on his line, closing down the angle and making the finish as difficult as usual. This is the more conservative approach and is usually more pragmatic of the two approaches. But he will learn with experience, the main issue is timing - if you go too early, a simple shift by the attacker means you expose the goal, if you go too late then the striker has time and space to decide what to do. 

[Polo7 3,496]

1 hour ago, Tomo said:

On current form no, but an on form Courtois is light years ahead of Begovic. Saying Asmir is level/better than Tibo is about as accurate as saying Remy is better than Costa.

An inform Hazard is better than Willian, an inform Oscar is better than RLC. I dont care how good he would be if he was in form, that doesnt help us. He needs to be dropped, its as simple as that.

[Tomo 21,733]

I gave the 05/06 season review a watch earlier and I noticed Cech had a bit of a wobble winter time. Made two bad mistakes against Blackburn and an absolute horror error vs Fulham.

Cech had a great defence which helped him ride his wobble out, Tibo doesn't have that, not that Courtois shouldn't be without critiscm for these two goals but Cavani and Shane Long, would our 05/06 defense have let them through on goal the way these lot did?

Bottom line is Courtois is still a world class keeper and to dismiss him is just silly, leave the judgements on current form to Arsenal fans, we are better than that.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

19 hours ago, BlueLion said:

People saying his positioning when one-on-one is poor are gravely mistaken. Thibaut's issue is a psychological issue, of knowing WHAT to do, and WHEN.

 

His position is excellent for the Carroll goal, but rather than being PROACTIVE and SWEEPING, ie. to come out and stay big in the archetypal "A-position", OR being REACTIVE and RESPONDING, ie. to stay on his line in the standard set position and try and make the save as per usual, he is getting caught in two minds. He is coming, then stopping, then coming, and that hesitation is ALL a striker needs to score a goal.

 

When you saw Cech in a 1v1 (I maintain Cech is the single best goalkeeper I have ever seen in 1v1s), he would always come out early, and throw himself at the ball. 90% of the time it worked, though sometimes he would get nutmegged when he went for the lunge (example is Quaresma against us at the Bridge in the UCL in 06/07, this happened several times to my recollection). However, the point I'm making is that Cech always had this mentality of coming out and sweeping, and if he would get beaten, it had to be a good, early finish, such as the example above. Courtois can't decide what he wants to do, and this is something he needs to work on with Lollichon. Thibaut looks like he is more comfortable doing what de Gea does, and staying on his line, closing down the angle and making the finish as difficult as usual. This is the more conservative approach and is usually more pragmatic of the two approaches. But he will learn with experience, the main issue is timing - if you go too early, a simple shift by the attacker means you expose the goal, if you go too late then the striker has time and space to decide what to do. 

I rewatched the game and especially the Carroll goal... you see him advance the first 4, 5 yards - brilliant. Then - shit. He just stops. Caught in two minds. If he carries on, Carroll probably hits the ball straight at him, or doesn't even get to the ball first. Courtois' confidence just seems a little low. Not the first time he changed his mind in that game, either. 

[Special Juan 27,424]

Not worried about him in all honesty. What I am worried about is the certain people like Oscar, Matic, Cahill and Hazard's of the team that are more decline than the UK economy.

[CFC_SLO 3]

So what is going on with his fella? Surely our defense is not near close to being rock solid and stable as it used to be, but that is why we have a "suppose to be" WC goalkeeper on goal line in the first place! I used to laugh at moments when Mignolet saved nearly impossible, and 10 minutes later conceed from an "easy-to-save" situation. But damn, Courtois is not far from the same problem! Truly unbelivable what is happening. I was always very calm when Cech was still in the blue shirt, now i know we are going to conceed every single game! Most possibly from a stupid not even the most sufisticsted playaction of the opposed team!

And sry for my english, got a bit rusty through years :-)

[Unionjack 7,531]

3 hours ago, Special Juan said:

Not worried about him in all honesty. What I am worried about is the certain people like Oscar, Matic, Cahill and Hazard's of the team that are more decline than the UK economy.

Youre so right. Its like theres some sort of apathy disease. I dont understand how millionaire players of this standard that are all at the top of their games (apart from Cahill) should be as bad as they are right now. You could understand if its the one odd player but its almost across the whole team.

Its bloody scary really and I cant see it being an easy fix.

[Essien19 1,415]

Courtois:

Quote

I think our preseason (with Chelsea) was too short. Physically, we weren't ready. We lost our first game in the Community Shield, then we needed a change, and Guus Hiddink's arrival did us some good.

'We're still conceding too many goals, and that's not entirely the defence's fault, even though I prefer playing with Belgium's back four. Europe?
It'll be hard, but we're going to try and finish the season strongly.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3504940/Thibaut-Courtois-Chelsea-conceding-goals-s-not-entirely-defence-s-fault-prefer-playing-Belgium-s-four.html

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,919]

10 minutes ago, Essien19 said:

Courtois:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3504940/Thibaut-Courtois-Chelsea-conceding-goals-s-not-entirely-defence-s-fault-prefer-playing-Belgium-s-four.html

 

He's being honest and I can respect that. Ugly ugly thing to see from someone who is most likely going to be our starting keeper for the next 10+ years though.

[xPetrCechx 13,563]

32 minutes ago, Essien19 said:

Courtois:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3504940/Thibaut-Courtois-Chelsea-conceding-goals-s-not-entirely-defence-s-fault-prefer-playing-Belgium-s-four.html

He likes the belgium back4 more?

ohhhhh

[manpe 10,861]

What a stupid thing to say. He has to face his teammates again after the break, did he forget that? I'm sure he meant what he said, nobody would like to play with this defence at the moment, but still you don't say it out loud. It humiliates the team even further.

[Pizy 18,368]

Something must be mentally wrong with all of these Belgian footballers. None of them appear to have a filter when they speak to the media and have absolutely no PR training. Courtois, Lukaku, Hazard, De Bruyne, Mirallas...they constantly seem to be making headlines for saying stupid things, mostly shitting on their own clubs. The only one who seems to be a mature, smart guy is Kompany.

Just shut up, ffs.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Lol it's a nothing comment, their defence isn't as shaky as ours is lol. Whatever, moving on.. 

[scargo 75]

It's big mistake that we brought Courtois instead of Cech.

 

[Polo7 3,496]

So it's the defences fault he can't save near post goals? I hope Belgium gets fucked at the Euros.

[Blue_Fox_ 2,086]

 Obviously he's telling the truth, everyone knows that.
Still keep your mouth shut boy. Again, these belgian players are talented and all, but their attitude on and off the pitch stinks most of the times.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

People making a mountain out of a molehill... first of all, English isn't his first language, and secondly, if you take offence from the fact he is quite rightly calling our defence shit, you're a numpty. A goalkeeper is as good as his/her defence, and only that good. Unless you're de Gea.