Kepa Arrizabalaga

[Vesper 28,777]

Chelsea flop Kepa Arrizabalaga backed to "prove everybody wrong" with return to form

Kepa's high-profile errors led manager Frank Lampard to bring in a new goalkeeper over the summer, but a former Blues shot-stopper has backed the Spaniard to be a "huge success"

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/chelsea-flop-kepa-arrizabalaga-form-23020131

Asmir Begovic has thrown his weight behind Kepa Arrizabalga by backing the out-of-favour Chelsea goalkeeper to "prove everyone wrong".

The Blues signed Kepa from Athletic Bilbao for £71million - a world-record fee for a goalkeeper - in 2018, securing his services on a seven-year contract.

But buying the Spaniard has so far proved to be a costly error, as he has struggled to replicate his impressive La Liga form in the Premier League.

Kepa, 26, has made a string of high-profile errors as Chelsea No.1 - including in the 2-0 defeat to Liverpool in September - prompting manager Frank Lampard to sign a new first-choice goalkeeper in Edouard Mendy.

The out-of-form man has not featured on the bench for the Blues in recent fixtures after sustaining a shoulder injury last month.

But Begovic believes Kepa can still be a "huge success" - though it may take a move away from Stamford Bridge for him to live up to his potential.

“These situations are never straightforward. If you spend a big transfer fee it doesn’t mean everything is going to work out; there are a lot of factors into making a move work and making an impact at a club.

“Mendy has come in and done really, really well, I think he’s really solidified that position. He’s been impressive, he’s been a joy to watch to be honest and he’s someone I really enjoy watching.

snip

 

[Jase 43,479]

 

[MoroccanBlue 5,296]

Far, far too late for that. It's now at a point where if he plays, he's guaranteed an error. 

Lampard and his staff are statistics obsessive, and they very well know that Kepa is statistically the worse keeper in Europe's top 5 leagues. We will be lucky to get 25% of what we paid for him. 

[Vesper 28,777]

12 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

we need to sell him or swap him back to a La Liga team

[Jase 43,479]

On 11/15/2020 at 4:23 AM, Jason said:

Looks like Kepa and De Gea have fallen behind the pecking order in the GK for Spain. Unai Simon - the player who replaced Kepa at Athletic Bilbao - has started the last 2 games for Spain, including tonight's Nations League game. 

3 starts in a row now for Unai Simon during this international break.

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

3 starts in a row now for Unai Simon during this international break.

Think Enrique is just mixing it up giving guys who are playing well a shot and to see how they do. Spain did the same with Pau Lopez a few seasons back after he did well for Betis. DDG still be their number 1 in serious competitions I would imagine. Would imagine Simon being number 2 if Kepa doesnt play regularly before Euros. Which is more and more likely now with how Mendy is doing here. Spain still have v decent depth in most areas maybe not the level of quality they previously had but most teams would struggle to recreate that generation in terms of quality every 10 years.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

Any better sources for this?

 

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

He is starting tonight or so Frank said. His comments regarding him and his training sounded very good. 

Hopefully he plays well, think he would like to fight for his place here so to do so he has to play well.

Obviously Mendy is #1 but if Kepa can challenge it makes for a very interesting decision. I think more competition for places is a healthy thing so hopefully Kepa plays well and manages to push Frank to make a decision more often on who starts in goals because having 2 good GKs is better than the huge drop in quality between 1 and 2.

Wait and see now Kepa has a shocker after saying this... although even if he is likely to move on some point on loan or whatever, it is better he plays well also.

[Tomo 21,733]

6 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

He is starting tonight or so Frank said. His comments regarding him and his training sounded very good. 

Hopefully he plays well, think he would like to fight for his place here so to do so he has to play well.

Obviously Mendy is #1 but if Kepa can challenge it makes for a very interesting decision. I think more competition for places is a healthy thing so hopefully Kepa plays well and manages to push Frank to make a decision more often on who starts in goals because having 2 good GKs is better than the huge drop in quality between 1 and 2.

Wait and see now Kepa has a shocker after saying this... although even if he is likely to move on some point on loan or whatever, it is better he plays well also.

Let's be real, Kepa isn't challenging for the position. If anything Mendy's arrival has made him even worse.

[MoroccanBlue 5,296]

Yeah the concept that Kepa will eventually compete for that starting GK position is done and dusted. Like Tomo said, if anything, it just goes to show how poor Kepa is as a keeper. 

This is probably an audition for other clubs in Europe to get him. 

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

2 hours ago, Tomo said:

Let's be real, Kepa isn't challenging for the position. If anything Mendy's arrival has made him even worse.

Perhaps but it drums up competition and makes him look more sellable also if he cant displace him.
 

I have no doubts he is number 2 behind Mendy and will continue to play but the better he plays in the limited games he has, it pushes Mendy more and it means we have more chance of finding him a permanent move. 
 

 

[Jase 43,479]

3 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

Perhaps but it drums up competition and makes him look more sellable also if he cant displace him.

I have no doubts he is number 2 behind Mendy and will continue to play but the better he plays in the limited games he has, it pushes Mendy more and it means we have more chance of finding him a permanent move. 

Not sure if Kepa covered himself in glory for the goal conceded today.

Anyway, not sure if the very best keepers need competition to push them. All the best ones over the years - e.g. Cech, Neuer, Buffon - always maintain a high standard week in week out and their backups were average more often than not. Mendy has done well so far and long it may continue. If he keeps it up, he'll be up there with the very best. What we need now is a reliable #2 and not someone who will make us press the panic button whenever he plays!

[Magic Lamps 11,653]

He didn’t even make a bad mistake, just was his usual self, I.e. conceding from the first shot on target and making everyone around him worse and nervous. 
no way back for him here. The feeling is Mendy would havee saved that goal as well as most other ones Kepa conceded, which is why he will start for us the rest of the season

[lucio 5,418]

Hard to see anyone buying him, as a first choice keeper he is probably bottom of the table la Liga or even  segunda division standard. I imagine he will be loaned out for years and eventually leave for free like Torres. Hope he finds a good club in January 

[Vesper 28,777]

Chelsea’s Kepa problem: what do you do with the world’s most expensive keeper?

https://theathletic.com/2262355/2020/12/21/kepa-chelsea-future-transfer-goalkeeper/

Another transfer window is fast approaching and Chelsea are faced with the same problem as the last one: what to do with Kepa Arrizabalaga.

It doesn’t take a football expert to figure out that it would be best for both parties if Kepa could secure a move away of some description. Edouard Mendy has replaced the 26-year-old as first-choice goalkeeper at Stamford Bridge and the former’s ambition of playing for Spain at the European Championship next summer are diminishing with each week he watches games from the bench.

In turn, it is not healthy for Chelsea to have the world’s most expensive keeper — they agreed to pay Athletic Bilbao Kepa’s release clause of £71.6 million in 2018 — diminishing in value by not playing on a regular basis.

But getting people to accept why he needs to go is not the issue — it is the how that proved a major stumbling block earlier in the year, and is standing in the way of the quandary facing the two camps again now.

“It’s a tough sell. It’s a numbers thing,” Kepa’s former Chelsea team-mate Rob Green tells The Athletic. “Chelsea and (their director) Marina Granovskaia are not in the business of losing money. They have an asset which is depreciating greatly but with football clubs in the financial state they’re in, it’s going to be tough to put something together.

“I’m not even talking just about selling. Even a loan is going to be a struggle. The transfer fee and the wages (believed to be around £170,000 a week) is the biggest obstacle to resolving the situation.”

This is not coming from a man with any ill feeling toward Kepa. The two of them enjoyed a good relationship during their one season together at Chelsea in 2018-19.

But Green is just seeing what many others can see. As a leading football agent in the game explained to The Athletic: “Of course things are made more difficult by the fact Kepa is the most expensive keeper in the world. Then there is his form and what Chelsea consider the value of a move to be. Is there a business arrangement that works for everyone?

“There are two stages that need to be resolved: is there a gap in a squad and does the buying club have a big enough issue with their goalkeeping situation to want to look at Kepa both in the short and long term. Secondly, what does the financial package look like and where do Chelsea want to go within that from a loan point of view, covering wages and/or an option to buy. It’s very complicated.”

It is a view that appears to be shared among those within the west London club. As a source with a connection to Chelsea told The Athletic: “The club are hoping for an outcome that’s good for all but there is a concern it will be just as hard as to find as in the summer.”

Back then, there was talk in Spain of interest from Sevilla and Valencia over a possible loan deal but nothing of substance ever materialised. As the transfer deadline approached on October 5, no concrete offers from anyone in Europe had been forthcoming.

As things stand, there are no clubs in La Liga and the Premier League looking for or in need of a first-choice keeper in the new year either. To make matters worse, Athletic Bilbao have happily moved on with Unai Simon between the posts and he looks to have overtaken Kepa and David de Gea as Spain’s No 1.

Kepa’s chances of securing a move haven’t exactly been helped by making high-profile errors in Chelsea’s first two Premier League games of the season against Brighton and Liverpool. In Kepa’s defence, it can’t have been easy taking to the pitch knowing the club were talking to Rennes for weeks over the acquisition of Mendy, who ended up joining four days after the loss to Jurgen Klopp’s side.

Kepa has played just twice more since then. One of those was another outing to forget as Chelsea drew 3-3 at home to Southampton when Mendy was sidelined through injury, although Kurt Zouma was just as culpable for the goals conceded that day. The other was the Champions League dead rubber against Krasnodar last week, a situation where there was little to gain and lots to lose. The match ended in a 1-1 draw, yet the Spaniard had little chance with Remy Cabella’s shot into the bottom corner.

It should be pointed out that unlike Mendy, Kepa hasn’t had the benefit of playing behind the calming presence of centre-back Thiago Silva yet. Green can sympathise with what Kepa is going through, having experienced losing the No 1 berth at Queens Park Rangers when they bought Julio Cesar to take his spot in 2012.

He continues: “It is demoralising. You have that initial hurt, the damage to your pride. You lose face. You’ve gone from being the main man to (feeling like) you could be anybody. It’s a demotion in your own mind that you wouldn’t consider.

“On a practical level, being out of the side gives you an opportunity to work on different things as a goalkeeper; technical stuff, improving yourself mentally but in the back of your mind, you are thinking ‘I don’t know when this is for’. There is no focal point to your week, your month. The manager isn’t going to say to you in a month, ‘You’re playing’. That’s a very difficult dynamic in your brain to overcome.

“It’s the hardest thing about being a keeper — there is only one spot to get into the team. Outfield players can be squeezed in somewhere else, be played out of position. There is a lack of empathy around that. The only other people who understand are the other keepers and the goalkeeping coach. Players can look at you and say, ‘You’re having a brilliant time sitting on the bench doing nothing’ but it’s not like Harry Kane being rested in the Europa League, for example. You’re sat there bored. You want to be playing.”

So what does this all mean for Kepa when the window reopens? Well, for starters, he is not giving up. It is understood that the search for teams to join on a possible loan is under way, albeit nothing of note has presented itself yet.

But as the leading agent continues: “January is the hardest time for a goalkeeper to move. Some keepers have needed to change clubs and not got it for three-four windows — just think back to people like Jack Butland, Loris Karius and Simon Mignolet, to name just three.

“The transfer fee and the wages go against Kepa. It’s going to be a really difficult deal to do. The only way to move your client, from an agent’s point of view, is to be really active, to perhaps find a club where their keeper isn’t in top form. You’re trying to position your keeper as better than the one they’ve already got.

“The most important thing is to be aware of what the global market is doing. Then you have the obvious circumstance where a keeper gets injured between now and the end of January and that presents an opportunity. Chelsea and Kepa will try and be ahead of the curve in that and present him as an option.“

Kepa can look to January 2020 for reasons to be optimistic on that score. Pepe Reina joined Aston Villa on loan from AC Milan following an injury to Tom Heaton and, as a consequence, Asmir Begovic, who wasn’t featuring at Bournemouth, replaced Reina at the San Siro. Similarly, West Ham re-signed Darren Randolph from Middlesbrough for £4 million after Lukas Fabianksi was ruled out.

But this is very much the exception to the norm. “These are very specific slots,” Green says. “Someone has to have a real shortage and if someone goes, then a slot from the selling club also has to be filled. That’s why it rarely happens. 

“If you’ve got money to spend on fees and wages in January, invariably, you will spend it on a striker or an attacking player. You’re usually covered for keepers in a season, so to need one is unlikely and on the financial side of it, it is very rare you spend your budget on a keeper.

“If you’re a club, especially one struggling at the bottom, your main thinking is, ‘I don’t need someone to save me 15 goals’. You’re thinking, ‘I want one to score 15 goals’.

“This mindset exists because, as a keeper, you’re not seen to be creating something — you’re just stopping something. If you make a save, people will say ‘he should have saved that’. It’s quickly forgotten. Should a striker do a bit of skill and fire one in from 25 yards, people think, ‘If he does stuff like that a number of times, we stay up, achieve our ambitions’.”

Despite the doom and gloom, sources suggest Kepa is continuing to do his utmost in training and is in a good place mentally. One insider says he has been taken by surprise at just how calm the keeper is. That is to Kepa’s credit given this has clearly been the most challenging 12 months of his professional career.

It is believed he actually found being dropped in favour of Willy Caballero back in February the hardest thing to deal with. This was a man who expected to be Chelsea’s No 1 for the long term — he signed a seven-year contract after all — and suddenly, a veteran back-up was playing instead.

In March, he regained his place only for a couple more unexpected setbacks to hand him another blow. Firstly, after keeping two clean sheets in high-profile victories against Liverpool — where the crowd chanted his name — and Everton, football was postponed for three months due to COVID-19. And just as he was dealing with the reality of that, his girlfriend broke up with him and moved back to Spain. It meant he went through lockdown in the UK and then the constant scrutiny over his form while living on his own.

When the campaign resumed, so did Kepa’s struggles. By the time Chelsea suffered a 5-3 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield in July, defenders had lost confidence in him and he’d lost confidence in himself. Kepa didn’t even complain about being dropped for Caballero again for the FA Cup semi-final, FA Cup final and Champions League tie at Bayern Munich. And, as revealed in September, sources speak of a man who is uncomfortable if a conversation begins about how he can improve parts of his game. He’d rather the subject not be broached at all.

However, as mentioned above, he has responded as well as can be expected to Mendy’s arrival. Kepa continues to get a lot of backing from inside the club too, which helps. On top of Lampard speaking positively whenever the subject is raised in press conferences, it is believed Granovskaia has been in contact to support him. So too technical and performance director Petr Cech, who has encouraged him to maintain levels in training sessions.

In saying that, the former Czech Republic international’s decision to come out of retirement in October and be named in the Premier League squad didn’t exactly do much for Kepa’s reputation. Despite the club’s explanation it was a precautionary measure due to COVID-19, it got people talking about whether Chelsea were considering turning to the 38-year-old instead of Kepa: something that didn’t go unnoticed among those closest to him.

Still, after being singled out to blame whenever Chelsea dropped points — and there were a lot of statistics to put the spotlight on him (worst save percentage in the Premier League, most goals conceded from outside the penalty area) — the fact Lampard’s side have lost successive games with Mendy in goal perhaps suggests the club’s struggle to win the title again run a lot deeper than the form of just one man.

As the last two results have shown, fortunes in football can change very quickly. With Chelsea’s history of firing managers, no one knows how long Lampard will remain in charge and should someone new come in, Kepa would understandably regard it as an opportunity to get his place back.

One would expect Chelsea’s FA Cup third-round tie against Morecambe on January 10 to be Kepa’s next outing. “It’s the kind of game where you think, ‘Gee, thanks’ if you’re selected,” Green says. “As a player you’re thinking ‘What can I gain out of this?’. How can you prove a point against Morecambe? It could be the best save in the world; it won’t change things. It’s only Morecambe.

“I really wish the best for Kepa and hope he finds a solution but he has to be first choice. There is no point swapping one bench for another. Where can you find someone that hard up in one of the top divisions like the Premier League or La Liga?”

It is certainly a conundrum and there is no easy answer.

[Vegetable 830]

Genuinely smiled when saw Rob Green input, especially given he looks really eloquent guy.

I think everything to be said was already said in this topic; It's a toxic situation for Kepa and toxic situation for Chelsea. Last season he had regressed below level of top-flight football so I can't really see a team that could be interested in either loan of buy, sport-wise. Actually, with his reputation, joining any other team would be no less pressure, than playing here. I guess he would have to redempt himself, showing some quality in Chelsea and that think about moving elsewhere, but it's unlikely he'll get a chance.

Maybe some troubled / in transition team could make use of him, like Monaco or Herta, or Netherlands / Portugal could be a way, but it's unlikely due to finances. Tough situation, but I keep my fingers crossed it will come out good for Kepa and CFC somehow.

[Tomo 21,733]

4 hours ago, Vegetable said:

Genuinely smiled when saw Rob Green input, especially given he looks really eloquent guy.

I think everything to be said was already said in this topic; It's a toxic situation for Kepa and toxic situation for Chelsea. Last season he had regressed below level of top-flight football so I can't really see a team that could be interested in either loan of buy, sport-wise. Actually, with his reputation, joining any other team would be no less pressure, than playing here. I guess he would have to redempt himself, showing some quality in Chelsea and that think about moving elsewhere, but it's unlikely he'll get a chance.

Maybe some troubled / in transition team could make use of him, like Monaco or Herta, or Netherlands / Portugal could be a way, but it's unlikely due to finances. Tough situation, but I keep my fingers crossed it will come out good for Kepa and CFC somehow.

Problem with Kepa is he hasn't atall responded well to Mendy's arrival. Last year despite everything we had two things to cling onto A) for all the tame shots going in he wasn't making many if any spectacular meme like errors and B ) the hope the main issue was the lack of competition and it made him complacent.

This season he started knowing Mendy was coming in and if he had anything about him that would have triggered a response but instead he's got even worse. If the reports are true that he's kept his head up then props to him but i don't want to see him in our shirt again, if god for bid Mendy goes down we should go down the route Klopp did and pick Ziger.

[King Kante 1,474]

6 hours ago, Tomo said:

Problem with Kepa is he hasn't atall responded well to Mendy's arrival. Last year despite everything we had two things to cling onto A) for all the tame shots going in he wasn't making many if any spectacular meme like errors and B ) the hope the main issue was the lack of competition and it made him complacent.

This season he started knowing Mendy was coming in and if he had anything about him that would have triggered a response but instead he's got even worse. If the reports are true that he's kept his head up then props to him but i don't want to see him in our shirt again, if god for bid Mendy goes down we should go down the route Klopp did and pick Ziger.

You mean apart from that Ziyech one, where he allowed the ball to go right across goal because he didn't move his feet properly then had the ball slam into his face. That image where the ball makes impact with his face is one of the funniest pictures I have seen in football for years. Only Phil Jones tops that.