27 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

Goalkeeping has changed in a number of areas nowadays which sadly idiot commentators and pundits talk complete and utter bollox about. Mainly beciae they have no experinec in this area. It would be really refreshing if Peter Cech became a panel pundit when he retired from playing as he truly knows the job inside out and is a very eloquent speaker.

Coming for crosses is one such area. Goalkeepers no longer tower above a number of the players and zonal marking at corners can also create crowded areas. Therefore if a keeper has good reactions and pouncing ability it is not always necessary to come for balls that a) might be missed altogether or b) gathered and dropped due to interference. A keeper that can react quickly during a second phase of play doesn't need to commit to the riskier course of overreaching in traffic. You'd also be surprised how few corners result in shots on target. Therefore the safer course is to stay on your line and let the defence deal with the crosses.

This is a similar point in the catching versus punching debate which is a simple case that the lower risk approach is to punch or parry balls at an angle out of the danger zone, rather than catching and risk dropping or fumbling. 

As i said in the my original email Courtois does pretty much all of the standard stuff that he is supposed to do, but he has some fatal flaws that ultimately cost us an always will.

Somebody made the point about Pickford who could be an alternative. I still get the feeling that the ball playing aspect isn't totally natural for him. He does it and he is pretty good at it, but it doesn't look to be a natural part of his play. It is something that he works at. Butland is a similar type of player and is probably more available. But i get the impression if we get sarri, and i am no longer convinced we will any more, he will want a keeper whose first reaction is to play the ball out or clip it out to the wings.

Personally I would welcome Schmeichel. He has grown up a lot, he is no longer trying to be his dad, with the star jumping at every shot, good reactions, spring and natural pounce instincts and comfortable on the ball. He still has some rickets in him but a better defence in front of him would help develop his ability even further. 31 is not old for a keeper, he is just hitting his prime.

 

I enjoy your informed posts about keeping and feel I learn something from them, but no way is Schmeichel anywhere near T-bo's level. T-bo may not be the best. He may not have developed as we'd have liked. He may have flaws. If he were happy to stay however we'd have absolutely no reason to look for a new keeper. It will be very hard to find a replacement comparable. When the ball's in the air we never have to worry, and that's a very important aspect of keeping, I disagree with you there. You can cite his height but I don't care, all I know is I never have to worry, and I've seen enough keepers to know that's a rare privilege. We'll have to do remarkably well to find a better keeper than this guy. Pity he's such a miserable prick.

3 minutes ago, Davey Baby said:

 

I enjoy your informed posts about keeping and feel I learn something from them, but no way is Schmeichel anywhere near T-bo's level. T-bo may not be the best. He may not have developed as we'd have liked. He may have flaws. If he were happy to stay however we'd have absolutely no reason to look for a new keeper. It will be very hard to find a replacement comparable. When the ball's in the air we never have to worry, and that's a very important aspect of keeping, I disagree with you there. You can cite his height but I don't care, all I know is I never have to worry, and I've seen enough keepers to know that's a rare privilege. We'll have to do remarkably well to find a better keeper than this guy. Pity he's such a miserable prick.

I don't disagree regarding Courtois aerial ability. I have stated that he does those things that he should be able to do very well but whilst i have always had issue with his flaws, and his complete lack of intertest in working on these, including falling out with our goalkeeping coach as soon as he arrived here,  he has always had the ability to highly value his own worth and in my opinion it is clear, going by the press soundbites, he already has one foot out of the door. For me he is a write off, he wants to move on. Ideally we could get Cillesen or Oblak to replace him, but realisticslly that isn't going to happen for a club with our apparent declining league status. Therefore looking at the keepers that we have been linked with, including Allison, i personally think that Schmeichel is the best of this bunch and could be most suited to the Sarri style if that particular saga actually unfolds before we all die of old age and/or boredom

Let the man go be with his kids, bring in Joe Hart in the cheap with Scott Carson as back up. Three wrongs must surely make a right?

Alisson everyone keeps going on about is another Bravo/Hart waiting to happen I actually think the city keeper is better For Ederson.

30-40 m and Keylor is such a great deal. We should demand Navas in return, he is better than Courtois anyway.

16 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

31 is not old for a keeper, he is just hitting his prime.

Jesus, I didn't know he was 31! I thought he was still a kid. Damn that makes me feel old..

19 hours ago, Argo said:

We seem to see it differently because i recall many times he's plucked it out of the sky, also i think Tibo has only conceded 3 goals from set pieces in the box during the entirety of Conte's tenure and i can't recall many near misses either.

He had a little wobble under Hiddink but beyond that i don't think i have ever felt so relaxed when we defend set pieces.

It's not set pieces as much, its usually crosses or long balls in, when if he'd come out he could clear long before the attacker reaches, but instead he hangs back in the 6 yard box and then has to deal with hugely dangerous situations. Drives me flipping crazy.

Doesn't matter anymore.

He put on one hell of a show today...

Fantastic game again. 

He's had a great world cup. It will be sad to see him go.

I thought he got lucky at times pushing it out into the danger area so often, but the save towards the end was very good.

5 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

I thought he got lucky at times pushing it out into the danger area so often, but the save towards the end was very good.

He did got lucky a couple of times but i dont think he couldve pushed any of them safe. 

Pushes off from his right foot instead of planting his left and pushing off. Look it was a great goal, right in the corner but he still pushed off with the wrong foot. That said i still thought he had a good game tonight. A lot of stuff within his range and as i have said previously he does those types of higher saves very well. Distribution dodgy again.

One of the best goalkeepers in the world.
Huge shame he's very likely going back to Madrid this summer already. I fear we are going to replace him with Butland or Navas. That would be a massive drop in quality.

25 minutes ago, Sindre said:

One of the best goalkeepers in the world.
Huge shame he's very likely going back to Madrid this summer already. I fear we are going to replace him with Butland or Navas. That would be a massive drop in quality.

Have we been linked to either of those two?  I have only seen us linked to Alisson.

Congratulations Thibaut!

He played well tonight. Brazil weren't clinical on the rebounds into dangerous areas, but some of the saves it would be hard to parry to safety.

some good saves,one outstanding save but his weakness was shown in the Brazil goal,  he struggles on low shots. 

On 07/07/2018 at 01:31, dkw said:

some good saves,one outstanding save but his weakness was shown in the Brazil goal,  he struggles on low shots. 

Understandable considering his height. He's one of the tallest footballers in the world, probably in the top 5% in height if I had to guess. As a 6'6 GK, harder to go down as quickly as a 6'3 or 6'4 GK for that kind of shot. It's the same sort of problem a 6'4 CB would face when dealing with short and quick players like Hazard (or Messi) versus a CB who's about 5'11 or 6'0. You take what you can get. That height, as stated above, also gives him a rare advantage over almost every GK in the world when it comes to aerial balls, which is also important.

14 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

Understandable considering his height. He's one of the tallest footballers in the world, probably in the top 5% in height if I had to guess. As a 6'6 GK, harder to go down as quickly as a 6'3 or 6'4 GK for that kind of shot. It's the same sort of problem a 6'4 CB would face when dealing with short and quick players like Hazard (or Messi) versus a CB who's about 5'11 or 6'0. You take what you can get. That height, as stated above, also gives him a rare advantage over almost every GK in the world when it comes to aerial balls, which is also important.

Absolutely, getting down to low shots is always going to be difficult for a keeper of his size. 

25 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

Understandable considering his height. He's one of the tallest footballers in the world, probably in the top 5% in height if I had to guess. As a 6'6 GK, harder to go down as quickly as a 6'3 or 6'4 GK for that kind of shot. It's the same sort of problem a 6'4 CB would face when dealing with short and quick players like Hazard (or Messi) versus a CB who's about 5'11 or 6'0. You take what you can get. That height, as stated above, also gives him a rare advantage over almost every GK in the world when it comes to aerial balls, which is also important.

Edwin Van Der Sar is 6’5 and a half, Cech 6’5...I dont recall those two having these height issues/getting down ever.

17 minutes ago, Blue Exile said:

Edwin Van Der Sar is 6’5 and a half, Cech 6’5...I dont recall those two having these height issues/getting down ever.

They did and all keepers do, its why a striker will usually aim for bottom or top corner its the hardest place for keepers to reach and if you compare him to other top keepers I really wouldn't call it one of Tibo's weaknesses. 

1 hour ago, Blue Exile said:

Edwin Van Der Sar is 6’5 and a half, Cech 6’5...I dont recall those two having these height issues/getting down ever.

Don't know about Van Der Sar but you don't recall Cech getting beaten at the near post time and time again? It even got worse post 2011. 

For me he has shown to be one of the best keepers at this WC, unfortunately and sadly I do believe his decision has been made. It is better IMO, to get a transfer fee now for Courtois rather than lose him for free.

2 hours ago, PedroMendez said:

They did and all keepers do, its why a striker will usually aim for bottom or top corner its the hardest place for keepers to reach and if you compare him to other top keepers I really wouldn't call it one of Tibo's weaknesses. 

His technical attributes in dealing with low crosses is poor. Many goalkeepers that are poor technically can still have glittering carerrs. For anybody who studies goalkeeping and goalkeepers Manuel Neuer breaches pretty much all of the main technical rules, he is so unconventional. But he gets away with it and is a great keeper. Therefore Courtois can still be a good keeper but whilst being tall is an obvious problem for tall goalkeepers, there are elements of technique that help in tackling these issues. Cech's technical compensation in setting and pushing off for low shots is far better than Courtois