10 minutes ago, Slojo said:

It was in the 6 yard box, Tibo would've got that with ease. 

No he wouldn't have, hes been f**king the exact same thing up for Madrid all season. Also, he "Tibo" wouldnt have gotten anywhere near the shots Kepa has saved the last few games. 

13 minutes ago, dkw said:

No he wouldn't have, hes been f**king the exact same thing up for Madrid all season. Also, he "Tibo" wouldnt have gotten anywhere near the shots Kepa has saved the last few games. 

Agree with the last sentence, I don't rate Courtois, never really did and I'm glad we got rid of him, Kepa is a much better shot stopper, but one thing about Tibo was good in the air and catching, obviously being 6'6 helped with that. 

28 minutes ago, Slojo said:

It was in the 6 yard box, Tibo would've got that with ease. 

Whipped in first time dipping with no time to react. Absolutely no chance. Tibo was slow! Tibo’s biggest quality was collecting high slow crosses in the box because he could just walk out and reach above everyone else because he was a big giraffe.

12 minutes ago, DannyVblue said:

Whipped in first time dipping with no time to react. Absolutely no chance. Tibo was slow! Tibo’s biggest quality was collecting high slow crosses in the box because he could just walk out and reach above everyone else because he was a big giraffe.

It was whipped in fast but it was very close to the keeper, I fully believe a keeper should catch that in his 6 yard box. 

There's plenty of blame to go around though, the build up play beforehand was pretty poor on us, Villa had acres of space to play a triangle right next to the box. Christensen should do much better on ariel duels and James should never leave a spare man in front of him, that's his man to mark on incoming crosses. 

But I think good goalkeeping prevents all that, the cross was very close to our goal. 

16 minutes ago, Slojo said:

It was whipped in fast but it was very close to the keeper, I fully believe a keeper should catch that in his 6 yard box. 

There's plenty of blame to go around though, the build up play beforehand was pretty poor on us, Villa had acres of space to play a triangle right next to the box. Christensen should do much better on ariel duels and James should never leave a spare man in front of him, that's his man to mark on incoming crosses. 

But I think good goalkeeping prevents all that, the cross was very close to our goal. 

We will have to agree to disagree on this one. With 2 defenders in the 6 yard box (Christensen and James), I think Kepa had every right to protect his goal-line. Great cross, poor defending, (another!) fluky finish. 

There is no comparison between Courtois and Kepa on crosses. Courtois was the best we've ever had on crosses, he completely dominated his box and anything in the air. That was his massive strength and Kepa's massive weakness. Kepa is hopeless on crosses, as bad as they come. It's partly why we're so vulnerable at corners and anything that's delivered into our box. Partly, because our defence is also culpable. The fact that Kepa is short and Courtois so tall obviously plays a part but for my money it's Kepa's achilles heel and we're paying big time this season.

You guys all act like Kepa is the only keeper in the league that isn’t 6’6”.

6 minutes ago, mwblue10 said:

You guys all act like Kepa is the only keeper in the league that isn’t 6’6”.

Seems to me that as we have been spoiled with probably the last 3 best keepers in the prem (carlo, bit pete, and big nose) that any drop below that level is all of a sudden the worst keeper in the world, 

yes Kepa has his flaws but FFS he is still a good (possibly very good) keeper better than most others on a day to day basis, yes he had a bit of poor form but the constant changing of defense in front of him coupled with the lack of a commanding CB on crosses has multiplied that.

Its also made to look worse when it seems so often that the oppos keepers have their performance of the season against us (Foster/ Heaton) saving stuff they normally pick out of the net.

 

In comparison look at Pickford at the moment looks f**king shocking and he was meant to be the best English keeper going for a long time, Pope can be hit and miss (but I do rate him) 

2 hours ago, Davey Baby said:

There is no comparison between Courtois and Kepa on crosses. Courtois was the best we've ever had on crosses, he completely dominated his box and anything in the air. That was his massive strength and Kepa's massive weakness. Kepa is hopeless on crosses, as bad as they come. It's partly why we're so vulnerable at corners and anything that's delivered into our box. Partly, because our defence is also culpable. The fact that Kepa is short and Courtois so tall obviously plays a part but for my money it's Kepa's achilles heel and we're paying big time this season.

Think Big Petr and Ed De Goey may disagree on the best at dealing with crosses part.

 

Kepa does need to command his box better. He is what? Similar to say Dean Henderson in size and that boy commands his box really well.

I think Kepa showed last season he's a solid keeper but tbf so did Courtois in his first season here back from loan, he was convincingly keeping Cech out, then when Cech went we started to see a decline, particularly in Conte's 2nd season. 

3 hours ago, Davey Baby said:

There is no comparison between Courtois and Kepa on crosses. Courtois was the best we've ever had on crosses, he completely dominated his box and anything in the air. That was his massive strength and Kepa's massive weakness. Kepa is hopeless on crosses, as bad as they come. It's partly why we're so vulnerable at corners and anything that's delivered into our box. Partly, because our defence is also culpable. The fact that Kepa is short and Courtois so tall obviously plays a part but for my money it's Kepa's achilles heel and we're paying big time this season.

Whereas courtois weakness was... Saving shots.

8 hours ago, DannyVblue said:

I can't believe you're blaming him for their goal last night - no keeper comes out for that cross. It had absolutely nothing to do with his height (it wasn't even a high cross). Sometimes you've just got to applaud the superb delivery. The blame for their goal was 1. allowing the cross to be delivered in the first place 2. Christensen getting bullied by their attacker and getting nowhere near the header 3. Reece James not picking up the runner.

Understand your perspective and he certainly wasn't the only one at fault. But go back and watch Cech and Tibo and pretty much anything in the six yard box got caught or punched. 

It's also not the only example of him being rooted to the spot when the ball comes into the six yard box. The aerial game in the Premier League is enormous and at the moment it is killing us. That's not entirely on him but his lack of confidence to come and claim is a big part of it.

I think we should get away from this Kepa vs Tibo arm wrestle and accept that:

1. Neither are remotely in the same league as Cech

but far more importantly

2. Neither have used permanent marker to sign their name on Val's tits like Cudicini has.

5 hours ago, dkw said:

Whereas courtois weakness was... Saving shots.

Who's saying otherwise? You're entirely missing the point... 

I prefer Kepa to Courtois, I don't think anybody here is saying Courtois is the better option, Davey might have that opinion but he hasn't said it. The point is that as bad as Courtois was, he would at least come out to catch or punch the ball away on crosses, something Kepa doesn't seem to do at all. Meanwhile Kepa is a much better shot stopper, Courtois would rarely ever save a shot in the box. 
 

21 minutes ago, loz said:

2. Neither have used permanent marker to sign their name on Val's tits like Cudicini has.

This isn’t fair. She doesn’t stalk anyone else relentlessly like she does with Carlo. 

Yeah I prefer Kepa to Courtois, his distribution and shot stopping is very good, but he can’t take charge of the box.

I think we need a Van Dijk to mask Kepa’s weakness, but it isn’t easy to find one. I really think a world class centre back should be our top priority for next summer.

10 hours ago, Slojo said:

I prefer Kepa to Courtois, I don't think anybody here is saying Courtois is the better option, Davey might have that opinion but he hasn't said it. The point is that as bad as Courtois was, he would at least come out to catch or punch the ball away on crosses, something Kepa doesn't seem to do at all. Meanwhile Kepa is a much better shot stopper, Courtois would rarely ever save a shot in the box. 
 

I didn't remember this been a strong point of his and remembered him punching the ball into danger areas quite often. And I've gone to Courtois' topic on this forum and searched "punch" to check if I remembered correctly, and most of the comments are how he always punches the ball to opponents within the box or coming out of his line with no purpose, Villa, Stoke, PSG are some of the matches being mentioned as conceding goals because Courtois punched the ball to an opponent. So, some revisionism of Courtois going on.

14 minutes ago, RMH said:

I didn't remember this been a strong point of his and remembered him punching the ball into danger areas quite often. And I've gone to Courtois' topic on this forum and searched "punch" to check if I remembered correctly, and most of the comments are how he always punches the ball to opponents within the box or coming out of his line with no purpose, Villa, Stoke, PSG are some of the matches being mentioned as conceding goals because Courtois punched the ball to an opponent. So, some revisionism of Courtois going on.

Not for me. I always felt safe with Courtois on set pieces and if you go through my history I mentioned it many times while he was here.

I don't know the exact stats for how many serious chances we allowed on corners or dangerous free kicks with him in goal but id be surprised if it was any worse than one in three games.

Edited December 6, 20196 yr by Argo

22 minutes ago, Argo said:

Not for me. I always felt safe with Courtois on set pieces and if you go through my history I mentioned it many times while he was here.

I don't know the exact stats for how many serious chances we allowed on corners or dangerous free kicks with him in goal but id be surprised if it was any worse than one in three games.

Yes, I didn't check who was saying what to be honest, and I haven't any data regarding the performance of Courtois regarding punching the ball or coming out of the line in a cross. So it is all my feeling, which obviously is not a fact. But I was (and still am) of the opinion that he was not that safe and he often punched the ball to a danger area. He was not strong and could not punch a ball out of the box, thus I didn't feel too confident. And the fact that two-three seasons ago we were discussing this, means that many in here were not that confident at all with him. Now, that does not mean that Kepa is better in dealing with crosses (obviously is no improvement in that department so far), I'm just saying that we should not think of the past as being all rosy with Courtois and crosses into the box.

Last year it was Jorginho this yeah it's kepa wonder who it will be next season.

Bye bye.

Give him away for free for all i care, as long as i don't have to see him for us again.

Should be sold in january. Not even up for debate.

It's just poor form. It's because his defenders in front of him keep changing. Courtois wasn't that good.

Let's change the record. He's a sh*t keeper and needs to go.

5 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Bye bye.

Give him away for free for all i care, as long as i don't have to see him for us again.

Should be sold in january. Not even up for debate.

What is Zouma doing there?  He just let the ball roll right to Walcott.

Our back 4 has been complete shambles today, I don’t know how you can blame Kepa for much of any of it.

He is a scrub.