Jump to content

We've got a new Kepa


Zeta
Eton Blue at the Chelsea Megastore

Recommended Posts

17 hours ago, Shweaves said:

I disagree with that, after this game. If I had the time (or knew how) I would find the example in the second half of Kepa catching the ball in the six yard box whilst under aerial pressure from Calvert-Lewin. It was a bit of a nothing cross but he still needed to do his job efficiently. There seems to be a bit more confidence on his part in those situations, and if he continues to do those relatively simple things well, then he will only improve. 

Look at Pickford, of a relatively similar size, catching the ball a few times around the 6 yard box from corners. If Kepa can start doing that consistently it'll do the team a world of good. Hopefully, the signs are there!

Yes Kepa did come out more to catch or punch but he never looked assured. There were at least two instances in the first half where he was a bit shakey. Nevertheless he improved in this area and at least he is trying to get better there but idk why a 70mill. keeper still needs basic "in Box Training", it's like he never had to deal with this part of the game till now but as i said at least he gets better. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites



8 hours ago, Nevamind said:

Yes Kepa did come out more to catch or punch but he never looked assured. 

At least he’s going for it now though. His confidence will hopefully improve the more he does it.

In other news I actually heard him shouting/communicating the last two games...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Munkworth said:

At least he’s going for it now though. His confidence will hopefully improve the more he does it.

In other news I actually heard him shouting/communicating the last two games...

If you would have read my post you would see i said the same thing about "trying". 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Nevamind said:

If you would have read my post you would see i said the same thing about "trying". 

I did read your post, I’m saying it’s a good thing he’s actually trying now because before he’d go hiding. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites



  • 2 months later...

Great article on Kepas issues, the analysis of his technique is particularly telling:

https://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2020/5/14/21257561/solving-chelseas-kepa-conundrum-part-1

As the article says we've no hope of selling him, but how we managed to pay that fee in the first place boggles the mind. Easily our worst ever piece of transfer business. Puts Torres in the shade.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Spiller86 said:

Great article on Kepas issues, the analysis of his technique is particularly telling:

https://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2020/5/14/21257561/solving-chelseas-kepa-conundrum-part-1

As the article says we've no hope of selling him, but how we managed to pay that fee in the first place boggles the mind. Easily our worst ever piece of transfer business. Puts Torres in the shade.

Morata, Drinkwater and Bakayoko were far worse. Kepa was decent last season.

Edited by Scott Harris
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Spiller86 said:

Great article on Kepas issues, the analysis of his technique is particularly telling:

https://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2020/5/14/21257561/solving-chelseas-kepa-conundrum-part-1

As the article says we've no hope of selling him, but how we managed to pay that fee in the first place boggles the mind. Easily our worst ever piece of transfer business. Puts Torres in the shade.

I think the meaning of the article is to particularly present how bad Kepa is more than anything, which would make it a bit harsh.

Yes he isn't as good for the price that was paid for him.

Even so many of the examples where he failed to stop a shot that is presented show a very bad defense around Kepa which is just casually slipped under the rug. 1 sentence about how Rüdiger should have done better and even then the whole fault is placed on Kepa for not coming forward, this I don't agree with. From that gif it's far from certain that even if Kepa had come out that he would have stopped that goal from happening, the ball went down on a steep downwards angle after the header and I seriously doubt that a keeper, any keeper would have saved that with his foot or left arm going down very fast after it was up to challenge that cross, that particular gif shows to me that he got a piece of the ball and could have saved it but the bounce from the ground was hard enough for Kepa to fail saving that header.
If the author means that Kepa should have prevented Rudi from losing the duel and prevent the header from happening in the first place, that's a great suggestion but it sounds like it doesn't matter how bad our defense is as long as Kepa can make it all disappear just by going forward, I don't think it works like that. Tammy scored headers this season from crosses when keepers tried to go forward and when they stayed on the line, when a player wins the duel in the box like that it's done, it should be a goal by all means, unless the author thought that Kepa was already better than the best keepers in the league and that wasn't really said by anyone.

The article is objectively harsh and I wouldn't want to argue about that: "This and his indecisiveness in 1v1 scenarios were both on show in the 2-2 draw against Arsenal, in a display that must rank amongst his worst for the club." That whole sequence started far far away from our goal, half of the team was indecisive including Kante that slipped in that whole process, and yet it's Kepa's fault that a player scored in a 1v1 situation there. That should be a goal in 195/200 occasions even if we include Morata in it.

Now I do agree that he isn't good enough, and IMO we should get a young keeper and let the two of them fight for the starting lineup, that is the question at the end of the article but even with all the situations and stats presented I think it's pretty clear why we bought him. He's still young and not in his prime and has shown a certain level of maturity in La Liga, he was projected as the next first choice of Spain and we paid the price for his potential development. Added we kind of needed to solve that problem because of the departure of Courtois, maybe all that isn't enough of an excuse for paying such a high price as we maybe could have simply signed, a better keeper overall.

Even so, we should keep in mind that Kepa came into the team that already had problems in many areas and that the manager at the time didn't bother much to improve the defense but he was doing everything to hide our defense from being exposed in the first place with heavy possession and as little risk passing as possible, maybe the reason why he didn't show much improvement in the second season is also due to the arrival of Lampard. Not that it's Lampards fault but just that Kepa needs to once again adapt in an already new environment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites



2 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

Great article on Kepas issues, the analysis of his technique is particularly telling:

https://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2020/5/14/21257561/solving-chelseas-kepa-conundrum-part-1

As the article says we've no hope of selling him, but how we managed to pay that fee in the first place boggles the mind. Easily our worst ever piece of transfer business. Puts Torres in the shade.

Not really, we were in an extremely difficult position, put there by Courtois, so we gambled on a young prospect who could still very much improve. With Torres we spunked 50 million which was a lot at the time on a player who was way past his best and only had one good game against us. 

Kepa really pissed me off over the Sarri incident, that for me will stick there and it will take a long time to rectify, and I'm sure many other Chelsea fans feel the same. And this season he has been really poor, extremely poor in the air and has heavily contributed to our piss poor defensive set pieces. But having said that, he can still improve, on the ball he's really good, and some games he's invincible at shot stopping, he actually has a lot of the problems De Gea had when he first came to the Premier League. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He’s a young goalkeeper playing with young, inexperienced defence. Rudiger and Dave are our only decent senior plays back there and one has been injured a good chunk of the season. 
 

He seemed a lot better last year with Luiz, Rudiger, Dave and Cahill playing in front of him. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Morata, Drinkwater and Bakayoko were far worse. Kepa was decent last season.

We got a refund on Morata, so I call that one neutral

Good loan fees for Bakayoko and hopefully a fee at the end... poor contributions, but from a business perspective, not quite as bad as the next guy....

Drinkwater - 50M or so (including salary) just flushed down the drain. To me, this one is in a league of its own. The worst piece of business we've done. Had a better player we let go for 4M in Chalobah. I don't care that he was out of contract. Would have saved about 45M to let him walk at the end of it.

Watching Kovavic this season, if he had been bought to replace Matic instead of Bakayoko, I wonder where we'd be right now? So much went wrong because of that key failure. It was almost like we played with 10 men. with Cesc and Bakayoko almost making up a full player in that 5-3-2. The formation changed, the mentality changed. The personnel changed, because Bakayoko was a bust in the midfield. Drop a player like Kovavic next to Kante and the 3-4-3 is humming again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites



I think the article is excellent. The description of the back and forth arm movement is especially insightful, and I’ll admit to not seeing that one iota until reading the article.  Reminds me a lot of a baseball player (forgive me, Brits) who has a real loopy backswing and the ball goes past him before he squares up his bat to the home plate.  Of course many of you have no idea what I am taking about, but it fits.  Or like a tennis player with a long backswing who does poorly against big hitters.  He will probably never change that attribute, unfortunately.

Edited by Phillip
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Skinnedy said:

We got a refund on Morata, so I call that one neutral

Good loan fees for Bakayoko and hopefully a fee at the end... poor contributions, but from a business perspective, not quite as bad as the next guy....

Drinkwater - 50M or so (including salary) just flushed down the drain. To me, this one is in a league of its own. The worst piece of business we've done. Had a better player we let go for 4M in Chalobah. I don't care that he was out of contract. Would have saved about 45M to let him walk at the end of it.

Watching Kovavic this season, if he had been bought to replace Matic instead of Bakayoko, I wonder where we'd be right now? So much went wrong because of that key failure. It was almost like we played with 10 men. with Cesc and Bakayoko almost making up a full player in that 5-3-2. The formation changed, the mentality changed. The personnel changed, because Bakayoko was a bust in the midfield. Drop a player like Kovavic next to Kante and the 3-4-3 is humming again.

I think the Bakayoko signing is the worst signing we've ever made at the club, I've never seen a player perform so badly in a Chelsea shirt in my life. Drinkwater was fairly decent whenever he played but never in a million years was he worth that money. 

The Bakayoko signing made sense though, he was still a propsect from Atletico and young, the Drinkwater signing? Madness... 40 million on him, I never understood it, someone has blood on their hands for that season, Antonio Conte definitely. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

47 minutes ago, Slojo said:

I think the Bakayoko signing is the worst signing we've ever made at the club, I've never seen a player perform so badly in a Chelsea shirt in my life. Drinkwater was fairly decent whenever he played but never in a million years was he worth that money. 

The Bakayoko signing made sense though, he was still a propsect from Atletico and young, the Drinkwater signing? Madness... 40 million on him, I never understood it, someone has blood on their hands for that season, Antonio Conte definitely. 

I think you kind of talked yourself in a circle in that one...lol

Bakayoko was from Monaco, but I know what you mean... I think purely from the financial aspect, not from a talent or production aspect

as a piece of business, which is worse. 15M Net or so on Bakayoko or 50M net on Drinkwater?

I still go with the latter.

And like you're saying, that deal didn't make any sense when we did it, and hindsight only makes it look worse.

Link to comment
Share on other sites



@Gol15 for me the article is harsh but it is nothing if not well researched and backed by evidence. 

The old saying of 'got to get past 10 others before they beat the keeper' is fair in some of those examples and he hasn't been helped by our open defence conceding quality chances. That said the thing that is perhaps most damning is that he has been a bad shot stopper his whole career. Hasn't yet made a positive contribution in any season he has played. 

A lot of us won't have seen the 'swinging his arms' analysis before but we have all seen that he fails to save easy shots. We've also seen that he is rooted to the spot at every set piece. These aren't things that are easy to fix. Nor is the fact that he is 5-10cm shorter than most keepers. We're unlikely to be rid of him this season but we desperately need proper competition in the summer.

As for whether he is our worst piece of business ever @Skinnedy @Scott Harris @Slojo I'd agree that Drinkwater and Bakayako are awful. But Kepa cost almost twice as much as them and was signed to a (7!) year deal as one of the highest paid players at the club, despite the numbers from Bilbao in that article and despite the same flaws existing in his game. He is a scouting and financial disaster and we can only hope Marina can work her magic to get rid of him for some sort of fee over the next 18 months.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Slojo said:

I think the Bakayoko signing is the worst signing we've ever made at the club, I've never seen a player perform so badly in a Chelsea shirt in my life. Drinkwater was fairly decent whenever he played but never in a million years was he worth that money. 

The Bakayoko signing made sense though, he was still a propsect from Atletico and young, the Drinkwater signing? Madness... 40 million on him, I never understood it, someone has blood on their hands for that season, Antonio Conte definitely. 

In all honesty I don't think anything can trump Torres.

With Fernando it wasn't just his performances it was his overall effect on the club. He held us back for many years, even his supposed finest hour came after he nearly blew the whole tie for us.

We should have realised what a mistake we made after six months and took the medicine even if the loss made would have made us the butt of all jokes.

Bakayoko was poor but when all said and done he was demoted after half a season and gone within one (although that said even if he was a success he'd have probably been gone with Sarri coming in).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Skinnedy said:

I think you kind of talked yourself in a circle in that one...lol

Bakayoko was from Monaco, but I know what you mean... I think purely from the financial aspect, not from a talent or production aspect

as a piece of business, which is worse. 15M Net or so on Bakayoko or 50M net on Drinkwater?

I still go with the latter.

And like you're saying, that deal didn't make any sense when we did it, and hindsight only makes it look worse.

Maybe now looking back on it, but performance wise Bakayoko was a whole lot worse. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites



On 14/05/2020 at 23:05, Spiller86 said:

@Gol15 for me the article is harsh but it is nothing if not well researched and backed by evidence. 

The old saying of 'got to get past 10 others before they beat the keeper' is fair in some of those examples and he hasn't been helped by our open defence conceding quality chances. That said the thing that is perhaps most damning is that he has been a bad shot stopper his whole career. Hasn't yet made a positive contribution in any season he has played. 

A lot of us won't have seen the 'swinging his arms' analysis before but we have all seen that he fails to save easy shots. We've also seen that he is rooted to the spot at every set piece. These aren't things that are easy to fix. Nor is the fact that he is 5-10cm shorter than most keepers. We're unlikely to be rid of him this season but we desperately need proper competition in the summer.

As for whether he is our worst piece of business ever @Skinnedy @Scott Harris @Slojo I'd agree that Drinkwater and Bakayako are awful. But Kepa cost almost twice as much as them and was signed to a (7!) year deal as one of the highest paid players at the club, despite the numbers from Bilbao in that article and despite the same flaws existing in his game. He is a scouting and financial disaster and we can only hope Marina can work her magic to get rid of him for some sort of fee over the next 18 months.

I think this is also harsh but like you said, there is enough evidence to actually suggest that what you said there is an objective observation, stats did point out that he hasn't been stopping anywhere near enough shots in his second season. I think if you look back on some previous pages there are stats that show that he didn't reach any projected amount of saved shots that would lead to a goal otherwise, meaning that he didn't contribute at all during this season overall.

IMO Donnarumma from AC Milan would take over Kepa's place and enter the starting lineup in a matter of 2-3 training sessions, even if he's only 21 years old.

But I wouldn't mention Torres at all when talking about Kepa because Torres did contribute a whole lot for us and he won a whole lot while being our player. Somewhere during 2013, Torres had the CL, Europa League, Euro and World Cup titles all in the same time! He's done a decent job, IMO Kepa should be compared to the likes of Morata, Shevchenko, Kezman and so on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
I have to admit that goalkeeper is the position I have the least fundamental understanding of, but it seems to me that he's quietly putting together a good run of form.
Still far from convinced he is a real top drawer keeper. In fairness he isn't playing behind the strongest back four which tends to result in a keeper losing a bit of confidence but there are some weaknesses to his game which I suspect will continue to haunt him throughout his career.

That said I don't see us replacing him before next season. We have more pressing priorities to address first.
Link to comment
Share on other sites



Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa,Kepa, came from Spain . . . . . . . Bolton .... remember? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I was Kepa I would be disappointed that I didn't stop that free kick, he did all the hard work to get across the goal but didn't extend his arms to attempt the save. I think the dip on the Free Kick did him in as he thought it may be going over however it didn't even go in the top corner therefore he would be pretty disappointed.  

Can't blame him for the goal though as it was a worldie from KDB.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Imran_CFC said:

If I was Kepa I would be disappointed that I didn't stop that free kick, he did all the hard work to get across the goal but didn't extend his arms to attempt the save. I think the dip on the Free Kick did him in as he thought it may be going over however it didn't even go in the top corner therefore he would be pretty disappointed.  

Can't blame him for the goal though as it was a worldie from KDB.

i dont think he will disappointed at all. It was on a postage stamp in the top corner. He was never getting there. He might as well just stood still like david james did against that Ronaldo one. Great free kick.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


6 minutes ago, Imran_CFC said:

If I was Kepa I would be disappointed that I didn't stop that free kick, he did all the hard work to get across the goal but didn't extend his arms to attempt the save. I think the dip on the Free Kick did him in as he thought it may be going over however it didn't even go in the top corner therefore he would be pretty disappointed.  

Can't blame him for the goal though as it was a worldie from KDB.

I don’t think he should be and I’m usually a big critic. I did feel he could have extended his arms but he still wasn’t getting near it. It was a sensational free kick.

 

I am still far from convinced he’s the answer though. He got very lucky with the ball he played directly to Sterling’s (I think?) feet when he almost scored. We signed him because he’s meant to be good with the ball at his feet but I actually find him quite underwhelming. Moments like that don’t help and other times he tries to clip it to the full backs and puts it straight out the park. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the 21/22 season we’re looking for a new No1 unless he develops significantly.

 

People talk about him having confidence in the defence but it works the other way as well. A solid goalkeeper who commands his area and comes for everything breeds confidence in to the back four. I’m not convinced our defence has confidence in him.

Edited by EdinburghBlue
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

I have to admit that goalkeeper is the position I have the least fundamental understanding of, but it seems to me that he's quietly putting together a good run of form.

I disagree. He's been 6/10 in both games for me. 

I'm apparently in a minority that thinks he made a mistake for villas goal, but I'm firmly of the belief that he made a basic gk error there. He also nearly gave away a goal last night and probably should have. 

Free kick happens, not his fault. He has looked slightly more confident on crosses. But hes not a world class keeper and he never will be. 

Edited by bisright1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dont think he could have done much with that free kick, if he's a foot taller he may have got a hand to it. He made a nuisance enough to make Sterling try that bit harder to hit the post, made a few decent saves as well. He's NOT perfect, but looking at De Gea ( either in a long rut or just lost it), or Nick Pope ( whom has been linked), neither give much confidence either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites



Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...
Please Sign In

Well, this is awkward!

Happy Sunny Days GIF by Atlassian

The Shed End Forum relies on revenue to pay for hosting and upgrades. While we try to keep adverts as unobtrusive as possible, we need to show these to make sure we can stay online and continue to keep the forum running. Over the years costs have become very high.

Could you please allow adverts on this domain by switching it off and whitelisting the website? Some of the advert banners can actually be closed to avoid interference with your experience on The Shed End.

If you don't want to view any adverts while logged in and using your account, consider using the Ad-Free Subscription which is renewable every year. To buy a subscription, log in to your account and click the link under the Newbies forum on the home page.

Cheers now!

Sure, let me in!