He's definitely better than Tibo with his feet.

A better shot stopper too, i'd say the only thing Courtois beats him at is claiming balls in his box from corners etc. 

Still needs to make some saves tho. 3 months of playing, he probably has 4-5 good stops. 

He is usually caught in no man's land, the same happened yesterday. they are working with his game outside the box, in the beginning he didnt even dare to get out of the goal area, but still needs to improve a lot. 

10 hours ago, enigma said:

Classy Kepa 

 

Neuer-like.

Superb anticipation. 

Honestly don't remember Courtois venturing outside of his box like that.

6 minutes ago, Giordano_Bruno said:

Still needs to make some saves tho. 3 months of playing, he probably has 4-5 good stops. 

He is usually caught in no man's land, the same happened yesterday. they are working with his game outside the box, in the beginning he didnt even dare to get out of the goal area, but still needs to improve a lot. 

I think he does ok as this season our defence usually under less siege. Under previous managers, the defensive block meant most angles always covered by wall of players so it would mean the goalkeeper (tibo) saving had to focus on less angles or save shots from distance which tbf mostly gives the impression of an outstanding save. 

With us so open, attackers have a clear run at him with loads of angles to pick from and his reflex saves from near distance have been very good in my view.

I also think he sees so little action so quite easy to "fall asleep" during games for when needed. 

I think there have been only 2 goals he conceded this season where I feel he was culpable and one was Sturridge's equalizer, which was a peach anyway but with better positioning he could have had it.

 

41 minutes ago, Giordano_Bruno said:

Still needs to make some saves tho. 3 months of playing, he probably has 4-5 good stops. 

He is usually caught in no man's land, the same happened yesterday. they are working with his game outside the box, in the beginning he didnt even dare to get out of the goal area, but still needs to improve a lot. 

If your goalkeeper is forced into making too many saves or 'good stops', it suggests that the defence in front of him is sub-standard.

 

33 minutes ago, abister1 said:

I think he does ok as this season our defence usually under less siege. Under previous managers, the defensive block meant most angles always covered by wall of players so it would mean the goalkeeper (tibo) saving had to focus on less angles or save shots from distance which tbf mostly gives the impression of an outstanding save. 

With us so open, attackers have a clear run at him with loads of angles to pick from and his reflex saves from near distance have been very good in my view.

I also think he sees so little action so quite easy to "fall asleep" during games for when needed. 

I think there have been only 2 goals he conceded this season where I feel he was culpable and one was Sturridge's equalizer, which was a peach anyway but with better positioning he could have had it.

 

A few others have said this, but I think this is incredibly harsh - sometimes you just have to admit that the striker was just too good. Kante was more at fault for not closing him down, if you wish to point fingers (which I wouldn't in that case). 

6 minutes ago, DaRick said:

If your goalkeeper is forced into making too many saves or 'good stops', it suggests that the defence in front of him is sub-standard.

 

A few others have said this, but I think this is incredibly harsh - sometimes you just have to admit that the striker was just too good. Kante was more at fault for not closing him down, if you wish to point fingers (which I wouldn't in that case). 

Not pointing fingers at all. Just giving my opinion on Kepa's performances as that's what I thought was in discussion here, with an example of that goal of where maybe he could have saved it.

Like i said goal was a peach but not unstoppable. If for e.g. Tibo was in goal and same position he would have saved it due to height advantage and that's where Kepa's positioning may have helped.

1 minute ago, abister1 said:

Not pointing fingers at all. Just giving my opinion on Kepa's performances as that's what I thought was in discussion here, with an example of that goal of where maybe he could have saved it.

Like i said goal was a peach but not unstoppable. If for e.g. Tibo was in goal and same position he would have saved it due to height advantage and that's where Kepa's positioning may have helped.

RE Courtois I agree about his height being a natural advantage in those situations, but it's hard to me to conclude that Kepa's inability to reach the ball due to his relative lack of height must therefore have meant that his positioning was inadequate.

Agree to disagree, I guess. 

 

11 hours ago, enigma said:

Classy Kepa 

 

That was actually a pretty big moment, it got the crowd up, and kept the pressure on palace after we were struggling a little bit the 1st 25 mins. So many keepers would've put that in the stands. 

I don't think he could've done too much with the goal, it was well struck in the corner from inside the box. Good finish on his weaker side to be honest. 

1 hour ago, DaRick said:

Neuer-like.

Superb anticipation. 

Honestly don't remember Courtois venturing outside of his box like that.

Genuinely world class moment from him. There are a handful of keepers in the last 5 years that could have done that. 

For me, he's a 7/10 in terms of saves etc. - but that will improve. But he's already a 9/10 in possession. Its critical with our system - and also how football is played now - that the keeper is a consistently trusted outlet for the team. I've not seen him make a single mistake this season with the ball at his feet. 

You could make an argument that he’s better on the ball than a handful of our outfield players.  Yes, I’m being slightly facetious, but my goodness he has skills.

6 hours ago, Giordano_Bruno said:

Still needs to make some saves tho. 3 months of playing, he probably has 4-5 good stops. 

He is usually caught in no man's land, the same happened yesterday. they are working with his game outside the box, in the beginning he didnt even dare to get out of the goal area, but still needs to improve a lot. 

He saved us a point at West Ham, against Liverpool (minutes away from being all three) prevented an embarrassing reverse against Vidi and made some crucial saves against Saints that if not made would have made a comfortable game more of a battle while out of all the goals he has conceded the only one i feel he should have done better with was Mkhi's for Arsenal.

I'm a little worried about his claiming of crosses and ariel balls but other than that he's been even better than i expected!

I'll just leave it here

On 05/11/2018 at 10:06, Giordano_Bruno said:

Still needs to make some saves tho. 3 months of playing, he probably has 4-5 good stops. 

This used to be a criticism of Petr Cech. He didn't make "big saves". 

But the thing about Big Pete was, his positioning was so good, most of the time he didn't need to make good saves because he was able to make a simple one instead. 

Not saying this has been the case with Kepa but more a general point that just because the highlights reel doesn't seem that impressive, doesn't mean they aren't doing a good job. 

de gae was a wreck in his 1st 1/2 seasons with a decent utd team

 

now some say hes no 1.

 

kepa is world class and imo no 1 already

On 05/11/2018 at 11:24, abister1 said:

Not pointing fingers at all. Just giving my opinion on Kepa's performances as that's what I thought was in discussion here, with an example of that goal of where maybe he could have saved it.

Like i said goal was a peach but not unstoppable. If for e.g. Tibo was in goal and same position he would have saved it due to height advantage and that's where Kepa's positioning may have helped.

This is a good point although we only analyse the merits of goalkeeping saves and positioning from the failures in order to identify what could have been done better. We don't really analyse the good technical goalkeeping stuff too much. As i have stated before one persons fantastic sprawling dive is another persons poor starting position and leaden footedness.

Whilst Courtois may indeed have caught the Sturridge shot (and probbaly then either shanked the ball off the pitch or thrown a hospital pass out to a teammate) there was a game recently where Kepa made an instinctive dive to the floor, bottom right corner, from a point blank shot to save the ball and tip it away from danger, which i genuinely don't believe Courtois would save.

There is the clip at the top of this page where Kepa comes charging out to clear the ball and the poster cannot recall Courtois doing something like this. There is more t it though. Kepa not only charges out to reach the ball first but he makes a pass that transiitons play stright away. If Courtois had have done this he would have focussed on just belting the ball into the stand. I do have recollections of Courtois charging outin this way and making a hash actually (Watford possibly?) as well as one resulting in a sending off (i think)

He's pretty good isn't he 

Anyone worried he isnt tall enough? He is only 6"1, compared to snake Tbo who was 6"6. Suppose Tbo was unable to close his legs though.... 

29 minutes ago, MidnightVivid said:

Anyone worried he isnt tall enough? He is only 6"1, compared to snake Tbo who was 6"6. Suppose Tbo was unable to close his legs though.... 

Carlo was 6’1 and @Valerie will tell you all about him 

16 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

Carlo was 6’1 and @Valerie will tell you all about him 

Only what is in the public domain though, I'm not the kiss and tell type 

I thought he played well last night.

the worst shot stopper this league has even have. this kid cannot make a save. Is he a ghost or something? it's getting through his hands/body for like 10th time this season? 

7 minutes ago, Giordano_Bruno said:

the worst shot stopper this league has even have. this kid cannot make a save. Is he a ghost or something? it's getting through his hands/body for like 10th time this season? 

Nonsense. I understand being annoyed at the mistake and the performance from the team tonight, but this is just rubbish. For me, this was his first big mistake of the season.

I disagree that this was his first big mistake.  I recall a bad one versus Arsenal, in which he got beaten at the near post.  And even the goal by Kane, he should have gotten a paw to it.   Was the first Wolves goal through the wickets?   Anyway, given the sharp angle of the shot and the closeness of the ball to him, he should have stopped it no problem.

2 hours ago, Giordano_Bruno said:

the worst shot stopper this league has even have. this kid cannot make a save. Is he a ghost or something? it's getting through his hands/body for like 10th time this season? 

what are you even talking about

oh my days