DBasia.news – The transfer saga of Thibaut Courtois has finally come to an end. Chelsea decided to release the Belgium goalkeeper to Real Madrid after the effort to keep him.
Chelsea’s decision to release Courtois is related with his success to get young Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga. Chelsea are under pressure to get the equal goalkeeper replacing him. It can be seen by the deficit on this goalkeeper business.
Chelsea paid 80 million euro to activate Kepa’s release clause. While to get Courtois, The Blues got 35 million euro and loaned Mateo Kovacic to Real Madrid.
Actually, Chelsea’s decision to get Kepa is a bit surprising. Previously, the 23-year-old goalkeeper was never mentioned. Chelsea often related to Jack Butland who appeared after The Blues’ failure to get Alisson Becker signed by Liverpool.
As the direct successor of Courtois, it’s reasonable to compare Kepa with the former player who has been playing 7 years for Chelsea. Then, who is better? Did Chelsea take the right decision to get Kepa to replace Courtois?
It’s not easy to compare Kepa to Courtois because the two goalkeepers have a different character. Kepa is similar to Manchester United goalkeeper who also comes from Spain, David de Gea.
Kepa is known for his ability to cut off the kick and high agility, and also the reaction. It can be concluded for counter-attack, Kepa is better. Besides, with the height lower than Courtois, Kepa has more flexibility.
On the other hand, Courtois is better than Kepa in responding to cross passing. Different to the other goalkeepers, Courtois doesn’t like to respond crossing ball. During his career, Courtois is one of the world’s best goalkeepers in responding to cross balls. One of his abilities is to tackle the pressure in any situation.
Related to the pressure, this is the greatest test for Kepa. For example, De Gea was facing difficulty in adapting to the physical play style of Premier League football since joining Manchester United. It’s possible that he will face the same difficulty.
Meanwhile, one of Chelsea’s reasons to choose Kepa is his ability to play the ball with his foot. As known, this is not the best point of Courtois. The Belgium goalkeeper seems uncomfortable to accept the back pass.
While Kepa, in past season seemed comfortable with the ball. Last season, Kepa successfully did 368 long passing, the highest in LaLiga. For short passing, he scored 221 successful passings from 223 attempts.
In quality, or at least statistically recorded, Kepa could replace Courtois with a better chance. As long as he could ease the pressure. Besides adaptation process, the status of world’s most expensive goalkeeper worth 80 million euro can also become the boomerang for him.