Many of you will have read and digested the excellent piece posted by Stan entitled -The Vital Chelsea 2015 / 2016 Report.
For the purpose of this ongoing series of articles we`ll shorten it to VCR 15/16.
When it was published it was agreed that, throughout the summer, we`d take a look at each player and offer a few more thoughts, hopefully enticing the Vital Chelsea membership to have their say as well.
Today, I thought I`d get the ball rolling by starting with our Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois
In Stan`s article my fellow editor remarked about the Belgian between the sticks,
13. Courtois – the goalkeeping conundrum: at any given moment he can conjure up miracles, but there`ve been far too few of those moments this season.
? Is it because of his long time out injured?
? His falling out with coach Lollichon?
? His desire to play elsewhere?
Who really knows.
But what we do know is that the fans deserve better. On a pedestrian note: needs to work on his footwork, particularly moving backwards on high balls.
Which to me is a fair synopsis of the current situation, but expanding on the subject this is my say.
The summer of 2015 saw Chelsea make a monumental decision. Having sat on the bench for the majority of the previous season, Petr Cech was allowed to leave Chelsea Football Club sold to, of all places, Arsenal
Bereft of a back-up keeper, Chelsea brought Asmir Begovic from Stoke City. Begovic arrived proclaiming he was going to do his utmost to oust Courtois from that #1 position he believed was his.
But did Courtois, having seen of Cech assume that Begovic wasn`t of the same calibre as Cech and wouldn`t pose the threat the Czech did? If so, was that a reason for what was to follow this season?
The season, for Courtois, didn`t get off to the best of starts. Swansea were the visitors and in a 2-2 draw Courtois was to receive a red card, the first of two which were to be waved in his direction in a topsy-turvy season.
Matters got even worse when he picked up a bad knee injury that was to leave him side-lined and going through a rehabilitation programme for three months. During those three months Chelsea`s season had imploded, we`d lost any hope of retaining the title, the manager seemed at loggerheads with certain players and confidence within the club was at a low.
Coming back into the side, Courtois` return was heralded as a possible turning point, although to be fair Begovic hadn`t done a bad job between the sticks, one game away to Manchester City saw the Bosnian keep the score respectable rather than let City hand out the kind of thrashing we were to, later in the season, hand out to them in an FA Cup tie at Stamford Bridge.
Back between the posts, Courtois didn`t see the same imposing keeper as he had been during our march to the title the previous season, the Belgian was getting beaten by shots from long range and sometimes his angles were lacking allowing shots to sneak in at the far post.
The media, continuing to bash Chelsea at every opportunity, suggested all was not well with the relationship between Lollichon, Cech`s former personal trainer, and the young Belgian. With Chelsea`s Champions League hopes for next season fast vanishing was the prospect of no European football on the biggest stage playing on his mind.
They are questions that only Thibaut can answer.
There`s no doubting that Courtois can be a fine keeper, once the confidence and swagger returns to the team (hopefully under Antonio Conte) and the defence is tightened up, the young Belgian will stand out from the others in his position, his past achievements support that, nobody is capable of repelling a wave of attacks on their own.
But the biggest question has to be whether Courtois will return to the level we know he can achieve with Chelsea Football Club!
Your thoughts would be most appreciated.
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