Courtois agrees with Ancelotti

“It’s nonsense. Courtois, for me, is the best goalkeeper in the world; Carvajal the best right-back in the world; and Mendy the best left-back. But If you say that Courtois is not among the top ten in the world, you have to break the card as a journalist, a coach, whatever it is”, said Carlo Ancelotti, jokingly with a smile on his face. The question referred to a classification published by FourFourTwo. This medium shared itstop-10 goalkeeper world cup. And the madridista was not in it.

The chosen ones, in this order, were: Édouard Mendy (Chelsea), David de Gea (Manchester United), Manuel News (Bayern Munich), Ederson (Manchester City), Alisson (Liverpool), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal), Joseph Sá (Wolves), Unai Simon (Athletic Club of Bilbao), Bono (Seville) and Jan cloud (Atletico Madrid). Three goalkeepers from the Spanish LaLiga, but none of them was Bree’s. At AS we wanted to take a look at the statistics and, numbers in hand, the Madrid goalkeeper agrees with Ancelotti and ‘forces’ him rip some carnets.

With statistics on your side

Of this ten elite archers, the 78.7% of saves that Courtois averages in all competitions is only surpassed by the 80.8% of Sá, Wolves’ number ‘1’. Bono, who is the Belgian’s biggest rival in the fight to win his fifth Zamora trophy, completes the podium with his 78.3. Mendy (77.9), Ramsdale (77.8), Alisson (72.8), Neuer (72.4), De Gea (71.6), Unai Simón (71.6), Ederson (67.1) and Oblak (58.8) complete this top-11 in which the white infiltrator demonstrates his power.

With 44, he is the one who saves the most shots from outside the area has completed, ahead of De Gea’s 42nd and Ramsdale’s 33rd. If we take into account the shots within the areawe find José Sá and his 79 stops, De Gea and his 72 and in Third place appears Courtois, with 63. On total stops is also reinforced, showing that his high percentage is not due to lesser work than his peers, since only De Gea’s 123 total saves exceed his 110with, again, Sá on the podium with 97.

And if of punctual stops we speak, there is one that shines especially. With Mbappé unleashed in the first leg against PSG, the Belgian was a giant of more than the two meters that appear as his height. Bondy’s forced the maximum penalty that seemed to be the end of the resistance, but Messi, that took the responsibility, ran into Thibaut’s gloves. And it is not the first penalty that he stops this season, since he also frustrated Guedes, although the Portuguese would score in the rebound, in a victory against Valencia (4-1) and Raúl García, in the Super Cup final (0- 2) with Athletic looking to close the gap. Again, he appears as the better parapenaltisahead of De Gea (2), Oblak (1), Bono (1) and the rest of the goalkeepers on the list.

Goodbye to the discussion

Courtois did not have an easy start on the Paseo de la Castellana. He landed as the best goalkeeper at the World Cup in Russia, in 2018, but the keeper of the goal at the Santiago Bernabéu was Keylor Navas, the goalkeeper of Zidane’s three Champions Leagues in a row. The momentum and Thibaut’s wish they put him within reach at a bargain price (35 million euros), if we compare it with his cache and his market value at the time (65 million euros for Transfermarkt). The first campaign was that of alternation… and doubts.

His performance left nothing to be desired and was discussed. But little by little he reversed the situation, the tico he left for PSG the following summer and the Belgian giant became indisputable. With 18 goals against and an average of 0.59 points per game, he won his third Zamora, was one of the bastions to which Zidane’s rocky Madrid clung to win League 34, the one with the asterisk due to the break. Now his performance is beyond doubt and this season, beyond the previous statistical glossary, It is one of the vital organs of Ancelotti’s Real Madrid 2.0. Perhaps some media or coaches will do it, but the Italian is clear that if they do, they must rip their cards.