Premier: Kepa's personal and professional maze | Premier League 2019

Emotionally touched, the Spanish goalkeeper has lost ownership in Chelsea and Lampard has already told him to look for a team

• Premier
  

  Mourinho sinks a little more to the City of Guardiola
  

• Classification
  

  So is the English League
  

The most expensive goalkeeper in the history of world football is today the substitute of a 38-year-old goalkeeper who has not played regularly for six seasons. As difficult, even raw, is the reality that is currently going through Kepa Arrizabalaga in Chelsea His mistakes during this season and the increasingly undisclosed public critics of his coach, Frank Lampard, they reflected last Saturday in the duel against Leicester, third place in the Premier League, in which Willy Knight He was the owner. Kepa watched the game from the bench with the well-founded intuition that this may be the destination for the remainder of the season. Looking ahead, you already know from Lampard himself that It does not fit into your plans and it is best to find another team if you want to play.

How a goalkeeper has come to this situation Chelsea paid 80 kilos a year and a half ago, the hero who took a few months ago led the Blues At the end of the Europa League, the head of a national team? The statistical analysis of his season certainly helps to understand why Lampard has finally made the decision to send him to the bench. Kepa is the goalkeeper with the worst number of Premier League stops. 31 of the 72 shots on goal that this course has received have ended up being a goal, which translates into a percentage of stops of 56%. The cold numbers.

To put the data in context, the next in the ranking is Pickford (Everton) with 64% and The classification is led by Alisson (Liverpool) with 86%, 30 points more success than Kepa. Last season, however, the Spanish stopped 67% of the shots received, the seventh most among those who played at least 30 games. In absolute numbers, Spanish is also the goalkeeper who makes fewer stops per game (1.71) and Chelsea is the most thrashed team in the top eight in the standings. In short, its performance has been far from expected in a goalkeeper of its category. Now why?

Rupture with his girlfriend

His most personal environment is clear one of the main reasons for his performance decline: the recent break with his girlfriend of a lifetime. He's having a hard time, explains a good friend. His partner went with him to London when he left Athletic and has been his main support until the relationship ended. His parents, who continue to live in Ondarroa, try to spend time with him, but his emotional moment is quite low. To this is added that he lives in the Chelsea neighborhood, while most of his classmates do it outside, more than an hour away, what hinders your social relationships with the rest of the dressing room. Pedro is his main support in the booth, as was Morata before signing for the Atlantic, now a year ago. Although he understands it perfectly, his difficulties in mastering spoken English do not help either.

Beyond that personal aspect, his relationship with Lampard has never been excellent. There isn't too much feeling between him and an eminently British coach, who has opted in these months for recover the spirit of Chelsea quarry, with bets like Abraham, Mount, Tomori or James. At first, it was interpreted as a measure forced by the sanction without being able to make signings. However, Chelsea has already been able to sign in January and has not done so. Lampard wants to light a Chelsea of ​​the future to suit him and the way to do it has raised certain blisters in the dressing room. In summer, I showed David Luiz the exit door in a way that bothers the house sector with which Kepa has greater affinity.

Despite all these factors, the vizcano had retained ownership due, mainly, to the limited competition offered by Caballero. Finally, Lampard has taken the step of making the change in the goalkeeper. It is a decision that, because of its relevance, is not taken lightly. Both have a similar level and work hard during the week, argued the English technician after drawing against Leicester. A few days before, he issued a notice that has been definitive: Kepa is honest and knows that he has made mistakes that have cost us goals, he knows that he has to improve. With the European Championship just around the corner, Kepa is aware of the urgency of regaining Lampard's confidence. If that, at this point, is still possible.