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Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has been very good this season, but you wouldn’t know it from the basic stats.
Last season, Real Madrid won their 34th league title behind an elite defense. Not a single defense in Europe’s top five leagues allowed fewer total goals. Raphael Varane and Sergio Ramos were at their best in the season leg, and you couldn’t find a better full-back duo in European football than Dani Carvajal and Ferland Mendy.
But the real star of the show was Thibaut Courtois. Zamora Trophy winner Courtois had one of the best seasons for a Real Madrid goalkeeper in history. He made stops that most goalkeepers could only dream of stopping, finishing La Liga as the leader in save percentage and clean sheet percentage. And he performed at this level after many fans wondered if he might even lose the starting job to Alphonse Areola!
Courtois proved all skeptics wrong last season, and there were plenty of reasonable doubts after his terrible 2018-2019 season and poor start to 2019-2020. In the end, Courtois had an even better season than Atletico Madrid’s Jan Oblak, which might be the highest possible compliment a La Liga goalkeeper can receive. Because Oblak could be the best goalkeeper in the world.
However, the Belgian is not among the leaders of La Liga in the 2020-2021 season. He’s outside the top 10 in goals allowed per 90 minutes, eighth in clean sheet percentage and seventh in save percentage. Courtois’ numbers are above the league average, but are below the word class standard he set in 2019-2020.
Thibaut Courtois has kept Real Madrid in some tight matches this season
However, when you watch Real Madrid games, you don’t notice any decline in Courtois’s game this season. In early 2020-2021, he made the same standout saves he made last season, keeping Real in some games. Surely they would not have kept a clean sheet against Levante without Courtois in goal, and while the club allowed two goals to Real Betis, they won at Benito Villamarín through some of Courtois’ top-drawer saves. And who can forget how he robbed Alexander Isak on matchday one?
The reality is that Courtois has been excellent, but his defense has not. That’s why Courtois ranks higher in save percentage than in goals allowed by 90. He and Edgar Badia of Elche are the only goalkeepers in La Liga with a save percentage of at least 75 percent to play on teams that allow more than one goal every 90 minutes. , according to FBRef.com.
Outside of any statistic, that one in particular says a lot about the quality difference between Courtois and the defense. Ferland Mendy and Sergio Ramos have played well this season, but almost everyone else has been below their level. Dani Carvajal’s injury to the right back certainly hasn’t helped Courtois.
The loss to Valencia at the Mestalla summed up many of Real’s defense problems. Marcelo and Lucas Vázquez errors on the wings. Raphael Varane’s unusually poor game. Three penalties are allowed. Individual errors. Little defensive help from midfield. Bad gifts that make the four in the back look worse than they are. Courtois goal exposed.
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It will take a team effort to solve Real’s problems on both sides of the field, and the lack of defense as a team has been a surprising concern. But amid all the troubles, at least Real Madrid fans can say that their goalkeeper continues to play at a high level. He just needs his defenders to do much better when club football returns after the international break in November.
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