With his recent comments following Chelsea’s loss to Roma, Thibaut Courtois may be changing his tune and starting to mature.
To say that I’ve been critical of Thibaut Courtois would be an understatement. As a football writer I’ve been very tough on the Chelsea goalkeeper. However, one of the reasons for that is simple.
I do believe he can be the best goalkeeper in the world but nobody ever became great by accepting where they were as “good enough”. Sport in general is about competing for more and pushing the boundaries of what humans can achieve. Generally speaking, I think it’s fair that I’m so hard on Chelsea’s players in particular because I am also willing to accept when they’ve proven me wrong. Usually I want them too.
Thibaut Courtois may be doing just that with his recent comments to Sky Sports following Chelsea’s loss to Roma.
"We must win games like these to remain at the top and close to the other ones. We will try to get the three points and will give our lives for it on Sunday. We have to react on Sunday as the Roma defeat was a bad image of ourselves. We have to find that balance again and rediscover that mentality of not conceding goals and keeping clean sheets.”"
That’s music to any Chelsea supporter’s ears. It appears that Courtois is turning into the sort of leader he should be. There was a time when the Belgian’s reaction to a loss was to throw his teammates under the bus and say he deserved to be playing with higher quality players. There was a time when he would react to a loss like Roma and immediately go on about how Florentino Perez and he are in contact and how he misses life in Madrid.
Goalkeepers need to be leaders – it’s one of the rules of the position. One of Chelsea’s biggest issues in recent years has been the attitude of Courtois. If he really is taking the necessary steps to fix his attitude then he really may just fulfill his potential. And that is all anybody ever really wanted anyways.
Next: Morata on the outside looking in when Chelsea need him most
Will the Blues bounceback on Sunday? Leave us your thoughts in the comments below!