Is Courtois the best goalie in the world?
Essential to Real Madrid this season, Thibaut Courtois is described as “best” in his position by his coach Carlo Ancelotti. Statistically, the Belgian goalkeeper is not far from it.
In La Liga: A former member of the house in front!
Leader of Liga (with 7 points ahead of Atlético and Real Sociedad), the real Madrid is yet collectively moribund and sometimes in great difficulty defensively (especially at the start of the season). Offensive stars get the job done, including Karim Benzema and Vinicius, while Thibaut Courtois responds present in front of his goal at almost every opponent’s attempt. The Belgian doorman is decisive.
Statistically, if we take into account the scores given by WhoScored, Courtois is the 7th best goalkeeper in La Liga this season (among the usual starters). Two players have distinguished themselves in particular since the start of the exercise by increasing the number of parries for their team: Diego lopez, the former Merengue (2000-2007 and 2013-2014) now at Espanyol, aged 40 (!), and Luis Maximiano, the young Portuguese from Granada.
In Europe: Mendy number 1
While he is one of the best goalkeepers in the Spanish league this season, Courtois is not as brilliant as some of his counterparts on the Old Continent. At least, in terms of stats. At this little game, Edouard Mendy, already remarkable last season with Chelsea, is the European leader in his post ahead of the same Diego Lopez and with David Ospina (Napoli), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal) and Alisson (Liverpool) not far away.
Courtois finds himself 37th best goalkeeper of the 5 major championships of the Old Continent. If we take into account only the clean sheets, the former Chelsea Blues goalkeeper does not really stand out (4 in 15 games, when Ospina and Alex Remiro “lead” with 8 games without conceding a goal). In terms of stoppages per game, Courtois is also found very far, with 2.7 saves per game, when Maximiano, more in demand, has 4.5.
In the Champions League: Heroic
In “Champions”, Carlo Ancelotti’s men had been martyred by Inter Milan in mid-September, but had been able to count on 4 or 5 decisive parades from their Red Devil before snatching victory at San Siro (0 -1). That sums up the season for Real and their goalkeeper well.
Concentrated to the maximum and rarely to the fault, even on the restart, Courtois, who is still only 29 years old, is thus the highest rated goalkeeper currently in this queen competition with Georgios Athanasiadis, the goalkeeper of Sheriff Tiraspol. The latter had stopped everything in front of these same Madrilenians during a success at the Bernabéu (1-2).
Also read: Benzema flies over La Liga
