Can Keylor Navas maintain the starting goalkeeper role at Real Madrid in 2017/2018?
By Ben Sundock
Just like summers past, David de Gea is tied with a move away from Manchester United to Real Madrid. However, rumors are just rumors. And like we’ve seen before, de Gea will likely stay with the English side. So that begs the question, can Keylor Navas perform well as the starting goalkeeper for Los Blancos in 2017/2018?
The Costa Rican goalkeeper, Navas, had a rather rough 2016/2017 season, drawing boos from the Santiago Bernabeu crowd on multiple occasions for allowing bad goals. During the ’16/’17 campaign, Navas made 7 fewer starts in league play as compared to the 2015/2016 season, and received a lower average match rating, 7.12 in ’15/’16, and 6.78 in ’16/’17, all according to WhoScored.
So, after a disappointing season as a whole from Navas, can he maintain his starting position with the Spanish giants for the upcoming 2017/2018 season? He seems to believe so, saying in a recent press conference, he wants to stay with Real Madrid,”for many years to come.”
Real Madrid have been tied with the like of David de Gea, again, and Thibaut Courtois with many saying that Real are not happy with Navas as a starting keeper. The 30-year-old disagrees.
“What happened in the past has happened. This season I am happy, I am calm as always. I have to keep my feet on the ground. It’s not easy here. I want to stay here for many years to come. I’ve enjoyed it, I’ve won here and I’ve seen my family so happy here. It’s not just about [learning from] errors – that’s not going to limit me in how I look to keep improving.”
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Navas allowed his first own goal of his career this past season and went through a very rough patch with bad performances towards the end of 2016 into early 2017. However, down the stretch, Keylor returned to top form playing especially well in the Champions League.
Trying to stir Keylor up a little, during his press conference, a journalist posed the idea that the keeper had fallen out of favor with manager Zinedine Zidane, to which Navas was quick to shoot down. “My relationship with the coach hasn’t changed since he came here. It’s a bit ridiculous saying he’s showing me extra affection – he’s always been like that with me,” he said.
“He always shows all of us a lot of confidence, he is very close to all the players. I haven’t noticed any difference in the behavior of him or his coaching staff.”
Can Keylor maintain his starting position between the sticks for Los Blancos this season? If what I believe is correct, and de Gea ends up staying with Manchester United another season, yes he can.
However, if the Costa Rican keeper runs into a tough patch like he did last year, Zidane might be quick to look for an alternate. Kiko Casilla performed well in limited appearances this past season, allowing very few goals in LaLiga play.
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