Real Madrid: Can Thibaut Courtois maintain his stunning form?
By Ben Sundock
Real Madrid has 11 finals to play. They have to win every match if they want to steal the La Liga title away from FC Barcelona. This, of course, means a lot of pressure will be placed on goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois’ shoulders.
No Real Madrid player made a bigger turnaround than Belgian Thibaut Courtois this season. During the early couple of months, Courtois was woeful. He allowed two early goals to Club Brugge in the Champions League and looked out of it in the 3-0 loss to PSG in the Parc des Princes.
After being pulled off at halftime in that 2-2 draw with Brugge, Courtois embraced the criticism from the fans and the media and made a full 360-degree turnaround.
So much so, in fact, he is now in the running for the coveted Zamora trophy which is awarded to the best goalkeeper in La Liga every season. His biggest competition is another phenomenal net-minder, Jan Oblak.
Courtois’ stats are worthy of the award, but as he mentioned in a recent interview, it is his entire team that deserves praise if he does indeed win it.
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"“Those trophies are always cool,” he said. “I won two with Atletico Madrid and I’d like to win it with Real Madrid, but I know that the Zamora is an award that can only be won through teamwork.”"
It’s true that the emergence of Ferland Mendy at left-back, the improved communication between Raphael Varane and Sergio Ramos, and the consistency from Dani Carvajal have all helped Thibaut tremendously.
However, Courtois deserves plenty of credit as well for his stunning performances in 24 league appearances. He has allowed just 16 goals (0.67 per 90 minutes), has kept a clean sheet in 50 percent of his Liga appearances, and was in net for just three losses.
What helped turn Thibaut into a reliable starter in goal for Real Madrid was his consistency and the amount of match time he was receiving week after week. So, will not playing for three months hurt his form?
With no fans in attendance and there being so much time in between the loss to Real Betis and the clash with Eibar, can the Belgian beast pick up where he left off?
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I 100 percent believe he can. As he mentioned in the interview, it is the outfield players in front of him who have helped to elevate his game exponentially.
Casemiro is in the midst of the best season of his career and Ramos and Varane seem to have turned a corner and were back to their world-class form before the coronavirus pandemic took the world by storm.
The confidence manager Zinedine Zidane has instilled in his keeper has only helped and that should not have changed.