cover photo from eldesmarque.com
It’s no secret that Kepa Arrizabalaga’s move from Athletic Bilbao to Chelsea has been met with an underwhelming response. Although many were critical of Kepa’s first year in the Premier League, there was some leniency given due to David de Gea’s turnaround at Manchester United in his first years in the league, originally struggling to deal with the English style of football but eventually finding his rhythm. However, Kepa is already rumored to be potentially facing an exit due to a lack of improvement in his second year with Chelsea. While this year’s crop of the highest-rated and best transfers for the Premier League await their fate, hopefully Premier League rookie goalkeepers can learn a lesson from Kepa’s time in England.
Power vs. Patience
To first understand the change in Kepa’s performance, we must first know the differences in the two leagues. Most notably for English Premier League strikers, they attack fast and they attack with power. Jamie Vardy is perhaps one of the more “English” attackers, using his quickness to not only create space on or off the ball, but his release and power behind a shot consistently befuddles goalkeepers. When Vardy gets the ball, it’s not often that he’s not looking to offload to a teammate. He’s extremely efficient with his touches and, despite being shorter than most defenders, uses his strength and speed to create the exact amount of space to turn an ambitious effort into a dangerous strike on goal. When Vardy has a chance on goal, he doesn’t hesitate and attacks ruthlessly, as many other English clubs.
Attacks in La Liga are of a different breed. There’s more passing inside the box. Strikers will look less to bully a defender off the ball and instead create space by clever feints or touches to beat the defender, if not rounding the goalkeeper himself. A La Liga striker is more likely to look at what space is given and attack it, whereas an EPL striker is more likely to use power and speed to best a defense. Whether it’s Messi, Luis Suarez, or Karim Benzema, it’s common to see finesse beat a goalkeeper instead of pure power. Although La Liga strikers are quick and can strike a ball with pace, they’re more likely to survey the scene before they make the decision to place a shot on goal. While their English counterparts will try to rip the defense apart with brute force, La Liga strikers will look to see if the goalkeeper is leaning, if the defense has given too much space somewhere, and where their teammates are before placing a shot on goal.
Strength vs. Speed
It’s clear that expectations for goalkeepers in Spain and England’s top leagues are different. La Liga goalkeepers are noted for their distribution skills first and foremost but their mobility is just as highly regarded. Because of the type of attacks Kepa saw with Athletic Bilbao, speed and agility were core tenets to Kepa’s shot-stopping approach. Notice Kepa’s footwork and how light he is in two outstanding saves against Real Betis, in May of 2018.
(saves are at 0:40 and 0:53)
Kepa displays thoughtful movement and footwork in the build-up as well as a fluid, agile rhythm in the reaction to the shot. Looking at Kepa’s run of form from 2016-2018, it’s easy to see why he was so highly sought after before joining Chelsea. His quickness and speed helped him cover the entire goal with stunning smoothness. Now compare this approach to his most recent game with Chelsea, a 5-3 loss to Liverpool.
While it’s unfair to put blame on Kepa for some of those goals, his immobility is hard to overlook. During his time with Athletic, he would occasionally adopt a wide stance on incoming shots (typically on breakaways or close-range situations) but it wasn’t as prevalent as it has been with Chelsea. For most of the shots, Kepa is struggling to move his feet before the ball passes him. With Athletic, he looked light as a feather but with Chelsea, his feet look like they’re stuck in mud. It’s not hard to find a compilation video berating Kepa for mistakes these days but notice how many of them come from his lack of mobility. When a goalkeeper’s feet can’t move, it affects the rest of the body: their reactions are slower, they cover less of the goal, and their hands become weaker. Even decision making for a goalkeeper becomes complicated and limited when they aren’t able to move their feet efficiently.
When Kepa arrived at Chelsea, he quickly adopted a more rooted and heavier stance, as displayed by his wide footing in the third goal against Liverpool (see above). Whether Kepa’s change in style was coached to him, intentionally designed on his own part, or subliminally picked up from the EPL’s increase in pace, it’s impossible to say outside looking in. Whatever the case may be, one minute Kepa was compiling an impressive highlight reel with immaculate saves and then the next he was falling short on saves a goalkeeper of his caliber should be doing better with.
For Kepa to stay in the EPL and find success, he needs to adopt a style that best fits the demands of the English game. When considering English goalkeepers who have found success in the league, they aren’t typically known as the quickest or fastest goalkeeper in the world. English goalkeepers are physically strong and can cover the middle “bubble” of the goal with unflinching balance and hand strength. The efficiency in their weight placement and movement, although perhaps a little slower than their peers, is so well ingrained that a top corner save is still possible for them, although it may look a little different than a Spanish goalkeeper’s approach. English goalkeepers are well-oiled machines, making the most of a fraction of a second to efficiently handle the power behind a shot.
Between Athletic and Chelsea, Kepa looked like a completely different goalkeeper. Because of the change in style, it seems to stand that Kepa attempted to combat the EPL’s speed and power one way or another, although unsuccessfully. As the Premier League kicks back up, look for Kepa to regain his footing to cover the middle “bubble” of the goal with more confidence and find a good middle ground between strong and light footing, otherwise he may be returning to La Liga sooner than later.