Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has responded at length to a number of narratives in the press, following their excellent victory over Manchester City on Wednesday night. The Belgian shot-stopper was keen to dispel the notion that his teammates were indisciplined and held more power than the manager.
Courtois enjoyed another fine night against City, making a crucial save from Nico O’Reilly, but also providing an assist to Fede Valverde for the opening goal.
“They know I have a great long-range shot. Obviously, I’m not Ter Stegen, but I have a good long-range shot; we’ve worked on it, especially against teams that leave a lot of space at the back. And this, with a good ball like the ones in the Champions League, makes those passes come out,” he told Cadena SER after the game.
‘You think this is a nursery, but we’re professionals’
Courtois was also keen to to respond to a number of narratives in the press, claiming that much the speculation around the club in recent months is just that.
“We don’t read what you say (laughs). I’m at home and I analyse what I need to analyse with Llopis [Luis Llopis, goalkeeping coach]. Some things gets through, we’re not on Mars, but we’re not always looking at what you say. You say things you think are true, when they’re not. Obviously, nobody’s going to come out and say otherwise, but I’ve read things that… oh my god (laughs)! It’s your job and I respect that,” he commented later to Diario AS.
The Real Madrid dressing room has been painted as a group of stars that need to be treated as such by their manager, whomever it is, for fear of rebellion. Courtois claimed that he and his colleagues follow the manager’s instructions to the letter.
“You think this is a nursery and that we do whatever we want. That’s not the case. We respect the coaches, the technical staff, everyone. Many criticisms are unfair. Others are valid, and that’s fine. Sometimes we play poorly: against Celta, Getafe… We’re partly to blame, and I accept that. But today was a step forward as a team, and we have to remember that. If we fight for each other, things will work out.”
“I feel that in my first year we were much worse off than now, and there wasn’t this toxic atmosphere. There needs to be more respect for the dressing room. Saying things like we have more power than the manager or that we didn’t want to play in Albacete is unacceptable. We’re professionals and we always do what the manager tells us. That doesn’t exist here; this is Real Madrid.”
After Alvaro Arbeloa’s arrival saw similar results early on, the fingers of blame swivelled towards the players at Real Madrid. Yet there was a consistent string of stories that they did not get on with predecessor Alonso, feeling his approach involved too much video analysis
“I don’t think that’s the case. Nobody set Xabi up. To say we don’t like the tactics, that we don’t like the videos… I had Antonio Conte, and you’d spend an hour there (watching videos). And I didn’t care, because we’re professionals. It’s my job. It’s one thing to play with your friends. There, it’s normal not to want to watch a half-hour video. But if I have to watch a video, I watch it.”
“We prepare for matches. I spoke with the NFL in the summer, and they’re watching videos all the time. Our professionalism has been questioned. The first few months with Xabi went very well. And we had a rough patch, we couldn’t find our rhythm, but we’re not in charge, the manager is, and we have to respect that.”
It’s been a tricky season at the Bernabeu, with two managerial changes in the space of seven months. Trailing Barcelona by four points in La Liga, their victory over City was one of the few times that Los Blancos have put in a cohesive performance in recent months, and with Arbeloa the third manager to try to get the best out of the current squad with mixed results, changing the coach no longer looks like a definitive solution.
