ATLÉTICO MADRID
Oblak has outshone Courtois in Madrid
Oblak replaced Courtois and has been immense as Courtois moved back to the capital to play with Real Madrid with some sub standard numbers statistics.
Atlético's task in the summer of 2014 was a tall one. Courtois was going back to Chelsea and there was no possible way Atlético could keep him on loan any longer. They had to find a replacement of the highest calibre after the Belgian had conceded just 24 goals in 29 LaLiga games the year before as Atlético defended their way to a league title with his help.
They found the man to fill his shoes at Benfica. A Slovenian by the name of Jan Oblak. He arrived at the club injured and things didn't start well with a 3-2 loss to Olympiakos with Moya starting the bulk of games ahead of him to start the season. It wasn't until Moya injured himself before the 2014-15 Champions League last 16 tie against Bayer Leverkusen that the Oblak era truly began. The rest is history and he has won the Zamora trophy for the last four years in a row.
This season, he is chasing his fifth in a row (only Ramallets and Valdés have achieved such a thing). He is the third captain on the team as his influence grows but his start to the season has been a strange one. Atlético Madrid conceded six goals in three games before their clean sheet, and 0-2 win, over Mallorca during the week. Never before has Oblak started the season (seven games) with so many goals conceded (6): 5 in 2018-19, 4 in 2017-18, 2 in 2016-17, and 3 in 2015-16.
Against Celta and Mallorca, however, they kept two clean sheets like the first two games of the season against Getafe and Leganés. He ranks first as the goalkeeper with more than half his games (215 played) where he kept a clean sheet (121), 56.3%.
Courtois off to another shaky start
Courtois' start to the season hasn't been ideal either with the worry of last season still in Real Madrid players' heads. He conceded 48 goals in 35 games last year, 1.8 per game, and has only kept 10 clean sheets. The Belgian hasn't convinced this season either with 9 goals in 6 games and just one clean sheet. in fact, those numbers are his worse since he started playing professionally.
The Keylor Navas debate is over now that the Costa Rican is plying his trade. Courtois was left grasping at fresh air in the first big test of the season during the 3-0 loss to Paris against a former teammate in the other goals. On Saturday, he has another chance to fix his form against his former team.