What is Wrong With Kepa?
Ever since he signed in 2018, he has always made the headlines. If you take a look at every part of his Chelsea career, you will find just about every goalkeeping issue in the book, as well as the positives of being a keeper at a top club.
Let's start with his signing itself. Chelsea was left to deal with the fallout of Thibaut Courtois's controversial actions, completely shunning the club and going AWOL in an attempt to force through a transfer to Real Madrid.
When the deal was finally completed, Chelsea had less than a month to sign a Premier-League quality goalkeeper before the season started.
Kasper Schmeichel, Jack Butland, and Gianluigi Donnarumma were all mentioned, but there was one problem: Chelsea were desperate, and they all knew it.
They knew they could ramp up the price of each and every player, and that Chelsea would be forced to meet their demands. However, the Blues stood firm, believing the right deal would come around.
They finally caught a break in the form of world-class goalkeeper Jan Oblak's 90 million pound release clause, which took Atletico Madrid out of the negotiations. All that was left was for the player to agree to move.
But he never did. He saw no reason to ditch a top Spanish side in the Champions League for a team playing in the Europa League, and while no one could really blame him, it was a huge blow to Chelsea.
With just days left to make their move, desperation truly kicked in at this point, and they were no longer in any position to negotiate.
That is why when they discovered a young, solid shot-stopper from Athletic Bilbao was available for a record 71.5 million fee, they had no choice but to trigger his release clause, making him both the world's most expensive goalkeeper and Chelsea's most expensive player.
His career for Chelsea started out very promisingly, as did manager Maurizio Sarri's, unbeaten in their first 12 games, and everyone could see a glimpse of why Roman Abramovich justified paying so much for him.
Kepa is not very tall, especially for his position, but he makes up for it with excellent reactions, reflexes, and athleticism. Some freakishly impressive saves he pulled off early in the season, combined with the fact that he was winning games, was enough to win over the fans in his debut season.
Then, of course, came the most perplexing and controversial moment of his career, one which to this day still has no clear explanation, and that occurred in the Carabao Cup final vs. Manchester City.
Fresh off a shocking 6-0 defeat to City just weeks earlier, Chelsea looked like an entirely new side as they were arguably superior to the champions and took the tie to penalties, the least they deserved based on that game alone.
Late in extra time, Kepa went down with an injury. He was treated by the medical staff and was able to get back up and continue playing. But Sarri had already made up his mind about bringing substitute keeper and former City player Willy Caballero into the game as his last sub.
Caballero throughout his career has been known as an excellent penalty saver, saving 3 against Liverpool in a Carabao Cup final for City. What ensued was utter chaos.
Kepa simply refused to come off, waving at Sarri to cancel the substitution. Sarri was visibly and understandably furious, shouting and cursing at his keeper and momentarily leaving the pitch before returning in a fury at his keeper who had disobeyed his orders.
Whether Sarri was planning on bringing on Caballero as an injury replacement for Kepa or bringing him on because of his pedigree in penalty shootouts we'll never know.
The fact is that Kepa knowingly disobeyed his superior, showing immaturity and insubordination. But Caballero returned to the bench, and Chelsea had to prepare for the shootout.
David Luiz and Jorginho both missed as City came out on top, and while Kepa was able to brilliantly save Leroy Sane's penalty, he let Sergio Aguero's squirm underneath his arm.
Kepa came under heavy criticism for his actions, and he was dropped for the next 2 games.
Surprisingly, Kepa found a way to recover from this and upped his form for the remainder of the season.
In the final stretch of the season, which featured a push for both the Europa League and the top 4, Kepa was superb, especially in the semi-finals against Eintracht Frankfurt, single-handedly keeping his team in the game multiple times.
It is very possible that without Kepa, Sarri's first and only season as Chelsea manager would not have ended in silverware or a Champions League position, or both.
After a tumultuous season, it was expected that Kepa would push on in his next season to establish himself as a key figure in this Chelsea team.
But this has not been the case this season. Throughout this entire season, Kepa has come under heavy fire for his performances. His reflexes that left fans in awe last season have left those same fans with disappointment this year, and his inability to keep clean sheets is alarming.
He has only kept 5 clean sheets this season, which is not good enough for the 4th-place team after 24 games.
Granted, Chelsea's inexperienced defense has conceded chances this season, but in many of Chelsea's surprising losses to bottom-half opposition, Kepa has conceded with the only shots on target.
Against Arsenal, he made no saves and conceded 2 goals. Against Bournemouth he made 1 save and conceded a goal. Against Newcastle, same thing. Against West Ham, same thing, and the list goes on.
While many of his goals conceded can be justified, the fact of the matter is that such a low save percentage is just not good enough.
This season, he has made 41 saves while conceding 32 goals, saving a little over half of the shots he has faced. This is compared to his save percentage of nearly 70% last season.
With this stat, it is clear his form has taken a turn for the worst this season. The question on most fans' lips is simple: why?
Why has Kepa gone from reliable to a liability? Why has it reached the stage where Chelsea are looking at Burnley's Nick Pope in the transfer window? Why is the club's all-time record signing playing like he just came from the Championship?
All these questions are valid, and so far have been unanswered. It is not known why Kepa has been so unreliable this season, but what is evident is that he must improve.
Frank Lampard, and certainly Abramovich, cannot afford a goalkeeper who can't keep the ball out of the goal. It's as simple as that.
A good keeper is part of the backbone of the team, as shown by Petr Cech in Chelsea's most successful period in their history, and if he does not improve, he will very likely be sold in the summer.
Kepa at Chelsea has gone from promising to insubordinate to crucial to a liability. He essentially has 4 months to turn his career around, and it starts now.
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