Mark Bosnich, the former Chelsea keeper, thinks they should be more patient with their record signing Kepa Arrizabalaga. Kepa arrived at Chelsea in the summer of 2018 for a world record transfer fee of £71m from the Spanish side Atletic Bilbao. Since making his debut, Kepa Arrizabalaga has kept 20 clean sheets in 61 Premier League appearances for the Blues. He has made a total of 124 saves, which is a pretty decent record. However, only 6 of those 20 clean sheets have come this season.
There were a few personal mistakes from the Spaniard that cost Chelsea a few points. Blues manager Frank Lampard had to drop him from the first eleven for that for seven consecutive matches.
The 38-year-old Argentine keeper Willy Caballero did well for those games. Despite that, Kepa Arrizabalaga came back with a strong showing in the last two games before the season stopped due to coronavirus pandemic.
Bosnich insists, Chelsea should give Kepa a bit more time to see the best from him. He feels that the player has the quality to do better in the days to come. Lampard just needs to believe in him and give him a bit more time.
“I rate Kepa, I thought he was a superb shot-stopper with good agility and his kicking was okay for me. I think people make too much of his problems with distribution but the first job is to keep the ball out of the net. Kicking is a bonus.”
“In terms of dominating his box, he is young and slight so it has taken time to get to grips with that. That is something they need to work on. For me, he has not been a disaster in any sense of the word. He has done okay so far.”
“I just think it was down to his form which in terms of the standard when he first came, it has not been up to scratch this season. Frank was well within his rights to leave him out when he did but I thought he did well when he came back.”
Bosnich also was in full praise for his former teammate Frank Lampard. He admits the current Chelsea boss had amazing football knowledge since his playing days. Lampard played under so many great managers during his time at Chelsea and won everything and this is a big advantage for him in his managerial career.
Chelsea faced two consecutive transfer bans in June last year. Although it was lifted before the January transfer window, they did not sign any player.
“Using young players, he has done a fantastic job. Patience is like gold these days and I think Chelsea needs some patience. Once he gets the chance to sign players he needs to add to his team and open up the cheque-book, I believe he will be fine in terms of getting it right to challenge for titles.”
Bosnich, a former Manchester United player joined Chelsea on a free transfer in 2001. He represented the club only seven times. Next year he was banned from football for nine months. He had failed a drug test and got sacked by the Blues after that.
