sledger
Spanish_Vicente
He's worse than Richard WrightEven his first year in England he had a decent season, didn't come off well in the Carabao Cup episode but in terms of on-pitch performances, I thought he was decent. Many other Chelsea fans were happy with him too.
His save % which is often used against him in recent times is very impressive in Euro Qualifiers for Spain (I don't have his keeping stats for friendlies) - impressive to the extent that no keeper who played more than 1 game last season in the PL had a better save ratio then Kepa did for Spain. Didn't see much of him playing for Bilbao but the club thought he was worth going all-in for and someone leaving home club at 23, going abroad for first time and having an assured first season all whilst being able to get into the Spain team convinces me he has the talent all this whilst having the burden of being the most expensive goalkeeper. Also worth mentioning he was linked with Real Madrid only months before joining Chelsea in January 2018.
At this point you have almost every fan in England disregarding his ability and he's under pressure from minute 1 - some of his mistakes have been dreadful but there are some where I do feel as if, if you put Alisson or Ederson there and they didn't save it - it would be a simple case of keeper shouldn't have done better rather then social media going into frenzy and football programmes adding to that as they criticise every mistake that bit more because its Kepa.
But him being in the squad (whether the XI or bench) whilst everyone in England ridicules him and hopes he doesn't play isn't an environment any footballer would want to be in - I'm convinced as long as he isn't stuck on the bench for Chelsea until his 30s he will still go on to have a good career. Probably made a big mistake signing such a long contract in retrospect still nearly five years left on it - in an ideal scenario (trying to put myself in his perspective) he'd have signed a five year deal, put in good performances for Spain, play in the 2022 World Cup and if he played well he'd be right in the shop window with him due to be a free agent only 6 months later.