Latest news with #Penders
Telegraph
31-03-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Chelsea plan full assessment of goalkeepers as two contenders emerge for No 1 spot
Djordje Petrovic and highly-rated teenager Mike Penders will be given the chance to prove themselves at Chelsea this summer with the club preparing a full assessment of their goalkeepers. Petrovic has spent the season on loan at Strasbourg, having been deemed the wrong profile of goalkeeper for head coach Enzo Maresca, while Penders will officially join Chelsea from Genk at the end of this campaign. Both goalkeepers will be at Chelsea in time for the Club World Cup and could travel with Maresca's squad to the United States in a bid to win a first-team place for next season. The current plan at Chelsea is for the club to assess Petrovic and Penders, along with this season's first-team duo of Robert Sanchez and Filip Jorgensen, this summer before deciding on the goalkeeping roster for next season. Goalkeeper has proved to be a problem position for Chelsea this term, with Maresca dropping both Sanchez and Jorgensen for making mistakes. "Sanchez was all over the place!" 😲 Matt Doherty capitalises on a mistake from the Chelsea keeper! 🐺 — Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) January 20, 2025 But Petrovic, who made a promising start to his Chelsea career under former head coach Mauricio Pochettino, and Penders have been in excellent form this season. Crucially, Petrovic has shown a big improvement with his feet at Strasbourg and has played in a style that is far closer to that of Maresca at Chelsea. It remains to be seen whether or not that proves to be enough to change Maresca's mind, but the intention is for Petrovic to be given another chance to impress. Penders is rated one of the best goalkeeping talents in Europe and, like Petrovic, the 19-year-old will be given the chance to show he is ready to be one of Chelsea's first-team goalkeepers for next season. Chelsea are not currently expecting to sign a new first-team goalkeeper in the summer, although that could change if a tempting or unmissable opportunity arises. The more likely scenario is that a first-choice pair for next season emerges from Sanchez, Jorgensen, Petrovic and Penders, with one of those four goalkeepers then going on loan, in what is considered to be an open race at this stage. That would leave a big doubt over the Chelsea future of one of the four goalkeepers, but Penders certainly won't be sold and 22-year-old Jorgensen is unlikely to be dispensed with permanently so quickly. Strasbourg are sixth in the Ligue 1 table, just a point off fourth place that would secure qualification into the Champions League qualifying rounds. Petrovic has been key to Strasbourg's excellent form, with Chelsea keeping a close eye on his performances. Co-sporting director Laurence Stewart watched last Friday night's victory over Lyon. Apart from conceding just 29 goals in 24 games in all competitions this season, 25-year-old Petrovic has proved himself to be good with his feet, with a passing accuracy of 79.5 per cent and mainly looking for short passes. According to statistics provided by Opta, in 12 games for Genk in the Belgian league, Penders has made 333 successful passes with an accuracy of 78 per cent. Another player who will be given a chance to impress at Chelsea after spending the season on loan at Strasbourg is midfielder Andrey Santos. But Chelsea may be prevented from sending any more players on loan to their French club in the summer, if Strasbourg and Chelsea both qualify for the same European competition. Should that happen, then Chelsea's owners will pause their involvement in Strasbourg to allow both clubs to compete in the same competition. The two clubs would not be able to transfer players to one another or use a shared scouting database until the end date of the trust. It is understood that Chelsea and Strasbourg have already done much of the background work in case that scenario plays out and both clubs are confident it would not impact their long-term plans and goals. Chelsea have already agreed a deal to sign defender Mamadou Sarr from Strasbourg and it is believed that transfer would be allowed to go through. But Chelsea would have to find a new club for midfielder Mathis Amougou, who is currently expected to join Strasbourg on a season-long loan. It was a former Chelsea head coach, Antonio Conte, who once joked that you can afford to make a mistake over your wife, but not your goalkeeper or striker. Chelsea were unfortunate that Nicolas Jackson suffered an injury on transfer deadline day, but the striker is on course to return for Thursday's night's Premier League game against Tottenham Hotspur. Many would argue that Maresca made an error over his goalkeepers, however, that could prove costly in Chelsea's bid to qualify for the Champions League. Statistics provided by Opta suggest that Petrovic, who has spent the season on loan at Strasbourg, has been Chelsea's best goalkeeper during this campaign. That, of course, does not account for the big difference in standard between the Premier League and Ligue 1, but Petrovic has kept more clean sheets than Sanchez and Jorgensen, has made no errors leading to goals and has made more successful passes. A season on loan at Strasbourg has undoubtedly been beneficial to Petrovic, who may well return to Chelsea a far better fit for Maresca's style of play. Under Pochettino, he rarely had to venture a couple of yards off his goal-line, whereas Maresca likes his goalkeepers to take residence on the edge of their penalty areas. Petrovic has learned to do that under Liam Rosenior in Ligue 1, while Penders has already shown he can do it at Genk. The youngster has a passing accuracy of 78 per cent in the Belgian league and, like Petrovic, is yet to make an error leading to a goal. The only current doubt over Penders is whether such a young goalkeeper can make the step up straight to the Premier League, but he will be given the chance to show he can this summer. What is certain is that Chelsea's best-performing goalkeeper must be doing it at Stamford Bridge, rather than elsewhere, next season.
New York Times
20-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Mike Penders will join Chelsea in the summer – is he ready for the Premier League?
In mid-February, we invited requests from our subscribers for articles you might like to read on The Athletic as part of our latest Inspired By You series. Nemanja M. asked for a piece on Mike Penders, his potential, and whether he could be a generational talent. Liam Twomey took a look… Chelsea's weekly goalkeeper psychodrama took another twist before Sunday's 1-0 defeat against Arsenal, with head coach Enzo Maresca's effective admission that Robert Sanchez has been restored as his No 1 after being given time out of the team to 'rest his head'. Sanchez went on to deliver his familiar mixed bag of erratic distribution and impressive saves at the Emirates Stadium. There still appears to be no realistic prospect of the Spaniard winning the trust of Chelsea's match-going supporters anytime soon. Advertisement Filip Jorgensen clearly did not do enough in his Premier League audition to convince Maresca of his superiority to Sanchez. The wait for the truly elite goalkeeper Stamford Bridge has craved since Thibaut Courtois pushed his way to Real Madrid in the summer of 2018 will stretch at least until the end of this season. But could the answer be close at hand and could it be another giant Belgian from Genk who carries a squinting resemblance to Courtois? Mike Penders — only 19 years old but standing almost 6ft 7in (200cm) with a formidable wingspan — will join Chelsea this summer. His arrival comes almost 12 months after a deal was agreed to bring him to London under the noses of several other major European clubs. The imminent arrivals of exciting attackers Estevao and Kendry Paez have garnered more headlines, but given the lack of clarity at the base of Maresca's team and the scarcity of world-class goalkeepers, Penders has the potential to make even more of an impact. In the short term, Chelsea and Maresca must assess his level of readiness at the end of his first professional season. To date, Penders has made only 11 appearances in the Belgian Pro League, having been promoted to Genk's first-choice goalkeeper in January. That is a perilously small sample size from which to make definitive judgements. Penders' outings for Genk are, however, substantial enough for a goalkeeping specialist to get a clear sense of his style as well as his strengths and weaknesses at this early stage. With that in mind, The Athletic enlisted the expertise of Matt Pyzdrowski, a retired professional goalkeeper who works as head academy goalkeeping coach for Swedish champions Malmo. Here is a breakdown of several key aspects of Penders' game. Pyzdrowski's overriding impression of Penders is a startling one. 'I'll start with his style of play and the two goalkeepers I'm going to name will get people excited, but at the same time, I also want to pump the brakes,' he says. 'The two goalkeepers he reminds me of are Courtois and Ederson. He's kind of a mix of the two.' Advertisement Ederson shines through more in Penders' distribution — in particular, his ability to find team-mates higher up the pitch with impressively accurate longer passes. 'He's not as composed with the ball at his feet as Ederson yet, but what I really like about Penders is his ability to go long,' Pyzdrowski adds. 'He's able to stretch the field just like Ederson and start counter-attacks from nothing, which is a huge asset. The way he hits the ball is fast, direct, but also very accurate.' On the surface, this particular quality seems a little redundant under Maresca, who has pledged to substitute Sanchez and Jorgensen this season if they kick long. But there is an important distinction to make between a goalkeeper kicking long and passing long; Maresca's primary issue is with the former and his desire to avoid simply gifting possession back to the opposition. Penders' ability to identify and hit a longer pass over or through an opposition press could be an asset to any high-possession team. His technique is also polished over shorter distances. But when it comes to baiting the opposition press as Maresca frequently wants his goalkeeper to do, Penders is more of a work in progress. 'One area where he'll need to develop is playing under pressure,' Pyzdrowski admits. 'Genk love to build up from the back, but often he has time on the ball. Even if a press comes, it isn't really a high press. 'He's never been punished for a poor pass (by conceding a goal), but he gets stressed when the opposition really press. That's not unique to him among goalkeepers — Ederson is an outlier. 'Penders will need to develop that when he takes the next step (to Chelsea) because teams will notice that and press him high.' When not being harried, Penders' relatively high comfort level on the ball — even well outside his penalty area — seems well suited to Maresca's system. Advertisement 'He's very comfortable playing high off his line with his feet in the build-up,' Pyzdrowski says. 'That's the way Genk play and Chelsea like that as well. And with his ability to go long, if he's standing 30 yards from goal with the ball at his feet, that means a ball into the opponent's box is on and he can very easily start an attack.' Even in an era when elite clubs and their coaches increasingly want 11 skilled outfielders in possession, keeping the ball out of the net remains the fundamental differentiator of a great goalkeeper. Pyzdrowski sees rich promise in Penders' shot-stopping ability, but also plenty of room for physical and technical improvement. 'One area he needs to improve is his ability to traverse his goalmouth,' he says. 'He can be a bit slow in some of his actions and footwork. That's not crazy because he is only 19, but when you watch clips of him, it's not often that he traverses his whole goalmouth and makes an extension save. 'You could say that's because he has really good positioning but when he's out of position, he doesn't necessarily get over in time. When he doesn't need to take a lot of steps he's very, very good. When the ball is more towards the side of the goal, low or high, he needs to get a bit more explosive in those situations. 'Part of it is work in the gym with a good strength and conditioning coach — focusing on explosive plyometric exercises, jumping up and down and from side to side. 'Controlling your feet underneath you is hard for a lot of taller goalkeepers and that's part of what made Courtois and (Petr) Cech so great. They were very tall but also very quick traversing their goalmouth to make the big saves their teams needed them to make.' This also applies to shots Penders tries to save above his head. 'When fans see him play, he will probably remind them of Courtois,' Pyzdrowski adds. 'Even though he's really tall, he bends down quite low and holds his hands low at his sides as well. That's something Courtois has done for a long time, a staple of his technique. Advertisement 'The thing that makes Courtois so great is that he can go from that low position and move his hands up very quickly to get balls above his head. That's an area Penders will have to improve. That comes back to the explosion and agility, for him to dig his feet into the ground and use his trailing leg to set and push off towards the ball. 'In a lot of the goals he concedes, he doesn't do it and just falls to the ground rather than using his legs to get himself to the ball.' It might not come as a huge surprise that, given his size, Penders is already very adept at claiming high balls into his penalty area. 'Commanding his area is what he's best at,' Pyzdrowski says of Penders. 'He's really, really excellent at taking an aggressive position and very comfortable coming and taking high balls into his penalty area, even right up to the edge of the box. His timing is very good and he loves to catch the ball rather than punch. 'That's why I call him a mix between Ederson and Courtois, because Ederson has that aggressiveness commanding his box but Courtois has the hands to catch and hold the ball.' Penders' preference for catching the ball could be a refreshing break from the growing Premier League trend of goalkeepers punching away in-swinging corner kicks. It could also potentially provide more reassurance to a Chelsea defence that can still appear uncertain when defending set pieces. His penalty area presence for Genk is not only felt when facing high balls. 'On his line and with balls around his area, he's really good,' Pyzdrowski adds. 'He's a big guy but he's very quick to pounce when there's a free ball in and around his box. He uses his body and has really good timing in those situations.' The ability to defend far from goal has become an important skill for modern goalkeepers and a vital one in teams, such as Chelsea, who seek to defend with a high line for long stretches of games. 'He's very fast off his line — almost too fast because he's very uncontrolled in those situations,' Pyzdrowski says of Penders. 'A lot of the time he rushes out recklessly and you end up giving away fouls and penalties. Other times he's rushed out and opened up an angle to concede a goal, so his decision-making in those situations will have to get better. Advertisement 'In that way, he also reminds me of Ederson, who has been better in recent years but had some ugly moments (early on at Manchester City) with his timing in one-versus-one situations.' Ederson's example suggests that this particular flaw in Penders' game is eminently fixable. 'This is not strange because he's so young and he doesn't have a tonne of game time at the top,' Pyzdrowski adds. 'As a goalkeeper coach, I would much rather have a goalkeeper who's too aggressive than too passive. You can always rein in a goalkeeper who is too aggressive, but it's very hard to get a passive goalkeeper to play more aggressively because they're so rooted to their line.' By the time Courtois finally made his competitive Chelsea debut in August 2014, he was 22, with four full seasons as a No 1 goalkeeper behind him — three of which were spent on loan at Atletico Madrid, where he won the Europa League, Copa del Rey and La Liga — and reached a Champions League final. He already had a case for being the best goalkeeper in the world. Penders, clearly, is at a far earlier point in his development. 'He's a project,' Pyzdrowski says. 'If there are Chelsea fans out there hoping he arrives in the summer and competes for the No 1 spot, it's too early. 'It would also be a risk to throw him into that situation. That's not to say a 19-year-old can't handle it, there are examples, but other goalkeepers have got a chance too early and faded because it crushes their spirit and beats them down. 'If Chelsea really believe in him, they'll be smart and maybe go through pre-season or half a season with him before loaning him out again to continue to get first-team football and develop.' The key difference is that with Courtois, Chelsea had the rare luxury of being patient because of the enduring greatness of Cech. None of the current goalkeepers on the club's books are anywhere near as accomplished, making the question of how Penders' development is handled much more fraught. Advertisement But there is no doubt or debate about his potential upside. 'When you have someone two metres tall and as quick and agile as he is, it's a huge advantage for him and something that gets noticed because it's not normal,' Pyzdrowski says of Penders. 'If he gets game time and works on his deficiencies, it's not hard to see him being one of the best goalkeepers in the world in a few years.'
