Antonio Cassano on Courtois: “He’s not very brave,”

Former Real Madrid and Italian National Team player Antonio Cassano joined DAZN for an interview to discuss Real Madrid and Barcelona ahead of this weekend’s upcoming El Clasico at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday.

Cassano spoke about many Real Madrid players, and most notably, had some interesting things to say about goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois (but had some gems about many players). Here are some of the quotes that stood out from the interview:

“He’s a great goalkeeper, but he has flaws,” Cassano said of Courtois. “He’s not very brave, he doesn’t like to play outside the area and it’s hard for him to touch the ball with his feet. He, Oblak and Alisson are three phenomenons between the sticks, but if they have to go out with the ball or have more courage, they make a lot of mistakes.”

Cassano had high praise for Real Madrid’s central defenders, and put Luka Modric in some elite company:

“Alaba is among the three best central defenders in the world, with Van Dijk and Koulibaly,” Cassano said. Then about Militao, the Italian stated: ”I like him. It was difficult to replace Ramos, he has courage, but he has made some mistakes. It is difficult to play man to man all over the field with Madrid, I know that. For me he is not a top player, but he is very good.

“Modric joins Xavi, Iniesta and Pirlo among the best midfielders in the history of football, perhaps five also with Rijkaard. A genius.”

Casemiro: “First of all, we have to congratulate Benítez who wanted him there. He reminds me of Makélélé for intelligence and balance. Florentino was in love with the Ronaldo Nazarios, Figos, Zidanes... But when Zizou bet on Casemiro, he won three Champions Leagues in a row. It’s no coincidence.”

Benzema: “I don’t want to go too far, but I’ll say this: Ronaldo Nazario, Van Basten, Ibrahimovic, Benzema and Lewandowski are the nines with the most technical ability in the history of football. Benzema spent nine years at Ronaldo’s service, he was like Pippen with Jordan, and then he took the reins. This year he has already scored 30 goals.”

Asensio: “I liked him much more before the injury, but after, he lost something, he’s more afraid.”

Vinicius Jr: “He reminds me of Robinho. He knows how to play well, he faces the opponent, but then he reaches the last 20 meters and scores few goals. He doesn’t know how to shoot well, when you get there you have to have that goalscoring instinct and feel the goal.”