No Messi, No Problem: 5 Takeaways from Barcelona's El Clasico win without Lionel Messi

#4 A forgettable El Clasico debut for Courtois

Thibaut Courtois has started 8 games in the league for Real Madrid, he's conceded 13 goalsWe're still in October 😳 pic.twitter.com/oG0aJsoqOg

— Ladbrokes (@Ladbrokes) October 28, 2018

During his time against Chelsea, Thibaut Courtois seemed to have a bright future as a goalkeeper, however, when he started taunting FC Barcelona by taking a swipe on Lionel Messi before their Champions League encounter last year, he's found himself at the wrong end of the stick.

In his El Clasico debut, Barcelona welcomed him by scoring five past the Belgian keeper who now has 13 goals conceded since his arrival at Real Madrid. Even his replacement in Chelsea, Kepa Arrizabalaga, is performing better than him with only four goals conceded over the last eight games.

Not only did we see him concede five goals against the Blaugrana, but we also saw how disorganized his defence was. This could be a case of lack of organization at the back or he's not just that vocal due to the seniority gap in the squad.

Nevertheless, it was an El Clasico to forget for the Belgian who said it was a dream to play for Real Madrid. He might be thinking now that it's just a nightmare he's in and hoping he can get out of it as soon as possible.

Another thing we saw that made Courtois looked like an amateur was the way he positioned himself through the four goals he conceded from an open play. During the first goal from Coutinho, he was just way out of his position.

Instead of letting his defenders take care of it, he took the matters to his own hands by trying to approach and close out the angle despite seeing two defenders close him out which made it easier for Coutinho to slot it into a virtually empty net.

He might've conceded the penalty but he did guess correctly on where the ball was going. Suarez was just a tad too accurate to find the bottom corner of the net. The second goal from Suarez though was merely an example of how important it is to stay an inch or two near the final line before the back of the net.

Barcelona broke through a counter as Ousmane Dembele made a run before feeding the ball to Sergi Roberto. He then passed the ball to Suarez who headed the ball past Courtois. Had he stayed in his lane, he might've plucked the ball in the air due to his height as well as he would've had enough time to prep himself up for Suarez's attempt.

Courtois suffered what could be the most humiliating goal of the match when El Pistolero chipped the ball over him. Yes, the defence was already gone by the time Suarez positioned himself for goal but Courtois could've at least closed the angle for the Uruguayan and made it a bit difficult for him to score.

The icing on the cake from Arturo Vidal summed up Courtois performance as he was found in no man's land again due to his defence being absent as well as not being able to position himself properly.

From the time Dembele got the ball on the left side of the pitch until the time he crossed the ball, Courtois seemed to be ball-watching which saw him way off of his position for Vidal's header. Despite the goal-fest, Courtois made some promising saves but that doesn't really cover what has happened against his side's bitter rivals.