David de Gea

Sam

He got a rating of 5 in The Sun today. Cech got a 7.

No media agenda at all

RyanGoggs

To be fair cech made a few decent stops and couldn't really do much about the goals. That being said I would say De Gea played at least as well so there should be some parity in terms of ratings.

Orton

Cech made some "superb" saves and De Gea made a couple of "bread and butter" saves. Simples

Magnus

Ironic I hope?

Orton

Like someone mentioned, i'm going to watch the game tonight and keep note of each involvement the 2 keepers have, then check the ratings. I'm pretty sure the sun were intending on giving DDG a rubbish rating before the game even started

Reapersoul20

TBH the people here seeing this in a completely black and white manner have their judgement clouded.

Cheesy

I don't like a lot of the criticism De Gea is receiving, but what I don't like even more is the slack given to other keepers. By their high standards, Reina and Cech have both been poor this season, yet they don't seem to be coming in for anywhere near as much criticism as De Gea is.

MaroonPondlife

This. And its the low shots that I think is where his weakness is ... not many examples to go on as yet but still that's where I'd instruct my players to shoot.

The Mata fk was fine, take nothing away from DdG but it looped high enough to give the keeper a chance. And as I say he was on the move realizing that he was over a little too much on the right so Kouroux he had teh added advantage (over those who stay more central) to get more into the leap. May well be a tactic of his ad credit to the lad it worked ... he saved United a point.

towcester_red

thats hilarious.

He was atleast a 7 yesterday. Classic sun reporting, no wonder nobody reads that rubbish.

MaroonPondlife

This true cheesy but they both have credit though imo Cech has used his up, and tbh I never really believed the hype with Reina ... again, an excellent stand-up shot stopper but his length is a disadvantage and he is prone to rush-of blood errors. He gets a lot of kudos for distribution ... fair enough. He has largely been shielded by defensive minded team set-ups over the years.

I'm always right

Aside from Gordon obviously, do you think anyone is a decent keeper Maroon?

You're certainly a harsh critic when it comes to all keepers.

Levo

I though that was a world class save, it was right in the top corner. Can't see many keepers making that save and had it gone in I reckon it would be classed as a world class free-kick. Just about inch perfect until De Gea clawed it away.

Orton

Gordon would have been signed by a top club if he was "all that" instead Sunderland signed him and now he's an injured wreck.

Rado_N

From memory, 7 is the point at which players get match bonus points in the sun's FF, so the guy who wrote the article probably had him in net.

I'll always remember a sun match report for a Liverpool game where they'd been horribly shit, and every one was awarded 1's, apart from Torres got 7. My spider senses tell me the author of that had Torres as his captain.

Cheesy

In all fairness, Gordon is a top keeper. If it wasn't for him constantly being injured, I do think that he would've ended up at a bigger club than Sunderland.

MaroonPondlife

I used to rate Cech & VdS ... both had length, great positioning and composure not to mention presence. Both very consistent ... have also benefitted obviously from playing for dominant teams with top-notch defences (until recently).

Hart is definitely up there though I'd say he's a bit over-hyped ... is currently going through a purple patch just now but like Reina is has/is benefited/benifitting from defensive minded set-ups (Brum & City, tho the latter always seem to concede mind). He has length, very good reactions but I'm still not quite convinced on his positioning yet ... he's a jumpy-nervy-pop around keeper.

Friedel, Howard, Schwartzer, Given, ... all steady big keepers who'll be just fine for the most part but are generally incapable of pulling out the unexpected ... that's fine but they just won't get those ones that occasionally your team needs you to claw out if you're to win crucial games.

I've been impressed with Krul and to a lesser extent Vorm (both of who I've got in my FF team) the latter of whom I've seen less of so harder to judge. Most I think would highlight those two this year. Vorm is obviously playing for a 'lesser' team so is liabale to get more 'practice' - generally dealt pretty well with it but he looks just a little heavy to be world class.

Krul seems to have all the attributes to make it into the top echelons.

Schezeny - looks pretty handy but prone to Reina type ohh-I-misjudged that ... in all honesty I haven't watched the Arse much this year ... they're a non-factor for the most part.

No one else has stood out that I recall ... I just don't watch enough of them to comment here.

Of the Foreign keepers - Valdez I currently rate as the best around.
Casillas is still up there but does tend to make erors more than you'd expect.

The boy at Sevilla must be there or there abouts.

It comes back to consistency ... very few have shown over the years that they can consistently play the game. Obviosuly there's far more involved but this is all I have time for just now. To me its the most important.

Maciek

Three matches with Ferdinand & Vidic partnership: West Brom 2-1, Swansea 1-0 and Newcastle 1-1. That's 232 minutes out of 1350 he has played in the league - 17%.

He conceded 20 goals in 15 matches.

2 in 3 with Ferdinand & Vidic.
18 in 12 without them.

Jimy_Hills_Chin

Barry Glendening on The Guardian 'Football Weekly' podcast stuck up for De Gea saying that he has always been a very good keeper and that this save should shut up the people that are claiming that he is useless. He also said the save one was of the best that he has ever seen.

marjen

The good thing with all this De Gea crucifiction is that at some point the media narrative will evolve into being "De Gea rises from the ashes", and they'll look for every positive they can find in his game.

Broyphs

It was quite funny to hear Tyler calling him the 'much criticised keeper'.

Yes, he's much criticised by you, you bell.

Rado_N

Comments like that always make me chuckle, but especially when they add 'by the media' into it, like we're going to forget that they are the media.

izzydiggler

I don't really subscribe to the conspiracy that every journalist who writes anything negative is being an 'ABU' or 'hoping that he fails' or whatever but it's quite frustrating that so many 'experts' fail to come up with their own opinions on players - resorting to cliches / dated stock phrases of 'needs to bulk up', 'foreigners can't handle out physical game' etc.

I follow a lot of journalists on Twitter and several of them commented on De Gea's poor punch in the 1st half. Granted, it was poor and justifiably mentioned but the apparent glee that some seemed to take from it, was indicative of the modern journalist - "Dodgy Keeper" a few of them wrote. Fair enough, that's what a lot of them do and has deserved critisicm at times but I was amazed just how many of them didn't mention 'the' save at all - appalling 'reporting'.

The notion that the vast majority of keepers are always in the right position, have great distribution, never look fazed and catch every cross in every game is laughable. But more and more people seem to expect perfection - it would be an interesting thing to watch some of Schmeichel's games and count the misplaced passes, crosses that weren't caught etc - I'd wager there'll be loads. Whenever I see Hart, Reina, Cech etc, they constantly make mistakes but they're rarely mentioned. I just hope DDG won't be hounded out (umlikely) before he settles and proves himself - I'd go as far as to say I don't think I've ever wanted a player to succeed and 'throw it back in the doubters face as much as him.

Ace

Odd that he's only played one game in the league with Smalling in front of him in the middle. He's probably our most consistent center back.

Snow

Do you watch Spanish football? That boy at Sevilla is 38 years old.

Casillas has easily been the best keeper this season. Valdes is Valdes. Not top 5 in the world. Look at him in a Barcelona side that's not at the top of their game. He's useless in dealing with crosses and he's the kind of keeper to make stupid decisions.

I really liked Diego Alves when he was at Almeria. I don't know why he hasn't played more. I haven't been keeping tabs on their injury list.

Lynk

Vidic?

Drainy

David De Gea v Joe Hart: who's the best goalkeeper in Manchester?

last season's stats for you

De Gea

Punches 14
Catches 52
Dropped Catches 2
Crosses not claimed 0
Catch Success Rate % 97%

compared to England's no1

Punches 27
Catches 62
Dropped Catches 4
Crosses not claimed 2
Catch Success Rate % 94%

so unless you are saying that Hart is more Spanish than De Gea..

its more likely an English league thing where you attackers are allowed to try and interfere with the goalkeepers more.

Ace

Didn't know he was fit. Knee transplant?

Ace

It's hard to correlate numbers between leagues like that. The comparisons are always going to be skewed. The Premier League is vastly superior in terms of competition on a weekly basis.

MaroonPondlife

Yes, I do which is more than I can say for you based on what you've posted.

For a start you'd know if you watched La Liga that Varas has been the main boy of late ... certainly not the 38 yr old Palop.

I doubt you'd get a single person of of any repute in the football world agreeing with you on Valdez - over the past couple of season's he been spain's most consistent keeper. Not top 5 is laughable in my book. Based on your descriptions it looks like you've got Valdez & Casillas mixed up.

Feed Me

No.

I totally agree that this part of his game will improve to the level it was at the start of the season once his confidence and form are stable.

Was interested, so I did some digging.

Check this chalkboard - Chalkboards | Published chalkboard Chalkboards saved - J5PKN0F3163w8f71dc7n | Football | The Guardian - his passing performance at Bolton at the start of the season vs Chelsea away. Suggests two things to me:

1. Team mates aren't trusting him so much with a back pass
2. When in possession, he's looking to launch it quicker/further

Confidence will remedy this.

jojojo

Isn't the point there the ratio of punches to catches? It's not a "Spanish keeper" thing, it's a modern game thing.

Criticising a player for a particular decision - to punch rather than catch - is fair game. Even though we don't know all the factors in his decision: was his footing not secure, was the ball slippy, was he expecting more from a Chelsea player.

The more generalised, "Oh, he punches when he should catch," stuff is what I dislike. It's what top flight keepers are trained to do.

The crosses issue on those stats are a different matter. De Gea in Spain came out for crosses he knew he could get. We now want him to come for crosses he "should" get.

Still ill

Anyway, look, it was a great outcome for him Sunday. Just as all we're coming away thinking about is the comeback, the feelings he'll be left with are the save, the euphoria. Looked genuinely delighted at the end, plenty of his teammates around him, top man. We all know confinence is the be all and end all for him. Schmeichel grew in front of your eyes in thoses one-on-one situations, DDG's presence will increase in the same way once he eliminates those doubts. Big step Sunday.

buckooo1978

i'm not worried about de gea

he just needs time and when he develops physically and begins to command his area he will be a complete keeper

the best thing about him is that even though he has made some mistakes leading to goals it hasn't affected his confidence

Unam333

Seeing Reina and Friedel yesterday and I have to admit De Gea looks tiny.

Wiki is so inaccurate. De Gea's def not 6ft4. Cech's 6ft5 on wiki, but on Sunday when both keepers were shaking hands and Cech dwarfed De Gea. Also, 6ft 2 1⁄2 Rio looks taller than De Gea. I would say he's the same height as Carrick (6ft2)

Annihilate Now!

This article from the Guardian claims his "official" height (whatever the fuck that means) is 6ft 3"

Hart is a safer pair of hands but De Gea has ditched his dodgy keeper tag | Daniel Taylor | Football | The Guardian

SteveJ

Edwin on DDG, Anders, Scholes & the Chelsea match:

Van der Sar: De Gea must man up | News

redmanc

He needs to fill out a bit and start throwing the occasional elbow/late foot in on people, that should make them think twice about interfering when a corner or free kick is on its way in!

Commadus

Its not a question of being taught to punch more than catch - thats absurd. The essential point is- if you are committed to catching a ball you have to be more circumspect and sure as you have to be in a position to get both hands on the ball. However if you want to punch or just deflect the ball away then you can be more aggressive in coming out knowing all you need is some contact.

Now whether you decide to "collect or catch" is purely based on your judgement and as most aspects in life your judgement improves with experience.

Even the best strikers miss open goals, even the best midfielder misplace passes, so dont be too alarmed that even the best goal keepers fumble from time to time.

Jimy_Hills_Chin

Aye, the old Paul Ince method.

Amir

D_DeGea David De Gea
Dinner with @samjohnstone50 great goalkeeper!

I like to see how he's one of the guys. Very important for settling in.