David de Gea

Getting more and more rubbish the more games we play.

I mean, I admit he also made great and good saves, but also made the costly mistakes which is becoming more and more frequent.

Oh well, I guess he won't be bothered seeing how he can go home and give zero fecks with all those cash.

What’s his error count this season compared to his past 8?

Love him. But he's declined quite a bit. Makes way too many big mistakes these days. He'll still be the starter next season IMO, but it should be his last. Plan for Dean Henderson in 2021/22.

Henderson has to start next season, can't lose him to Chelsea or some other club. De Gea has past it, we've seen the best of him and he's not going to get any better.

Give it to Romero for the rest of the season in the league & the EL. Crap thing is that we will not have a true preseason to bring Henderson back & have the three of them come for the GK1 spot. That’s worrisome as DDG’s quality has degraded to the point of being an obvious liability.

GenZRed said:

He really isn't.

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4 times player of the season (more than any other player in our history), 3 times players' player of the year (more than any other player in our history, I believe), 5 times in EPL team of the year (more than any goalkeeper in the history of the league), more than 400 appearances (more than any non-British/Irish player in our history), 112 clean sheets (as many as Schmeichel), once in FIFPro XI while playing for us (the only player who did that in post-SAF era), and has won a league title, one Europa League, one FA Cup, and one League Cup.

He really is.

Classical Mechanic said:

He probably is. Personally I’ve never rated him above Schmeichel and VDS but he’s been a top servant for the club. He’s washed up now though. I think he’s mentally weak for an elite player. That second error was because he was scared after first error.

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He came to United as a 21 years old, and won the best keeper in the league the following season. He was the best keeper in the world and single-handed keeping us in top 6.

He has been bad for some time now, but let's not rewrite history.

Needs to be sold, inexcusable his form over the last two years has been awful. Doesn't matter if he was the best keeper for us since SAF left as soon as a keeper loses consistency they become a liability. He's done.

Suedesi said:

Diabolique. His form is unreliable for 2-3 years.

I'd rather have a less talented keeper that puts in 7 or 8 out of 10 every match as opposed to De Gea that can easily drop a clanger or make some world class saves.

The club needs to move him on.

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Jesus. He had his best year on 2017-2018 when he was by far the best keeper in the world. So, no, the 3 there is totally wrong.

He has been bad for the last 18 months though. Had some good performances here and there, but made too many mistakes.

This is ole's biggest decision ever in man utd manager for keep him or drop even sold him in next season

mav_9me said:

There is a balance between backing your player who is making mistakes to keep his confidence up vs causing complacency (subconsciously in the player) due to knowing you are undisputed no. 1.

Time to challenge him with Henderson.

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Yes. I don't think DDG can have any complaints next season now from any challenge, but I kinda think it's been ok to back him this season actually. It's not as if Romero is in our plans anyways. Hopefully David will welcome it next season and pick up form when facing more competition for his place, but if Henderson still outplays him he shouldn't have any complaints at all and he'll still obviously be one hell of a cup-keeper.

Has to go. It’s time. Too long for this to be a slump we expect him to recover for. Sadly, he’s getting worse. More errors and costing us more heavily each passing season. Statistically, this is his worst season ever for us - including his first. And Fergie benched him that season with only an injury to Lindegaard getting him the opportunity to return. And he was young and learning and improving at the time.

DdG isn’t a sweeper keeper and his distribution is poor (another place where he seems to have regressed from his days under Fergie). He doesn’t come out and command the box or take charge of crosses either, so if his shot-stopping is erratic or he’s making errors, he immediately becomes a potential liability.

Revan said:

Jesus. He had his best year on 2017-2018 when he was by far the best keeper in the world. So, no, the 3 there is totally wrong.

He has been bad for the last 18 months though. Had some good performances here and there, but made too many mistakes.

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Being great 2-3 years ago doesn’t and shouldn’t get anyone a free pass. Didn’t do it for RvN, Fletcher, Rooney, RvP... why should it for DdG?

Henderson for no.1 next season - or at least let them fight it out in pre season. This form isnt temporary now its gone on too long

Revan said:

Jesus. He had his best year on 2017-2018 when he was by far the best keeper in the world. So, no, the 3 there is totally wrong.

He has been bad for the last 18 months though. Had some good performances here and there, but made too many mistakes.

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Let's settle for 2-years then. Starting with the clanger he dropped against Sevilla. That's 2.5 years ago. Compounded by the horrible WC he had. Then the mistakes have just accelerated. These are just off the top of my head:

Crystal Palace (Van Aanholt)
Watford (Sarr)
Barca (Messi)
Arsenal (Mustafi)
Arsenal (Xhaka)
Chelsea (Alonso, possibly costing us the CL)
Man City (Sane shot straight through him)
Everton (Calvert Lewin)
Chelsea (Giroud and especially Mount)

For a team fighting tooth and nail for top 4, he's certainly not covered himself in glory.

I totally love De Gea and admire his one of our truely greats. But watching todays game I'm starting to think we would do better in selling him, cash in some much needed funds and develop Henderson, as his potential is obvious and huge

midnightmare said:

Being great 2-3 years ago doesn’t and shouldn’t get anyone a free pass. Didn’t do it for RvN, Fletcher, Rooney, RvP... why should it for DdG?

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He was no great for 2-3 years. He was great from the beginning of 2012-2013 (actually I would say from the second half of 2011-2012) up to summer 2018. That is 6 seasons (or 6 and a half). In 5 of them he was our best player. Neither of those players you mentioned except Rooney* was near as good for that amount of time, in fact RVN and RVP spent less time playing for United than De Gea spent being our best player. He has won more players of the year than those guys combined. Oh and the players you mentioned managed to get into EPL team of the year 6 times combined. De Gea managed to do so 5 times.

* And he is an absolute legend of the club.

Suedesi said:

Let's settle for 2-years then. Starting with the clanger he dropped against Sevilla. That's 2.5 years ago. Compounded by the horrible WC he had. Then the mistakes have just accelerated. These are just off the top of my head:

Crystal Palace (Van Aanholt)
Watford (Sarr)
Barca (Messi)
Arsenal (Mustafi)
Arsenal (Xhaka)
Chelsea (Alonso, possibly costing us the CL)
Man City (Sane shot straight through him)
Everton (Calvert Lewin)
Chelsea (Giroud and especially Mount)

For a team fighting tooth and nail for top 4, he's certainly not covered himself in glory.

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I have no problem admitting that he has been mediocre for the last 2 years and needs to be dropped. I have problems with people who rewrite history like he never was that good, or is not a legend, or was good only for 2-3 years, or was poor for the last 3 years/

Also, mistakes two years ago were justified with 'he's the best keeper in the world, we just need to build a better around him'
Then last year the excuses became, 'his contract situation is weighing on his mind'
This year's excuses are 'he's been our best player since 2013'

I know people get attached to players - I love De Gea - but come on, at some point you got to call a spade a spade.

Persisting with De Gea now would be as silly as Liverpool persisting with Karius after that final.

Drop him. He’s become complacent, secure that he keeps on being picked even for a cup match that Romero would normally play. Poor management.

SteveW said:

People have this weird inferiority complex when it comes to De Gea. Its as if we should be eternally grateful that he was generous enough to play for us when we were so unworthy. And now we have to pay him back by paying him a fortune and never dropping him or criticising his performance no matter how bad it is. Anyone who thinks we should move him on are deemed disloyal, ungrateful or accused of having short memories.

What a load of crap. It's football. Players are good enough for a while then they aren't. When they stop bring good enough somebody else takes their place. All footballers are aware of this. They don't think they are owed their place if their performance no longer merits it. David has had his time and now it's somebody else's turn. Time to thank him for his efforts and move on.

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I couldn't agree more with this.

Over the years I have accepted his shortcomings:

• Doesn’t command his box
• He plants his feet too wide apart, which means he falls backwards on shots
• His positioning is terrible
• He is susceptible at his near post
• His distribution is poor

Other factors at play:

• He was on the brink of his dream move away from Utd, but for a fax machine
• His Spanish girlfriend hates Manchester

The biggest issue for me though, is his eyesight, and it could go a long way in explaining the mistakes he makes...

Firstly, what have some of his past teammates said about his vision?
Nani – when he was recently picking his dream 5 a-side team on the Major League Soccer Instagram account:
“David de Gea, for me one of the best in the world and a good friend of mine. But he must bring his glasses with him because he can't see anything without them. It's true."

Paulo Assunção (former Atletico teammate) – in an interview with ESPN in 2018:
“He once told me he had a big vision problem and couldn’t see much, but still saved the balls. It was amazing”

Secondly, what eyesight condition does De Gea have?
De Gea actually has hypermetropia, also known as farsightedness, which means he can perfectly see things that are far from him, but has problems focusing on close objects.

In now knowing his vision issue, have a look again at the mistakes he makes!

Suedesi said:

Also, mistakes two years ago were justified with 'he's the best keeper in the world, we just need to build a better around him'
Then last year the excuses became, 'his contract situation is weighing on his mind'
This year's excuses are 'he's been our best player since 2013'

I know people get attached to players - I love De Gea - but come on, at some point you got to call a spade a spade.

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That's not the case though, no one is saying that. You would hardly find in this forum a bigger fan of me than him, and I think that he should be dropped at least for the remaining of the season (though preferably, Romero should start next season with De Gea fighting to get back his place).

I am just saying that his poor performances in the last 2 years don't make less impressive and important his great performances for 6.5 years before that. Obviously what matters now is how good the player is now, and he is showing to be not that good which means that he should be dropped.

Also, there were no mistakes 2 years ago (at least for United). I could care less what he does for Spain.

Revan said:

He was no great for 2-3 years. He was great from the beginning of 2012-2013 (actually I would say from the second half of 2011-2012) up to summer 2018. That is 6 seasons (or 6 and a half). In 5 of them he was our best player. Neither of those players you mentioned except Rooney* was near as good for that amount of time, in fact RVN and RVP spent less time playing for United than De Gea spent being our best player. He has won more players of the year than those guys combined. Oh and the players you mentioned managed to get into EPL team of the year 6 times combined. De Gea managed to do so 5 times.

* And he is an absolute legend of the club.

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This isn’t about the other players. Nor about the length / duration of their peaks. Once a player stops being good enough, he must be moved on. That he was excellent a few years ago doesn’t mean we’re beholden to keep him on and one regardless of form etc.

The club has to be prioritized. DdG hasn’t been good enough for the last 2 years now. Time to thank him profusely and move him on. If we can. That’s the issue now. Can’t see who’d take him.

midnightmare said:

This isn’t about the other players. Nor about the length / duration of their peaks. Once a player stops being good enough, he must be moved on. That he was excellent a few years ago doesn’t mean we’re beholden to keep him on and one regardless of form etc.

The club has to be prioritized. DdG hasn’t been good enough for the last 2 years now. Time to thank him profusely and move him on. If we can. That’s the issue now. Can’t see who’d take him.

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I agree. And De Gea clearly has not been good enough for some time now.

Selling him is gonna be hard though, considering the wage he is on, and not many clubs needing a keeper. Maybe we can try to do something with Juventus.

I have no doubt that De Gea is gonna come back, but very likely needs a change.

Revan said:

That's not the case though, no one is saying that. You would hardly find in this forum a bigger fan of me than him, and I think that he should be dropped at least for the remaining of the season (though preferably, Romero should start next season with De Gea fighting to get back his place).

I am just saying that his poor performances in the last 2 years don't make less impressive and important his great performances for 6.5 years before that. Obviously what matters now is how good the player is now, and he is showing to be not that good which means that he should be dropped.

Also, there were no mistakes 2 years ago (at least for United). I could care less what he does for Spain.

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I am not doubting De Gea's legend status at United. He's been our best player for 4-5 consecutive seasons. By all accounts he's a good guy and a positive influence in the dressing room. Great servant for the club.

Football, however is an unforgiving business. What he did before doesn't matter. What matters is this: can you rely on De Gea on a crunch game? I just wouldn't put my mortgage on it. I think he's just as likely to produce a series of worldlies as a clanger.

And before people suggest Romero or Henderson, I'm not advocating for either. Romero is equally error prone and I haven't seen enough of Henderson to form an opinion.

Suedesi said:

I am not doubting De Gea's legend status at United. He's been our best player for 4-5 consecutive seasons. By all accounts he's a good guy and a positive influence in the dressing room. Great servant for the club.

Football, however is an unforgiving business. What he did before doesn't matter. What matters is this: can you rely on De Gea on a crunch game? I just wouldn't put my mortgage on it. I think he's just as likely to produce a series of worldlies as a clanger.

And before people suggest Romero or Henderson, I'm not advocating for either. Romero is equally error prone and I haven't seen enough of Henderson to form an opinion.

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Then we agree on most things.

Romero makes mistakes but not as many as current De Gea. De Gea now has reached Carroll level of fecking things up. All he needs to do is concede a goal from 70 yards.

The hypocrisy on the forum is astounding!

We have Lindelof who gets crucified any time he has a 7/10 game, and yet for some reason De Gea gets a free pass from the same fans despite the fact that he's been routinely costing us points in games for more than 2 years now. And all because he performed good for about 3 seasons(which I think isn't the case. I'll explain it below)

Hello? We are talking about David de Gea, the same man who didn't jump ship to Madrid because our fax machine "broke down". The same David de Gea who went back on a previously agreed deal with both the club and the agent so he could get even more money.

He isn't Antonio Valencia or Bryan Robson. The only reason he is with us is because no sane club is willing to pay him this amount of money.

And since we've established that he's a mercenary, we should treat him as such. If he performs, great. If not, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Also, his insane reflexes fooled a lot of the fans into believing that he is a good goalkeeper. Fantastic shot-stopper? Yes. Goalkeeper? No

There is more to your game than simply stopping shots on target. And Edwin Van der Sar is classic example of that. Despite having inferior reflexes to the like of Shay Given and Brad Friedel he immediately transformed our defence. The silly mistakes that preceded him were gone. Our CBs looked a lot calmer and assured knowing that they had a reliable keeper behind their backs.

For God's sake, he, Vidic and Jonny fecking Evans established the record for most consecutive clean sheets.

Fast forward a couple of years later when he decided to retire and De Gea joined us. Do you remember how shaky they looked at first?

And to me, the defense has never been fixed ever since. This is why it doesn't matter who we bring in, our defenders always look like a joke. Be it Bailly, Maguire, Lindelof, Jones or Smalling(who looks like a different man ever since he joined Roma).

It's a psychological thing. If your defenders don't believe that the GK has their backs, they're going to be stressed out and look like clowns every time the pressure is on. And ironically, every time the pressure was on, our defense looked like absolute clowns.

Kind of like 2001-2005 when we had Taibi, Caroll, Howard and Barthez between the sticks. And to me it's baffling that Ole who witnessed it first hand, doesn't do anything about it.

I love David, but he has lost it.
Time for someone else.

I’ve defended him to the hilt when he has made mistakes, as, he has made insanely good saves so many times.
But the 2nd Chelsea goal tonight was shocking. Not even a mistake, it was just a half arsed flap at a tame shot.Is he in Pogba rebel camp?

Sad to see his sharp decline when he is only 29, so young for a goalkeeper. That World Cup in Russia seem to have broke him, he was still doing well before that. I miss the old Dave.

peridigm said:

What’s his error count this season compared to his past 8?

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Too many to count.

Wonder if someone actually keep counting.

I think he needs a change and in different club he may get his mindset and form back. True hero, but next game I want to see Romero in the goal.

I hope Ole has the balls to drop him, enough is enough.

No player should be starting after displaying such poor level, no matter how good he used to be.

Suedesi said:

Let's settle for 2-years then. Starting with the clanger he dropped against Sevilla. That's 2.5 years ago. Compounded by the horrible WC he had. Then the mistakes have just accelerated. These are just off the top of my head:

Crystal Palace (Van Aanholt)
Watford (Sarr)
Barca (Messi)
Arsenal (Mustafi)
Arsenal (Xhaka)
Chelsea (Alonso, possibly costing us the CL)
Man City (Sane shot straight through him)
Everton (Calvert Lewin)
Chelsea (Giroud and especially Mount)

For a team fighting tooth and nail for top 4, he's certainly not covered himself in glory.

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Hate to say it but there was also Spurs (Bergwijn) as well and completely forgot about the Sane and Van Aanholt ones, well that does make it double figures over the last year which is unacceptable and action needs to be taken for the remaining games but know it won't happen.

There’s zero chance Ole drops De Gea for the last two league games. We can only hope he shakes this one off quickly. We don‘t need him to win us the next two games, we just can’t have him lose them for us.

AFC NimbleThumb said:

I’m not going to detract from his achievements but based on this Mikaël Silvestre is a bigger club legend.

You’ll say the reason my Mikaël Silvestre argument doesn’t equate is because he was never at the level of DDG in his position but I was specifically questioning him being a club legend. He was a damn good goalkeeper for long periods, no dispute but whilst individual honours in a poor period for the club are commendable when you have a club like ours that’s littered with trophy hunters, what does a POTY & making Premier League TOTY do for the club?

Again, commendable.

It really isn’t.

For 4/5 years he was one of the best goalkeepers in the world, during this time he played in a poor side but in the grand scheme contributed a League Cup more than Phil Jones.

His career at United isn’t over but if he left in the Summer when reflecting on his United career he’d be looking back at a swath of personal accolades & less league titles than Chicharito.

DDG has been a good servant but had he left when he wanted/was valid to I think he’d be/have been a better player for it - he stagnanted imo. At the beginning of his career here, during a part of the Van Gaal years & for the past 18/24 months he’s been a liability - can’t label that legendary but respect yours & others opinions that he is one.

I take it by your username it’s an ode to the great Rooney, now that is unarguably a club legend.

Disclaimer: David De Gea has done marvellous things for his employers & was for periods our best/most important player. I rate him highly.

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All you have done is break the post to completely miss the context, very poor but 1/10 for the effort though.

Going by your logic Wes Brown is bigger legend than Sir Bobby Charlton and probably Bryan Robson and Steve Coppell are not even legends. There are so many ManUtd greats and legends who have won less than our squad players from 90-00s, doesn't make these squad players legends. ManUtd have more than 100 years of history and we had winning run of around 30-40 years in that, 90s-2013 and before that from 50s-late 60s. Do you think any player who didn't play in these eras are not legends?

Legends doesn't mean winning trophies alone, that depends on the team you are surrounded by. Players like Wes Brown, O'Shea and other squad players won lot of trophies, not because they were some great players it's because they played in great teams.

This De Gea is very poor and should be either sold or benched, shouldn't take away anything from his achievement. From the season he was signed (half a season was poor) to 2017-18, he was quality player, among the best in the world.

roonster09 said:

All you have done is break the post to completely miss the context, very poor but 1/10 for the effort though.

Going by your logic Wes Brown is bigger legend than Sir Bobby Charlton and probably Bryan Robson and Steve Coppell are not even legends. There are so many ManUtd greats and legends who have won less than our squad players from 90-00s, doesn't make these squad players legends. ManUtd have more than 100 years of history and we had winning run of around 30-40 years in that, 90s-2013 and before that from 50s-late 60s. Do you think any player who didn't play in these eras are not legends?

Legends doesn't mean winning trophies alone, that depends on the team you are surrounded by. Players like Wes Brown, O'Shea and other squad players won lot of trophies, not because they were some great players it's because they played in great teams.

This De Gea is very poor and should be either sold or benched, shouldn't take away anything from his achievement. From the season he was signed (half a season was poor) to 2017-18, he was quality player, among the best in the world.

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The post you quoted was ridiculous. Might as well say that David May was a great player.

Who was a better player David May or Steven Gerrard? Just count the medals eh.

If Ole drops him now, he never plays for the club again, it's a Jim Leighton moment. It'd crush his confidence.

The problem of course is he has 3 years on his contract as the highest paid goalkeeper in the world.

Personally I can't see Ole being brave enough to do so.

ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg said:

The post you quoted was ridiculous. Might as well say that David May was a great player.

Who was a better player David May or Steven Gerrard? Just count the medals eh.

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In grand scheme he contributed league cup more than De Gea, that should sum up that post.