Extremely in-depth reporting from the stats team. Well done!
But in any discussion about who to "upgrade" and who not to upgrade, adding a bit of context wouldn't be a colossally bad idea.
Looking at the EPL table (we'll exclude the stats for the cup competitions for now) we see the following:
City -- 92 goals scored, 31 goals conceded over 35 matches played
Arsenal -- 83 goals scored, 42 conceded over 36 matches played
Newcastle -- 63 goals scored, 31 goals conceded over 35 matches played
United 51 -- 51 goals scored, 41 goals conceded over matches played
Liverpool -- 70 goals scored, 42 goals conceded over matches played
I'll stop there.
The goal that I hope most caftards share is that we compete for a PL trophy -- well, actually win the PL trophy but you have to compete for the PL trophy to have a decent shot at winning it. If that's not a safe assumption then I'm not sure what we're doing here. City and Arsenal were the two PL trophy contenders this season and if we're looking for why they're so far ahead of us in the table the answer is easily discerned -- City have scored more well than double the number of goals we've scored and Arsenal have scored just over double the number of goals we've scored. City have conceded only 10 fewer goals than we have and Arsenal have actually conceded 1 more goal than we have.
This thread is about De Gea's stats and how he stacks up against the other top keepers on the planet, but the bottom line is the bottom line and the bottom line is that our defensive performance this season -- even with the abominations of Liverpool, City and Brentford -- is actually pretty respectable; and that our offensive production has been an ongoing abomination since the beginning of the season. Brentford and Fulham have scored more goals than United. Brighton and Spurs have scored significantly more goals than United.
If we want to have any hope of competing for the PL trophy we have to significantly increase our goal production. Unless the proposition here is that De Gea's woefulness cripples our finishing on goal, which would be an insane proposition and thankfully no one is suggesting that, we need to focus on the greatest area of weakness in the squad -- our front line. We not only need one striker, we need two strikers.
If the answer to that is that it would be great to add two strikers, and probably an 8 as well, but that we can't forget about upgrading on De Gea, upgrading on De Gea has to assume a significantly outlay of funds that in reality we're just not going to have this summer. Bringing in two 9s and an 8 is probably going to cost us close to 200m and it's not at all clear that we'll have anywhere close to 200m for the summer transfer spend, even with the rosiest of projections of what we'd get for Maguire and McTominay.
Liverpool and Arsenal have conceded roughly the same number of United has, but no one is even remotely suggesting ditching Alisson (a superior keeper, without question) or Ramsdale (who I seriously doubt anyone here would argue is vastly superior to De Gea) to fix their defensive problems.
While nobody is saying we don't need to sign a striker, it is a lot easier to score goals if you can play football in the opposing half of the pitch, which is something which we will never be able to do consistently with De Gea in goal because of his aversion to leaving his line.
You mention City, Arsenal, Newcastle and Liverpool - and highlight Arsenal and Liverpool - as teams that concede similar amounts to us but score more goals. I think it is reasonable to add Brighton into that list too, given the high quality of their game and them scoring 66 & conceding 45 thus far.
Now which teams do you think play the highest up the pitch? In order, it from highest line down is City, Arsenal, Brighton, Liverpool, Newcastle, Chelsea.
Where are United on that list? 16th (which in fairness is an improvement from a few weeks ago when we were 18th). Only Wolves, Bournemouth, Everton and Forest sit deeper than us on average.
Now which teams average the highest amount of possession? In order, from highest down is City, Liverpool, Brighton, Arsenal, Chelsea, United, Newcastle.
I wonder which of the 10 teams mentioned above goalkeepers average defensive actions are highest? Alisson, Pope, Kepa, Ramsdale, Pickford, Ederson, Henderson, Steele, De Gea, Sa, Sanchez, Neto, Navas. Start to paint a picture of why Brighton dropped Sanchez and why so many Forest fans prefer Henderson to Navas. If we look at that same sample of goalkeepers in terms of defensive actions outside the penalty area, Neto jumps ahead of De Gea; in fact there are only 4 goalkeepers in the entire league that do less work outside their area than De Gea - and one of them has been dropped.
I don't know how much clearer it can be that De Gea's inability to deal with balls over the top of the defence is a huge factor in why our defence sits so deep. Because we sit deep we have to work so much harder to retain possession because our play is stretched, whereas to move forward in Ten Hag's previous styles of play you want to retain possession in a relatively compact space through triangles to invite the press which in turn creates space for the wide attacking players. Which teams tend to score the most goals? The ones that have the most of the ball.
That, coupled with his inability to command his area, possession under pressure, or even seemingly keep shots out at an average rate, means it is imperative we bring in a new first choice goalkeeper if we want to see any improvements - regardless of whether we bring in a striker of not (which we obviously need to).
Just to touch further on the inability to keep possession under pressure; that in itself isn't even the worst thing. It's the kicks out when he is pressed that are horrendous. Keeping possession from long clearances isn't necessarily expected - some goalkeepers like Ramsdale and Raya don't even try to keep possession a lot of the time with their long balls forward - the issue with De Gea is he just kicks a floaty ball straight up in the air which is nearly always won by a centre back and the opposition are back on the attack. Even if we sign a massive 7ft tall striker, those types of clearances are always going to favour the centre back running onto the ball rather than a striker facing his own goal.
