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2016-17 Performances


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Varun

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I'm surprised about the agreement of this using the opposite arm thing. It seems illogical to me and rather a combination of just being one-handed and poor movement of the feet.

I'm gonna watch some VDS vids to see if he did that. He's the best example of elite fundamentals and positioning..
Doubt you'll find it. VDSs positioning was absolutely ridiculous, he made top saves look a routine catch.
 

izec

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You dont drop your no1 GK if he makes one or two mistakes :lol: ridiculous. He saved us so many times before, on top of that. An undisputed world class player and our standout player the last few years

Neuer makes some howlers too during a season or has a bad few games here and there, nobody would come to the idea to drop him. This place is funny at times
 

Samid

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He needs to win far far more with us before he even begins to be compared to either of them tbh.

So far he has won one league title with us, and cost us another one.
Yeah I'll never forgive him for letting an eight point lead with six games remaining slip.
 

SteveW

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I'm surprised about the agreement of this using the opposite arm thing. It seems illogical to me and rather a combination of just being one-handed and poor movement of the feet.

I'm gonna watch some VDS vids to see if he did that. He's the best example of elite fundamentals and positioning..
GK coaching has changed over the years. It used to be considered the wrong hand. However when you look at the height of the shot and the body position to dive for it, it's actually the hand closest to the ball. To use the bottom hand would mean moving the body into a twisted and less stable position. Doing it this way means the keeper can cover more of the goal. It's actually perfect technique and is part of the reason he is able to reach all these shots.
 
West Brom 0:2 Man Utd

Ban

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When exactly did he cost us the title?

I read everything here but this is one of the most astonishing things I saw.
 

Sylar

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Its so nice that hes getting the clean sheets he deserves (and deserved last season or two). And its nice that hes not going to be our player of the season again.
 

Rossa

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Am I the only one who thinks his short passing to the defenders leaves a little to be desired? It's as if he takes that split second too long to decide who to pass the ball to, and then he hoofs it instead. Moreover, he does tend to have a couple of sloppy clearances here and there. For a Spanish goalie, his distribution isn't top notch, not as good as VDS.
 

December_16

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Am I the only one who thinks his short passing to the defenders leaves a little to be desired? It's as if he takes that split second too long to decide who to pass the ball to, and then he hoofs it instead. Moreover, he does tend to have a couple of sloppy clearances here and there. For a Spanish goalie, his distribution isn't top notch, not as good as VDS.
I might see where you're coming from, but I can't disagree with you more. His kicking/passing is top notch, one of his strong attributes actually.
 

Rossa

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I might see where you're coming from, but I can't disagree with you more. His kicking/passing is top notch, one of his strong attributes actually.
When he has ample time his passing is sublime, and his throws are great too. It's when the ball is passed back to him, he uses too much time and doesn't find his defenders well enough, and I think that is one of the reasons why we don't play out from the back as much as we could. Romero is actually much better at that.
 

2cents

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He definitely scuffs a few too many, we'll probably concede from it soon enough. No complaints with him over all though.
 

M Bison

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I think this a case of people trying to find a problem.

Who knows where we'd have ended up over the past few seasons had we not had Dave - I wouldn't swap him for any other GK.
 

Raees

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Am I the only one who thinks his short passing to the defenders leaves a little to be desired? It's as if he takes that split second too long to decide who to pass the ball to, and then he hoofs it instead. Moreover, he does tend to have a couple of sloppy clearances here and there. For a Spanish goalie, his distribution isn't top notch, not as good as VDS.
It's poor I was actually going to start a thread about it but we are playing so well seems inappropriate. His passing under pressure is just weak and we are lucky we have Pogba and Zlatan who can compete for long balls but there are situations where he can just pass it out to a CB or a FB and he kick it long and invites pressure. This in addition to his scuffs which we are lucky haven't led to some fatal counters.

Area of his game where he falls behind a lot of keepers in the prem let alone against rivals like Neuer.
 

Santoryo

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I think this a case of people trying to find a problem.

Who knows where we'd have ended up over the past few seasons had we not had Dave - I wouldn't swap him for any other GK.
Yep people just trying to find issues with him since he isn't a shining new toy or as much of a darling when he was the sole most dominant player in our team.

People do embarrassing things on these boards.
 

Raees

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I'm surprised about the agreement of this using the opposite arm thing. It seems illogical to me and rather a combination of just being one-handed and poor movement of the feet.

I'm gonna watch some VDS vids to see if he did that. He's the best example of elite fundamentals and positioning..
You only have to re watch that DDG save in slow mo and pause it before he makes the actual dive. If he went with his left hand which you believe is the correct hand to use there he simply would not have got to the ball.. It would be impossible to distort his position from a standing position and get his left hand there in time.

Using his opposite hand allowed him to reach further in that situation.
 

ti vu

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It's poor I was actually going to start a thread about it but we are playing so well seems inappropriate. His passing under pressure is just weak and we are lucky we have Pogba and Zlatan who can compete for long balls but there are situations where he can just pass it out to a CB or a FB and he kick it long and invites pressure. This in addition to his scuffs which we are lucky haven't led to some fatal counters.

Area of his game where he falls behind a lot of keepers in the prem let alone against rivals like Neuer.
I said similar in the old DDG thread after the Italy game vs Spain game, talking about his distribution with another poster (was it you?) said his distribution is not up there yet for Spain passing out of the back plan. His short coming invited more pressure from Italy.

I don't say he's bad but in this aspect he has not filled out well as his early potential indicate (new VDS)
 

Raees

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I said similar in the old DDG thread after the Italy game vs Spain game, talking about his distribution with another poster (was it you?) said his distribution is not up there yet for Spain passing out of the back plan. His short coming invited more pressure from Italy.

I don't say he's bad but in this aspect he has not filled out well as his early potential indicate (new VDS)
Not sure if it was me but I haven't been happy about it for years. It's strange to have a Spanish keeper who can't distribute the ball more effectively. It frustrates me that every time the ball goes back to him you know our attack is basically going to have a high probability of breaking down.
 

criticalanalysis

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Doubt you'll find it. VDSs positioning was absolutely ridiculous, he made top saves look a routine catch.
Yeah exactly why I said I would look for it because VDS made goalkeeping look 'boring' (but so so effective) because his fundamentals were incredible. If he got beat at his near post or he conceded, 8/9 times out of 10, you wouldn't question whether he could have done better.

GK coaching has changed over the years. It used to be considered the wrong hand. However when you look at the height of the shot and the body position to dive for it, it's actually the hand closest to the ball. To use the bottom hand would mean moving the body into a twisted and less stable position. Doing it this way means the keeper can cover more of the goal. It's actually perfect technique and is part of the reason he is able to reach all these shots.
You only have to re watch that DDG save in slow mo and pause it before he makes the actual dive. If he went with his left hand which you believe is the correct hand to use there he simply would not have got to the ball.. It would be impossible to distort his position from a standing position and get his left hand there in time.

Using his opposite hand allowed him to reach further in that situation.
I'm gonna assume you guys are right but just to throw a theory, it seems 'illogical' to me because it might be one-handedness. Like the way Valencia receives the ball with his right foot, he will always be planting his left foot with more weight and thus will have his body shape in a way to receive naturally to the right. I'm not saying it's wrong because you go with whatever you're most comfortable with but in my head, for some reason I totally forgot goalkeepers can be stronger with one arm than another and not be 50/50.

I don't think it's so much 'the opposite was the best option' but rather his natural tendency to look for the stronger hand to save shots, means that hand was always going to be 'best' positioned for it i.e small steps to those directions, favoured foot planted before the leap etc.

Am I the only one who thinks his short passing to the defenders leaves a little to be desired? It's as if he takes that split second too long to decide who to pass the ball to, and then he hoofs it instead. Moreover, he does tend to have a couple of sloppy clearances here and there. For a Spanish goalie, his distribution isn't top notch, not as good as VDS.
Yes I agree, he's hoofed it a lot against West Brom and it's frustrating because we had 3 decent defenders (Valencia, Jones and Rojo) who are more than capable of receiving it to feet and playing it out, thus increasing our build up play. However, I think it's tactical and probably comes from Mourinho, who doesn't want that much faffing around at the back and trusts Pogba/Ibra to affect the long ball enough to compensate for that. Otherwise it doesn't make sense that a capable ball keeper like De Gea would pretty much hoof it at every opportunity.

Hopefully it's just a temporary 'don't fix too much in one go' thing, which would fit with the narrative I think. Mourinho probably wants to make a solid defence, then midfield then attack; it's why Rooney and Lingard will play over Martial/Mata etc.
 

Synco

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I said similar in the old DDG thread after the Italy game vs Spain game, talking about his distribution with another poster (was it you?) said his distribution is not up there yet for Spain passing out of the back plan. His short coming invited more pressure from Italy.

I don't say he's bad but in this aspect he has not filled out well as his early potential indicate (new VDS)
I think it was me ;), at least I discussed that with someone, too. What interests me: How did DDG fare under Frans Hoek in that regard? Van Gaal has always been known for letting his keepers participate in buildup and Hoek has been Van der Sar's mentor after all. But I have barely watched United then.
 

ti vu

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I think it was me ;), at least I discussed that with someone, too. What interests me: How did DDG fare under Frans Hoek in that regard? Van Gaal has always been known for letting his keepers participate in buildup and Hoek has been Van der Sar's mentor after all. But I have barely watched United then.
Rumor is LVG and Hoek didn't rate DDG that highly (from time to time called out his distribution even in game DDG pulled superman traditional goalkeeping like vs Liverpool and few more...). They were keen on getting Keylor Navas before he signed for Real Madrid and was the sole reason for DDG contract stall and near exit. Same guys who refused buying Neuer at Bayern and dug their own end at Bayern with the GK mess.

LVG's playing out of the back is not very suitable for PL. So hard to judge DDG's distributions based on LVG idealist's standard. DDG is not that bad, but as @Raees said, I agree he has not met the expectation of his early potential, new VDS.
 
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Synco

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Rumor is LVG and Hoek didn't rate DDG that highly (from time to time called out his distribution even in game DDG pulled superman traditional goalkeeping like vs Liverpool and few more...). They were keen on getting Keylor Navas before he signed for Real Madrid and was the sole reason for DDG contract stall and near exit. Same guys who refused buying Neuer at Bayern and dug their own end at Bayern with the GK mess.
Yes, their decisions were extremely weird sometimes.

But my question was more on the line of: How did De Gea fare passing-wise in games at that time? Did he try to adapt that Ajax passing style systematically? If so, how well did he do? I mean, LvG/Hoek even let someone like Thomas Kraft act as a ball-playing keeper (and he certainly wasn't born for this), so I imagine they must have done that with De Gea, too.
 

ti vu

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Yes, their decisions were extremely weird sometimes.

But my question was more on the line of: How did De Gea fare passing-wise in games at that time? Did he try to adapt that Ajax passing style systematically? If so, how well did he do? I mean, LvG/Hoek even let someone like Thomas Kraft act as a ball-playing keeper (and he certainly wasn't born for this), so I imagine they must have done that with De Gea, too.
I did edit out more in my previous post.

As I said it was hard to judge. DDG did make mistake from time to time, but not Bravo's level recently. DDG problem under LVG is more systematically as we have Smalling who can't play making out from the back. Most of the time DDG needs to relieve pressure by booting the ball upfield and concede possession as we don;t have physical aerial capable bar Fellaini to compete with opponent.

DDG kicking has improved, but not there yet. Take Romero long kick technique you can feel Romero's technique favor our short, less physical upfield players than opponent defenders. Hard to describe, but the pace from Romero's kicking is faster (prevent opponent defenders have time to react, position) and the height at destination favors shorter player who better technical with their foot. DDG's kicking often let the ball floating longer in the air and dropping more sudden at the destination which favor tall, physical players.

Short passing though it's hard to compare since Romero laid back style makes the whole team unnecessarily nervous, so negate any positive. Again, it's hard to assess DDG, since we have a flawed footballer in Smalling so the playing the back tactic never works out well.

I don't blame for DDG on the whole thing since it's LVG's fault for trying the tactic that not fit all the players' ability (the bad ones badly offset the good ones), just my assessment on DDG's distribution. I did blame part of the problem on Del Bosque for let it too late with the GK in Spain NT, and not let DDG build better understanding with the defense and team when Spain NT game heavily depended understanding.
 
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Rossa

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Yes I agree, he's hoofed it a lot against West Brom and it's frustrating because we had 3 decent defenders (Valencia, Jones and Rojo) who are more than capable of receiving it to feet and playing it out, thus increasing our build up play. However, I think it's tactical and probably comes from Mourinho, who doesn't want that much faffing around at the back and trusts Pogba/Ibra to affect the long ball enough to compensate for that. Otherwise it doesn't make sense that a capable ball keeper like De Gea would pretty much hoof it at every opportunity.

Hopefully it's just a temporary 'don't fix too much in one go' thing, which would fit with the narrative I think. Mourinho probably wants to make a solid defence, then midfield then attack; it's why Rooney and Lingard will play over Martial/Mata etc.
I've been thinking, since I made that post, that it is quite conceivable that it is tactits. Look at the amount of times Ibra won the hoofed ball. What you then get is one or two of their attackers deep into our half, in offside positions, and our team standing much higher up the pitch actually outnumbering the opposition. Considering we have Ibra who is so strong with the back to the defense, we can afford to play like this; watch DDG closely and he always lets the attackers come quite close before he "hoofs" it. Sometimes, however, I think we would benefit from playing it short from the back.
 

criticalanalysis

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I've been thinking, since I made that post, that it is quite conceivable that it is tactits. Look at the amount of times Ibra won the hoofed ball. What you then get is one or two of their attackers deep into our half, in offside positions, and our team standing much higher up the pitch actually outnumbering the opposition. Considering we have Ibra who is so strong with the back to the defense, we can afford to play like this; watch DDG closely and he always lets the attackers come quite close before he "hoofs" it. Sometimes, however, I think we would benefit from playing it short from the back.
Yeah we would benefit actually more times than not imo. On the one hand it's great we're out running and out gunning teams physically but I don't think it's sustainable. I don't think Herrera can keep up the same performances (which I think has shown already in his last two games where the stats may say the same, I don't think the quality has) whilst doing the same amount of running and that is in large part to 'deliberately' not wanting to keep possession i.e not building from the back and sometimes inviting that pressue by sitting deep. We need to control the game more especially because we have the right mix of being able to keep possession/the press, whilst also having a target and outlet in Zlatan but also able to break at pace and create those transitions that scare teams.
 

top1whoisman

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Not been mentioned, but made an important double-ish save at 0-0, after Blind’s header dropped to Anichebe + a good save from van Aanholt’s free kick.

Oh and:





Sounds like a happy man.
 

OnlyTwoDaSilvas

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Not been mentioned, but made an important double-ish save at 0-0, after Blind’s header dropped to Anichebe + a good save from van Aanholt’s free kick.

Oh and:





Sounds like a happy man.
And also sounds a bit sick of the awards :lol:
 

Catt

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He won't win Poty this season as he's mostly had very little to do.
 
Man Utd 2:1 Middlesbrough

klayton88

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Is it just my opinion or should he be saving their goal? I'm not sure why he's gone with his feet when most keepers would have got down low to their right and most likely got a hand on it.
 

nemanja15

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Is it just my opinion or should he be saving their goal? I'm not sure why he's gone with his feet when most keepers would have got down low to their right and most likely got a hand on it.
No. With how little time you have in those type of situations as a keeper, feet first makes sense. You can spread yourself wider quicker.
 

Sylar

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No. With how little time you have in those type of situations as a keeper, feet first makes sense. You can spread yourself wider quicker.
Exactly. To throw your body and get your hand down in that situation would have taken longer than to try and use your feet from that position. It was a good finish.
 

Trizy

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If DDG didn't save it with his foot no keeper would've.
 

Grunge

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Exactly. To throw your body and get your hand down in that situation would have taken longer than to try and use your feet from that position. It was a good finish.
Anybody remember that comic where the goalie was the star of the team much like "Roy" of the Rovers? Maybe it was their keeper? Anyway, in the cartoon the keeper made blinding saves of course to win games and save situations but his attitude was the if the save was not possible, then why bother and would be pictured leaning against the post when the ball went in the back of the net? :yawn:

I think the Boro goal was pretty much unstoppable from where it dropped to the guys foot and where DDG had been standing. The effort DDG made with his right boot was as close as any keeper could have got ... but leaning against the post wasn't an option.
 
West Ham 0:2 Man Utd

calodo2003

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One of the two talking heads on NBCSN exclaimed after DDG's save with his top (right) hand that 'you know, when you see goalkeepers going with their top hand are struggling a little bit.' Absolute, absurd bullshit.


That type of save (due to shot location) is made more comfortably with the top hand, the goalkeeper still retains the ability to have power in the parry/block with the top hand (pushing it wide enough that it comfortably goes around the post) vs. a static, fully extended bottom hand that has very little to no ability to create parry hand force behind it. Not to mention the reach with the top hand is far greater on shots like that.

His 250th. match with United today, time sure has flown by.
 
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calodo2003

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Can be hard to judge how good some of his saves are because he makes worldies look comfortable stops.
And he always does it in a very calm, relaxed manner, completely assured by his ability to make any save.
 

The Stain

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Gave MOTM to Rashford but was close to giving it to our legend of a keeper. Lanzini one you'd expect him to save but the Antonio one was absolutely match winning no matter if the finish was poor.
 
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