He's a top shotstopper, probably the best in the world but the most important attributes for a goalkeeper in a top club is distribution and command of your area. Unfortunately that cost us to much. He needs to be braver and not be glued to his line.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 43
- Clean sheets
- 15
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 2
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
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He reminds me of Smalling a little bit, both players are very good at their respective job description, but these days being a good defender or keeper isn't enough, you have to be able to play with your feet, command your box, have good distribution, etc… and at this point in his career it seems highly unlikely that he'll be able to adapt his game to these demands sadly.
Problems of being a gk or a CB: any error, doesn't matter how small it is, can lead to a certain goal.
This, if Ederson gets caught out doing that I'd forgive it, but De Gea just usually punts it aimlessly anyway.
That was not a small error.
That's fair enough mate. You know I'm not gonna argue with you..
We've got Greenwood and Williams blooded in this season, next season Henderson and Laird should be the two we try to elevate.Williams I'm still not sure on but the other three hopefully can kick on and become United regulars. Laird needs to catch a break from injuries which have set him back.
Is Laird injured right now? I was hoping he might get a game on Thursday. It's also going to be interesting to see what happens with Garner and Levitt.
Its a huge huge decision to be made in the summer by Ole of maybe by a new manager but I think it's getting to the time where Henderson comes into the thinking as number one next season .
Has anyone here seen Henderson playing regularly? What's he like with his feet ? For me this is a huge issue for DDG
Has anyone here seen Henderson playing regularly? What's he like with his feet ? For me this is a huge issue for DDG
Cost us the game today. Inexplicable howler and his distribution was extremely bad.
I think he should be back in training now, but I haven't been following the u23s closely in the last month due to other commitments so could be wrong. But it would be great to see him get a run out on Thursday.
Romero should be given a chance. He's been a loyal no.2 for a long time and would be no.1 GK at most other clubs. De Gea should not be undroppable. No it's not a knee jerk reaction because De Gea made an error against Everton. I've wanted Romero to start in many previous games including against Everton, before he made the error. I don't think De Gea deserves to start based on how he's played over the past year. Romero does.
You have always needed to command your box
Hopefully as I feel AWB needs a rest and Dalot really hasn't grabbed any of the chances he's gotten this season.
There is so much needed to be a top keeper these days and De Gea only has one skill-set around world class level. Shot-stopping and even that is nowhere near what it once was.
Communication: Atrocious.
Command of the box: Non-existant.
Passing: Shambolic. I really wouldn't be surprised if he is worst in the league for long passes.
And a piss-weak mentality that saw him stripped of the captaincy in a matter of weeks.
Communication: Atrocious.
Command of the box: Non-existant.
Passing: Shambolic. I really wouldn't be surprised if he is worst in the league for long passes.
And a piss-weak mentality that saw him stripped of the captaincy in a matter of weeks.
"He's still the best in the world."
Romero has the same amount of clean sheets this season as De Gea has. In 19 less apperances.
This nonsense again. Remind me again the teams Romero has played against?
Romero will ship double the goals if he was our number one. Today only De Gea made two world class save which I don't think Romero would have made.
He is having an average season, but this notion that he should not be our number 1 is not correct.
Didn't said it was. Just pointing that playing as a GK or CB requires players who take intelligent decisions. Unfortunately Dave seems to be only good at guessing the shot trajectory, but pretty much bellow average playing off the line.
There is no data to support your claim.
Years ago, when Romero was at Sampdoria, his save percentage in Serie A was 71%. In the PL for United (7 starts 2 goals conceded), it is 91%. In the Europa League and CL for United it is 82%.
De Gea at his peak in the PL when we finished 2nd under Mourinho was 80%, in his early Ferguson years 77% - 78%, then 69% to 72% in Moyes/LVG/Mourinho year 1. Last 2 years 68% and 69%. In the EL and CL since joining United 72%.
So even if you take De Gea's best season, then compare it to Romero at Sampdoria, rather than at United, and ignore the fact that Romero will face slightly fewer shots due to coming for more crosses and acting as a sweeper keeper more often, you are only looking at an extra 45% (29% of shots conceded compared to 20% conceded).
For a like for like comparison, how about Europa League matches played for United. De Gea 6 matches, 7 goals conceded, 25 shots saved. Romero 20 matches, 8 goals conceded, 46 saves. Or domestic Cup games for United, De Gea save percentage 60% in FA Cup, 63% in EFL Cup. Romero 93% in FA Cup, 73% in EFL Cup. In the CL for United, De Gea 43 goals conceded, 113 saves. Romero 4 goals conceded, 10 saves. Including for previous teams, De Gea 72% in CL, 71% in EL. Romero 73% in CL, 78% in EL.
United have conceded 30 goals in the PL this season. The most any team has conceded (Villa) is 52. Of all the keepers with the most appearances in the PL this season for their respective teams, Kepa 54% is the only keeper with a save percentage below 60% (for a keeper to ship double the goals if he was our number one, he would need to have a save percentage of 38%). Pickford is on 61% and Foster 64%. Romero would not need to make many super saves for him to concede fewer than 30 goals in 28 PL games. If you watched the Wolves away FA Cup game, it is quite clear that he is capable of making outstanding saves from time to time.
The main reason why a keeper gets a clean sheet is that he had very little to do in the game. That is as true for De Gea's recent clean sheets against Wolves and Watford, as it is for most of Romero's clean sheets. In the Wolves game De Gea had to make 3 saves, all from a tight angle, one of which was a header. In the Watford game, one shot from Doucore at a slight angle, from just inside the area and one long distance shot from Deulofeu. For his clean sheet at Burnley this season, De Gea needed to save one shot from outside the box from Phil Bardsley. In the home game against Norwich, De Gea needed to make 2 saves from long distance shots and one shot from Todd Cantwell from a slight angle from 13 yards.
In the match we lost 0-1 at Newcastle, De Gea had to save one long distance shot, from an angle, from Sean Longstaff. He was slow to get down to Matty Longstaff's shot that scored. In the home match against Newcastle De Gea made one save from a shot from an angle from Joelinton. In the Palace match, he made one save from Zaha and conceded 2 goals. In the Norwich away game De Gea saved one shot from long distance and one shot from an angle from about 12 yards. At Wolves he had to save one header from 12 yards; not much he could do about their goal. At Southampton he saved one header from an angle; not sure if he could have come for the cross from which they scored, on the replay it looks like too far to get there in time, especially from his starting position. In the defeat at Watford, De Gea saved one shot from long distance and made a shocking error for their first goal.
https://fbref.com/en/players/7ba6d84e/David-de-Gea
https://fbref.com/en/players/1e26e376/Sergio-Romero
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Actually true!
Some short span memory here. The club is in a mess, and, yet, somehow our most consistent player in the last decade is a problem.
Yes, he hasn't been himself for a while now, but even during that period he saved our ass dozens of times.
Imagine you looking numerous defenders making fools of themselves and you have to watch their backs
Yes, he hasn't been himself for a while now, but even during that period he saved our ass dozens of times.
Imagine you looking numerous defenders making fools of themselves and you have to watch their backs
DDG dallying on the ball has been consistent throughout this season. Its not the first time an attacker got dangerously close to him or managed to charge down the goalkick. Sooner or later someone is going to charge him down and get a goal. I can recall a few games where he took some time to dispatch the goalkick and the crowd was jeering him for it. Most of the time he seems either unsure of who to pass or terrified of receiving it back and passing to someone.
Not absolving him of blame but you really got to wonder how much training we did on our build up from the back. Felt almost as if Ole just tells the team he wants short passes from the back without any training.
Not absolving him of blame but you really got to wonder how much training we did on our build up from the back. Felt almost as if Ole just tells the team he wants short passes from the back without any training.
Pretty much, like I said yesterday, it's like our fan base has a memory of a gold fish.
I wonder what Fergie would have said to De Gea at half time if he had done that on his watch.
I know Ole will never criticise his players in public but he does not have to make a fool of himself by saying he is the best GK in the world.
The best in the world would not make that mistake, it is as simple as that.
I know Ole will never criticise his players in public but he does not have to make a fool of himself by saying he is the best GK in the world.
The best in the world would not make that mistake, it is as simple as that.
Does anybody remember when he first signed with us, and he would have good distribution (it was one of his best assets) and he would even do dragbacks to create space to make a good pass.
The odd thing about yesterdays mistake was that his distrbution is so poor that he was going to go and lump it forward anyway, even though there were three options available to him (reverse pass back to Maguire, a pass out wide (think it was Lindelof ) and one into the middle to Mctominay(?). But he was going to lump it forward, which he could have done as soon as he got the pass.
The other thing which he just hasnt improved upon at all, is his command of the box. Its like hes afraid to get hurt even though he will always get protection as a goal keeper. He stands on his line even when the ball is crossed on the six yard line. Meaning our defence has to be very deep.
The odd thing about yesterdays mistake was that his distrbution is so poor that he was going to go and lump it forward anyway, even though there were three options available to him (reverse pass back to Maguire, a pass out wide (think it was Lindelof ) and one into the middle to Mctominay(?). But he was going to lump it forward, which he could have done as soon as he got the pass.
The other thing which he just hasnt improved upon at all, is his command of the box. Its like hes afraid to get hurt even though he will always get protection as a goal keeper. He stands on his line even when the ball is crossed on the six yard line. Meaning our defence has to be very deep.
So what?
Hanging on to players as some kind of reward for what they've done in the past is a big part of the reason we are in our current state. If our coaches think he can rediscover his old form then fine, but if not it's time to look for replacements.
Apples and oranges. De Gea plays against the bigger opponents.
Equally as bad as the goal was the moment when he refused to come off his line to help Maguire and the ball almost went out for a corner. Maguire was screaming for him to move and he just stood there.
Back when there was the wrangle over his contract, I said (very controversially), that I would rather he be sold. My reasoning was that he reminded me of Casillas (and to a lesser extent, Shay Given). Great individual keeper when it comes to stopping shots, but offering little else. Also, I felt troubled by how well he organizes the defensive unit. One of the common themes when defenders spoke about vdS and Big Pete was how well they organized the defence and marshalled them as well as how they commanded the area. Nobody says that about DdG. He's always lauded for being "a fantastic keeper" with the examples then being given of the saves he makes etc. Most excuse him for this on the basis of "he plays behind awful defenders", but listen to some of our ex-players on their podcasts (guys like Pallister, Ronny Johnsen etc.) and you start understanding why those defensive units that played in front of Schmeichel were so good, despite the rotation and changing personnel.
Another issue I had was that as happened with Casillas, reflexes fade with age and these things go fast. It's not a slow decline. With little skill apart from shot-stopping, DdG would, I felt, make increasingly more frequent errors and let in more goals and the impact would be sudden.
Has he "saved our a**" dozens of times? I'd not say "dozens", but yes, he has made some critical saves. Then again, how many of them were "other-worldly" enough to say that no other keeper makes such saves? Not too many, I'd wager. Most good keepers pull off blinders once in a while. DdG used to do that with insane consistency and that's what made him "the best" for most. Now, however, the errors seem more frequent than the "other-worldly" saves.
More importantly, what he did in the past does not have relevance to what we must do to progress. To be the best in the business, you need to be ruthless. Fergie was. Ole will have to be. We are - as a club - carrying a massive wage-bill and this is inhibiting us in the transfer market. We need to shed that and add high quality in multiple areas of the pitch while also adding depth (look at our bench from last night!). If this means our thanking Dave sincerely and wishing him well on the way out, so be it.
Penalty saving - weak
sweeping - mediocre
Howler aside he made a couple of incredible saves that people are forgetting, the Sigurdson one was incredible.
What penalty saving?
Saved 3/22 penalties in the PL - the last of which was in 2014.
Last penalty he saved (all competitions) was in 2016.
Wilder might. Henderson has been part of their team ethic for two years now, arbitrarily bringing in a bigger name mid-season could upset the apple cart when as far as I know the only time Wilder has been left disappointed was the poor mistake versus Liverpool.
I think some went way overboard on De Gea immediately after his error; it would be wrong to jettison him straight away and he deserves more respect from us given his role in fending off complete disaster since Fergie. My discontent is reserved for the club mishandling his contract situation and doing bad business through desperation, meaning we are now overpaying for De Gea's services and may struggle to make a change should we wish to do so.
More damning statistics for DDG
He's lower average in the PL for performance against his xG, which can broadly be interpreted to measure against general shot stopping. I honestly don't know how anyone can think him a top keeper anymore.
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He's lower average in the PL for performance against his xG, which can broadly be interpreted to measure against general shot stopping. I honestly don't know how anyone can think him a top keeper anymore.
Rinse and repeat, I called this exact scenario back in December, and many more times before that (because it's so grimley predictable).
I think it's an absolute no brainer that we should at least experiment with another first choice keeper but it's not going to happen so long as (a) so many of our fans remain in complete denial about this blindingly obvious issue and (b) more importantly, our manager is constantly failing to see what's right in front of him, he's decided De Gea is the best keeper in the world and that's it, there's no changing his mind no matter how badly he plays.
For instance, how can Ole come out and say after the game yesterday that he can only remember De Gea making two mistakes all season, is he even analysing our games then?
I can understand the Fans getting their analysis badly wrong as we all have other things we have to do, but Ole's full time job is to analyse our games and if he genuinely thinks De Gea has only made two mistakes all season then he should be fired for negligence because, as I said, he's clearly not re-watching/analysing our games.
If we don't make a change, then, as I said, we don't deserve to be any higher than mid-table.
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Exactly what I was thinking, you could forgive it a bit more if he was actually attempting something intricate/clever and it went wrong, but this was a basic route one punt up the field to nobody and he still couldn't manage it.
He needs to be told in no uncertain terms that he’s position is not guaranteed, Henderson needs to start challenging him for his position from next season.
He has been on a downward spiral.
His occasional saves do not absolve him for his poor distribution or kicks.
His howlers are far too frequent. You almost expect them now.
He needs to be dropped to give him a good kick up his backside.
I'm sure Keano gave a him a good kick.
His occasional saves do not absolve him for his poor distribution or kicks.
His howlers are far too frequent. You almost expect them now.
He needs to be dropped to give him a good kick up his backside.
I'm sure Keano gave a him a good kick.
I still rate De Gea, but Henderson´s contract expires in May, and if we could get a buyer for De Gea (valued 52m at Transfermarkt), wouldn´t replacing De Gea with Henderson be sensible business? I would rathe have Henderson + a striker, than just De Gea.
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