David De Gea Appreciation Thread

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Our second greatest keeper after Schmeichel and the only truly great player we've had post Fergie.
 

MegadrivePerson

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How do you know he can't even get a new club? Back to the topic, it's even better, get him back on short term contract.
Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Chelsea, and Arsenal all changed their goalkeeper this summer and none of them were interested in De Gea, even on a free!

If he's holding out for an offer for a big European club, who exactly is he holding out for?

The reality is that in 2023, the best offer he is going to get is somewhere like Real Betis. He's just not a very good option anymore.
 

El Zoido

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Horseshit. Onana hasn’t yet racked up as many howlers as De Gea did in last season alone.
Rose tinted glasses with De Gea. Was it Ole’s last full season where he made a monumental howler in 3-4 games in a row towards the end of the season, costing us top four?

Just because Onana has been a disaster doesn’t mean we didn’t make the right decision in releasing De Gea.
 

Pogue Mahone

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That is simply not true. Not to mention cost of those mistakes.
The cost of the mistakes is irrelevant to the number of the mistakes.


Short memories on here.

EDIT: Although, to be fair, Onana probably has matched DDG's really bad howler number for last season already. Just hasn't surpassed it.
 
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Hughie77

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You got the Onana lovers and DDG dislikes.. the Negative DDG ones throw up his howlers and Stats.. I'm in the camp of the ones he has saved ...I'm sure last night DDG saves the 2 Freekicks and maybe that shot at Near post although good strike..

That matters for nothing as we've got this keeper .. and he's made Errors of the highest in CL.. bar 1 game.. when he saved pen... Howlers he's made what was his thinking for the 2nd freekick goal?? .

He's here to stay until there is a change in managment imo ..
 

Ishdalar

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The cost of the mistakes is irrelevant to the number of the mistakes.


Short memories on here.

EDIT: Although, to be fair, Onana probably has matched DDG's really bad howler number for last season already. Just hasn't surpassed it.
That video has more great saves than mistakes in it? And even punting a ball to the other half of the pitch is set as a "mistake".

Then there's 2 blunders playing the ball (similar to the two Alisson, world class ball playing GK, had this same weekend), a bad control and 3 howlers, two of which come from balls that come at ground level while bouncing.

I wouldn't like De Gea playing for my club (Barcelona) or NT (Spain), but that video doesn't really help Onana's case, he has a worse compilation in just 2 UCL games this season.
 

Pogue Mahone

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That video has more great saves than mistakes in it? And even punting a ball to the other half of the pitch is set as a "mistake".

Then there's 2 blunders playing the ball (similar to the two Alisson, world class ball playing GK, had this same weekend), a bad control and 3 howlers, two of which come from balls that come at ground level while bouncing.

I wouldn't like De Gea playing for my club (Barcelona) or NT (Spain), but that video doesn't really help Onana's case, he has a worse compilation in just 2 UCL games this season.
Four howlers. The same number as Onana so far this season.

I was responding to someone who said DDG would need to play for four years to equal Onana's howlers this season. And I'm fairly sure DDG was even worse the season before last.

 

El Zoido

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You got the Onana lovers and DDG dislikes.. the Negative DDG ones throw up his howlers and Stats.. I'm in the camp of the ones he has saved ...I'm sure last night DDG saves the 2 Freekicks and maybe that shot at Near post although good strike..

That matters for nothing as we've got this keeper .. and he's made Errors of the highest in CL.. bar 1 game.. when he saved pen... Howlers he's made what was his thinking for the 2nd freekick goal?? .

He's here to stay until there is a change in managment imo ..
I think it’s more that you have people that understand we needed to upgrade on De Gea, and just because Onana is bad doesn’t mean De Gea should’ve stayed. We’ve chosen poorly in replacing him though.
 

afrocentricity

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Horseshit. Onana hasn’t yet racked up as many howlers as De Gea did in last season alone.
Of course your banging this drum you were one of the most vocal about DDG. I recall you thought it would be easy to replace him..... Yeah, about that
 

G3079

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Why do people keep saying the fact DDG is without a club means he's finished? Maybe it means he's taking a break after being over a decade at United?
Haven't we been through this a hundred times already when discussing de Gea? He's not getting younger or better, a sabbatical where the only training he gets is whatever he himself decides to give himself and him getting zero games during the time will only exacerbate that. The last transfer window was one of the most busy ones on the goalkeeping position in years with many big clubs rotating keepers in and out, yet he was never even in the running for any of them.
From a human perspective, I'd get it if he wanted some time off, maybe wanting to focus on being a dad and husband for a bit. But from a practical and professional standpoint, following that desire essentially amounts to career suicide. And I do not have de Gea pegged as being dumb enough intentionally do that, unless he has decided he is done in general. He certainly could afford it to retire with how United has been stuffing his pockets the past years.
The problem was refusing to renew De Gea when he had already a contract presented on lower wages, while also signing only Onana as first team quality goalkeeper, the competition between both of them could elevate their level, nevermind that now Onana could leave for AFCON in the middle of the season.
Those "lower wages" in the offer that the club rescinded were still absolutely monstrous for a keeper if the rumoured 200-250k per week are to be believed and would have seen him still being well clear of any other EPL goalkeeper and somewhere in the middle of top ten of goalkeepers worldwide. And you wanted to pay him that when he wasn't even going to be kept on as the planned #1? You cannot be serious. Even if both keepers were fine with the situation you picture - something which I'd argue is rather doubtful - this would have been a woeful decision both financially and in terms of personnel management.

Do not get me wrong - I am certainly not saying that Onana is going to be the answer to Uniteds goalkeeper question. He could be, if he manages to get a grip on his slip-ups, but so far that does not seem very likely. De Gea however certainly isn't the answer either. All personal preferences, biases and youtube compilations aside, the statistics do not lie. De Gea was at best an average EPL keeper in recent times, and that is just not good enough for United's aspirations. Onana is, statistically, quite an improvement on him, even if he still isn't where United would want their keeper to be.
David's time was well and truly over, rightfully so, and all nostalgia is not going to change that.
 

Lyng

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Horseshit. Onana hasn’t yet racked up as many howlers as De Gea did in last season alone.
Onana has done about as many now as De Gea did last season. Problem is, the season isnt over. I am one of those who believe it was time to move on from De Gea, but Onana has been shocking in the Champions League. He is the main reason that we are not qualifying from this group.
 

horsechoker

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I think De Gea's mistakes generally came when the team was doing alright. Onana is making mistakes at a very turbulent time for the team and it's magnifying our woes even more.
 

Pogue Mahone

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Of course your banging this drum you were one of the most vocal about DDG. I recall you thought it would be easy to replace him..... Yeah, about that
It would have been easy to replace him. As I said, there's a whole bunch of keepers that changed club this summer that a) were better than De Gea of the last few seasons (low bar) and b) haven't racked up as many mistakes as Onana has so far this season. Most of them cost a fraction of the fee we spent on Onana too. Spurs managed to upgrade Lloris without any drama. We could obviously have done the same with DDG.

Plus it's still possible that Onana might come good. It was only this weekend when the mood about him was turning and we thought that maybe we'd signed a good keeper after all. Yet here we all are, catastrophising after his very next performance. Don't you usually look down your nose at people who do that?
 

Andycoleno9

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It is pretty simple really; main question is where United would be right now if we kept Dave? We would be in knockout stage of CL for sure and probably had a point or two more in PL.
 

SouthMancRed

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Was he declining. Yes. Was he as bad as being made out. No, but the Dave Hate Cult is as strong as the Ronaldo and Messi fan boy cults. It's quite unreal and very sad to see.
 

Alex99

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De Gea should rightly be seen as one of our best ever goalkeepers, but the time was right for him to go.

Getting the replacement wrong isn't an argument for keeping him. It's an argument for finding a new replacement.
 

RedRocket9908

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Onana has done about as many now as De Gea did last season. Problem is, the season isnt over. I am one of those who believe it was time to move on from De Gea, but Onana has been shocking in the Champions League. He is the main reason that we are not qualifying from this group.
Onana's penalty save against Copenhagen is the only reason we havent been eliminated yet, its not his fault that we have given a penalty away in almost every one of our group games and had players sent off in 2 of them with both red cards costing us the games they came in.
 

lex talionis

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We have to accept that we’re stuck with Onana, man who was supposed to deliver a “transformation” to our attack.
 

Alex99

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Onana's penalty save against Copenhagen is the only reason we havent been eliminated yet, its not his fault that we have given a penalty away in almost every one of our group games and had players sent off in 2 of them with both red cards costing us the games they came in.
Onana has cost us far more than he's saved us in the CL.
 

RedRocket9908

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Onana has cost us far more than he's saved us in the CL.
Yet he is the only reason we are still in it.

A combination of injuries, red cards, and penalties have cost us in the Champions League none of which was down to Onana plus there have also been some really poor decisions against us like the foul on Pellistri as he was about to tap in to the net against Bayern that should have been a pen and red card and the Copenhagen goal that should have been ruled out for offside.
 

saivet

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De Gea had several games like Onana did last night over his last 3-4 years.
I don't disagree but the volume of Onana's mistakes, particularly in the CL this season.

Sane's goal
His mistake which led to Casemiro's red card at home to Gala
Bizarre goalkeeping for Icardi's winner at OT
Two FK's last night vs Gala

Maybe not stinkers, but I could even add in strange goalkeeping for Zaha's goal and OT and question his positioning for the 3rd goal last night. There are probably other goals too where, you would expect a top keeper to do better.

DDG had his faults and had to go but we're not even half way through the season and it feels like Onana could have a compilation of mistakes either leading to goals, chances or getting away with unorthodox saves.
 

Alex99

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Yet he is the only reason we are still in it.

A combination of injuries, red cards, and penalties have cost us in the Champions League none of which was down to Onana plus there have also been some really poor decisions against us like the foul on Pellistri as he was about to tap in to the net against Bayern that should have been a pen and red card and the Copenhagen goal that should have been ruled out for offside.
If we're boiling things down to individual moments, then he's clearly not the only reason we're still in it. The penalty save only kept us in the lead because we'd scored a goal to take that lead. It holds at least equal weight, if not more in keeping us in contention. The same goes for the three goals we scored last night.

Without Onana shipping three very saveable goals last night, we'd have walked that game and be sitting nicely in second.

He also directly contributed to Casemiro's red and was almost useless for Galatasaray's winner in the reverse fixture.

It's insane to suggest he's the only reason we're still in the competition because among a sea of costly errors he's done one good thing.
 

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He's getting way too much of a leash which seems common for ETH to do for his Ajax mates while none have really performed well enough.

Let the new backup get a game and see how he is - even just to show he needs to get it together.
 

Andycoleno9

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Onana's penalty save against Copenhagen is the only reason we havent been eliminated yet, its not his fault that we have given a penalty away in almost every one of our group games and had players sent off in 2 of them with both red cards costing us the games they came in.
This must be a joke post, right? Onana's huge mistake was the reason why Casemiro got a red. Onana's two huge mistakes were the reason why we bottled two goals lead twice against Galatasaray. Onana's huge mistake was the reason why Bayern got into the game quickly after our lead.
And we are only talking now about big mistakes. We are not talking about soft goals which he conceded and who were very savable. I mean, for 50 mil you would expect some top class saves from your gk, right?

It sounds like hyperbole but i really can't remember when one player managed to single handedly kick his squad out of one competition like Onana did this year.
 

RedDevil@84

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This must be a joke post, right? Onana's huge mistake was the reason why Casemiro got a red. Onana's two huge mistakes were the reason why we bottled two goals lead twice against Galatasaray. Onana's huge mistake was the reason why Bayern got into the game quickly after our lead.
And we are only talking now about big mistakes. We are not talking about soft goals which he conceded and who were very savable. I mean, for 50 mil you would expect some top class saves from your gk, right?

It sounds like hyperbole but i really can't remember when one player managed to single handedly kick his squad out of one competition like Onana did this year.
Pretty much this. He is just an average keeper with ridiculous transfer price and a 120K salary.