Cech saved 17/85 penalties faced in his career, so 20%. If you remove his time at Arsenal though, it goes to 16/68, or 23.5%. Think that would place him overall pretty squarely in the average category and not in the poor one, personally. That said, his performance in Munich 2012 was insane and ranks among the best ever for a goalkeeper - shot on target notwithstanding he faced 6 penalties from Bayern, went the right way on every one, and saved 3 of them.
DDG won't save a single pen
- Thread starter ivaldo
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On the whole, David did more good than bad for United. There were plenty of seasons where he saved our skin. He has been off the boil for a couple of seasons and it is time to wave goodbye now.
Would Henderson have saved more penalties tonight?
Yes he would.
Good look David, you were decent once, but not now.
Would Henderson have saved more penalties tonight?
Yes he would.
Good look David, you were decent once, but not now.
You just knew it was going to be a long night after the first pen. His penalty saving tonight was the equivalent of Henderson leaving 3/4 of his goal open against Salah.
I don’t blame Ole for that, you can’t sub off the highest paid keeper in the world for a shootout. Even typing that sentence feels bizarre.
I don’t blame Ole for that, you can’t sub off the highest paid keeper in the world for a shootout. Even typing that sentence feels bizarre.
Two things I would note there:
1) His record early in his career was actually pretty good, so I wonder if he changed technique at some point?
2) Their goalkeeper saved his penalty using that same technique, so luck still plays a massive part.
I bet on Villarreal to lift the trophy at 6/5 in the 119th minute. Knew he wouldn’t get near one.
Yeah I think both excellent points!
Re: the first, not sure - would have to hope someone much smarter than I am goes back and does some sort of analysis. Anecdotally though I do think De Gea has generally been quite lauded for his ability to save with his feet, which usually features a negative step. I wonder if emphasising this aspect of his game has detracted from his ability on PKs?
And I do agree that in some instances a negative step is probably appropriate against a more mediocre taker - but it should be used more selectively (i.e. to ensure you don't dive over the ball as Rulli did on the Shaw PK). I do think that DDG uses this technique pretty consistently and especially against 1st choice takers in matches this is probably a bad idea, as evidenced by his record.
I guess generally I'd say that I reckon De Gea has been unlucky as well as bad on PKs - yes you'd expect that he'd have fluked one over the past few years, but at the same time I don't think he's doing himself any favours with his approach if that makes sense?
Both keepers were almost as bad as each other.
There was quite a few 'unsaveables' for both teams but neither looked confident or had the best dives/judgements. The problem is that De Gea was even worse than their keeper
A more sensible approach would have been starting Hendo IMO. Guy has balls like Big Ben's clapper.
One who primarily played in the walk over games to get such a record!
I think at this point it is psychological for him. His record wasn't that bad at them early in his career but it is becoming worse and worse now the more people talk about it.
Can't comment on the technique side of things, but De Gea has always seemed mentally fragile to me. He's always at his best when reacting instinctively and at his worst when he has time to prepare and has to think about what he's doing. As soon as it went to pens it was obvious he'd not save one and when it his time to take one it was obvious he'd not score - he pysched himself out.
I do feel sorry for de Gea but his failings at pens are well known. I don’t see why Ole could not just have said to the pair when announcing his decision that if the game goes to pens, he would make that sub. It’s ok to put players on for kicks, same should go for the goalie. Sure, if it had all turned out the same people would blame Ole, say that de Gea would have saved one just by the probability of him doing so one day, but you can’t plan for that. You can plan for penalties and a goalkeeper should not be left on for them just cos he played the game to that point — pens are really a new game and the team for it should be picked accordingly.
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And here's the real reason folks. The fact that Tuanzabe and another one of our players had to go up to Dave and give him a pep talk after scoring their penalties says it all. They knew he didn't have it in him to get his shit together and win the mental battle.
His rubbish attempts to put the players off then following it up by diving away from the ball very early each time will stay with me for a long time 
One wonders -- was it simply unfortunate timing that De Gea was playing his best seasons the same time we were playing poorly as a club, or is that he's actually a goalkeeper who performs at his best in these scenarios? The firefighting quadruple saves were his forte, not holding concentration and facing fewer shots on goal in matches we dominated but expected to come alive when needed?
It's interesting watching videos of him from four or five years ago on youtube versus what we see now. He's lost something, I'm not sure if it's explosiveness or athleticism but I think it's pretty evident. I do doubt it's ever coming back though.
I wonder at times if he became too complacent as a top level shot stopper and failed to devote any serious training to the parts of his game in which he's always been lacking. To be fair to him, I doubt the churn of Managers and goalkeeping coaches hasn't helped him develop either.
I wonder at times if he became too complacent as a top level shot stopper and failed to devote any serious training to the parts of his game in which he's always been lacking. To be fair to him, I doubt the churn of Managers and goalkeeping coaches hasn't helped him develop either.
I would imagine there are ways of testing his physical reaction speed, so you'd think the club would know if that was the issue.
From the analysis I've seen, the problem largely seems to be a combination technical inaccuracies that weren't in his came previously, concentration errors and then confidence errors. Which suggests to me your second paragraph might be more accurate. A combination of losing focus, coaches who allowed faults to continue/develop in his game (his penalty technique being the prime example) and then the self-doubt that then naturally comes when things start going wrong on the biggest stage (thinking of that World Cup in particular).
It also looks like as he tries to solve one issue in his game, others appeared. So for example he has largely cut out the concentration errors this season and improved his sweeping but then his shot-stopping seems to have declined. Whereas in prior seasons his shot-stopping was still hitting top heights more regularly but concentration errors were screwing him over.
More so than any physical decline, to me he's looked like someone who is stuck inside his own head over the last few seasons.