Dean Henderson has to be our #1 next season? Poll added

Who should be our first choice GK next season?


  • Total voters
    1,489

jeff_goldblum

Full Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2011
Messages
3,917
Goalkeepers have strengths, weaknesses and styles of play like any other player and a keeper who would be excellent in one team mightn't suit another. The question with De Gea isn't whether he's 'better' than Henderson per se, it's what he's better at, what he's worse at and how that fits into how we set up.

De Gea's major weakness is his passivity - he reacts to events as they happen rather than seeking to dictate them. In situations where many keepers would challenge for a ball or rush out to stop a shot or put pressure on a striker, De Gea sticks to his line and backs himself to make a reaction save when the shot comes. Unfortunately that means he abdicates responsibility for a lot of the stuff you'd generally take for granted from a keeper, and the centrebacks have to work harder (and put themselves in uncomfortable situations) to pick up the slack.

In a team who set out to defend deep with tall, strong centrebacks, shotstopping is the main thing you're looking for in a keeper. In this team, which sets out with a high line and for whom quality on the ball is as important for a centreback as their defensive abilities (Smalling remains probably our best pure defender and he's out on loan whilst Lindelof starts), a keeper who can dominate his area and cover behind the back-4 is more of an asset. Those who have watched Henderson a lot this season will be in a better place than me to judge whether he fits that bill. I imagine given the differences in style of play between us and Sheffield United that it's hard to tell.
 
Last edited:

Sylar

Full Member
Joined
May 15, 2007
Messages
40,254
He should be sent on loan for one more season imo.
We should give DDG time off now and just play Romero for Europa, even if we make final. Let DDG sit it out, get rest, *unless theres a big injury* and refresh himself.

Then evaluate after that (next season).
 

lysglimt

Full Member
Scout
Joined
Jun 1, 2008
Messages
15,100
Out of curiosity - Chelsea offers us £55 million for Henderson - and we feel we can get Chelsea up to £65-70 million if we want to sell. Who would sell ? I have to be honest - I am not convinced by Henderson - yes he has looked really good in most matches, and he has had fewer huge mistakes than DDG - but there have been several goals where I felt DDG would have saved it.

And right now I feel we need the extra Money more than Henderson on loan to Sheffield United. And if DDG fails Another season - I just feel we can find an equally good keeper for the same amount of Money we get from Chelsea. Henderson alone could Finance one of the players we need.

But at the same time - Henderson could develop into a World-class keeper - so it's a tough choice
 

matsdf

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Dec 6, 2017
Messages
596
I think Ole will let them battle it out next season, which to me makes sense. If you got two great goalkeepers, let them go up against each other.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

New Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2018
Messages
13,127
Supports
Erik ten Hag
Before that FA cup semi, I was still one of them who thinks that Dean needs to go on loan again. One full season in top league isn't enough. He needs more, the pressure to be keeper in club like United is different.

However, DDG situation is too complicated. He's been making too many obvious errors in for 2 seasons in a row, and that FA Cup semi final is the point where we need to do something about DDG. I think the most realistic thing to do is to keep Dean as no 2 as a competition to push DDG back to his world class form again. Dean can take the cups & CL matches while DDG takes the league. If one of them is not performing then Ole has a good reason to make the obvious decision.
 

hmchan

Full Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2017
Messages
1,429
Location
Hong Kong
Can't find a reason to replace one good shot stopper who is average in kicking and prefers stay on the line with another keeper who has the same strengths and weeknesses.

Henderson is young, looks confident and likely will improve, but I still think that experienced all-round goalie would suit our current backline much better than another high level pure shot stopper.
Funny to see this after Henderson winning a header against Giroud.
 

hmchan

Full Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2017
Messages
1,429
Location
Hong Kong
Before that FA cup semi, I was still one of them who thinks that Dean needs to go on loan again. One full season in top league isn't enough. He needs more, the pressure to be keeper in club like United is different.

However, DDG situation is too complicated. He's been making too many obvious errors in for 2 seasons in a row, and that FA Cup semi final is the point where we need to do something about DDG. I think the most realistic thing to do is to keep Dean as no 2 as a competition to push DDG back to his world class form again. Dean can take the cups & CL matches while DDG takes the league. If one of them is not performing then Ole has a good reason to make the obvious decision.
I don't understand why de Gea and Henderson have to be in the same team to compete. To me the competition has already been on since the start of the season, and Ole has had plenty of good reasons to make the obvious decision already.
 

Infestissumam

Full Member
Joined
May 18, 2017
Messages
2,299
Location
Austria
still think the best course of action is to improve his wages and send him back to Sheffield for one more season. I have little doubt that he can be our number 1 for years to come, but I don't think another year at Sheffield will do him any harm, and a situation where he's the undisputed number 1 might be better for him at this stage. De Gea has made some worrying mistakes this season, there's absolutely no doubt about that. But I think he also deserves the chance to redeem himself next season, and it's obvious that Ole still trusts him. This is not a Kepa situation ... Ole has a top alternative in Romero, and he still decided to stick with De Gea. I don't think Henderson will gain anything from being on the bench.
 

matsdf

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Dec 6, 2017
Messages
596
I don't understand why de Gea and Henderson have to be in the same team to compete. To me the competition has already been on since the start of the season, and Ole has had plenty of good reasons to make the obvious decision already.
Playing for Sheffield United is something completely different than playing for Manchester United, I'd say especially for a goalkeeper. The scrutiny you get playing for us is not really comparable to what Henderson has faced this far.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

New Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2018
Messages
13,127
Supports
Erik ten Hag
I don't understand why de Gea and Henderson have to be in the same team to compete. To me the competition has already been on since the start of the season, and Ole has had plenty of good reasons to make the obvious decision already.
The first paragraph of my original post basically clear enough to tell you why.
 

MyOnlySolskjaer

Creator of Player Performance threads
Joined
Nov 27, 2014
Messages
26,843
Location
Player Performance Threads
still think the best course of action is to improve his wages and send him back to Sheffield for one more season. I have little doubt that he can be our number 1 for years to come, but I don't think another year at Sheffield will do him any harm, and a situation where he's the undisputed number 1 might be better for him at this stage. De Gea has made some worrying mistakes this season, there's absolutely no doubt about that. But I think he also deserves the chance to redeem himself next season, and it's obvious that Ole still trusts him. This is not a Kepa situation ... Ole has a top alternative in Romero, and he still decided to stick with De Gea. I don't think Henderson will gain anything from being on the bench.
There's no benefit, the only thing that will happen is we'll be giving a declining goalkeeper another year. Every loan spell we've sent Dean Henderson on there's been the chance for him to progress. League 2 and 1 with Grimsby and Shrewsbury, the Championship and Premier League with Sheffield. He helped Sheffield to challenge for a European spot. Sheffield in fairness have hit a brickwall in terms of how far they can compete, they can't battle with Liverpool, City, United, Chelsea, Spurs and Wolves financially.

There's not much more he can do at this point, we can't loan him to another Top 6 club as they could just buy a goalkeeper and funnily enough Chelsea are reportedly trying to buy him. There's really not much more we can ask from him, he's passed all the tests given to him. Our current goalkeeper has been in decline since the 2018 World Cup. It really shouldn't be a discussion at this stage, it's not as if he doesn't want to play for us. He grew up in the academy and has all the attributes to be the starting goalkeeper for England. His personality is definitely fitting for us, he's been a leader at every club and is very vocal the same way Bruno, Maguire have been in their clubs.
 

Matriac

Full Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2020
Messages
1,478
Out of curiosity - Chelsea offers us £55 million for Henderson - and we feel we can get Chelsea up to £65-70 million if we want to sell. Who would sell ? I have to be honest - I am not convinced by Henderson - yes he has looked really good in most matches, and he has had fewer huge mistakes than DDG - but there have been several goals where I felt DDG would have saved it.

And right now I feel we need the extra Money more than Henderson on loan to Sheffield United. And if DDG fails Another season - I just feel we can find an equally good keeper for the same amount of Money we get from Chelsea. Henderson alone could Finance one of the players we need.

But at the same time - Henderson could develop into a World-class keeper - so it's a tough choice

I've been thinking more about this myself after their interest was first reported a while back.

Dean makes mistakes as well, as seen in his last match on Sunday. I don't yet see him to be a real upgrade on De Gea. And in fact we have no guarantee he ever will be on David's prime level.

David will be 30 in November, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect him to be able to deliver on a good level for at least 2 more seasons. Maybe even more.

If we could get £60m+ to reinvest in a player that could play and contribute for us right now for those two seasons, then I think we have to seriously consider the option to help boost our rebuilding phase.

As long as we also plan to spend a similar amount on a keeper in 2-3 years. (Unless Kovář or Bishop really kicks on in those years.)
 

gajender

Full Member
Joined
May 7, 2016
Messages
3,786
Out of curiosity - Chelsea offers us £55 million for Henderson - and we feel we can get Chelsea up to £65-70 million if we want to sell. Who would sell ? I have to be honest - I am not convinced by Henderson - yes he has looked really good in most matches, and he has had fewer huge mistakes than DDG - but there have been several goals where I felt DDG would have saved it.

And right now I feel we need the extra Money more than Henderson on loan to Sheffield United. And if DDG fails Another season - I just feel we can find an equally good keeper for the same amount of Money we get from Chelsea. Henderson alone could Finance one of the players we need.

But at the same time - Henderson could develop into a World-class keeper - so it's a tough choice
I think if Chelsea offer 55m we should take it and run, Henderson has same issues as De Gea and he isn't a Modern keeper who would elevate our team further . Only thing is he is young and maybe can improve on his weaknesses.
 

Mickeza

still gets no respect
Joined
Aug 21, 2012
Messages
13,978
Location
Deepthroating information to Howard Nurse.
It’s a really tricky one because I’m not convinced Henderson is good enough, he’s made a fair few errors this season himself and he isn’t great from what I’ve seen distribution wise - if ultimately he isn’t good enough then De Gea’s form is irrelevant. If Chelsea did offer something crazy like 60m+ you’d have to seriously consider accepting it. Adding that money to what else we may bring in from outgoings in addition to our current budget would give us a very large kitty in a post-COVID world...we could get some serious quality with that money. On other hand if De Gea has another poor season and Henderson was great at Chelsea then we’d look pretty stupid selling him. Very tough decision to be made.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

New Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2018
Messages
13,127
Supports
Erik ten Hag
So the pressure playing against Tranmere or Rochale in cup games for United is larger than a full season with Sheffield?
I know you are having problem of reading but at least try to understand here.

DDG is playing with Manchester United, a club that has big expectation. Dean Henderson is playing with Sheffield United for just one season in PL, a club that has far less expectation and that's not enough for a manager to come into decision that Dean will be United no 1 from the start of the season. If DDG started making mistakes after mistakes again next season then that's when Dean will get his chance to take his no 1 spot, but right now DDG is still more proven to be United goalkeeper. Get it now?
 

Neil_Buchanan

Cock'd
Joined
Nov 18, 2006
Messages
3,534
Location
Bolton
Absolutely no chance we sell him anytime soon. We believe he is a future first team player, in good form with great potential to improve plus he is hungry to play for our club. We don’t sell players like that, this isn’t a computer game.
The only question is whether we loan him out again or bring him back to challenge an out of form De Gea.
 

Rolaholic

Full Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2016
Messages
11,146

Willing to make him one of the highest paid keepers in the world despite not being the starter? He must be getting assurances about being the next number 1 whenever Dave gets phased out surely
 

Man of Leisure

Threatened by women who like sex.
Joined
Mar 14, 2014
Messages
13,858
Location
One Big Holiday

Willing to make him one of the highest paid keepers in the world despite not being the starter? He must be getting assurances about being the next number 1 whenever Dave gets phased out surely
Hmm... not sure how I feel about this. While I'd like to see him compete with De Gea as our #1, we've got a seriously bad history of overpaying players.
 

Jibbs

New Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2013
Messages
2,238
This may sound absurd but I will sell Henderson for 70, 80 million to Chelsea. Then go on and buy Luis Maximiano for around 35 m from Sporting and loan him back for one more year. Will use De Gea for one more year and then try to sell him for 20 to 30m next year. Things will be back to normal by next year and there might be a market for de gea then.
I say that for two reasons. If we loan Henderson back, we can literally say him goodbye. He will try to find his way out from United. If we bring him in and send de gea on the bench, we are looking at Bale like situation where de gea will be relaxing on the bench every week, watching his account swell without moving his feet.
In current market and his current form, it will be very hard to find a buyer for him even at 15 20 million.
 
Last edited:

el3mel

Full Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2016
Messages
43,735
Location
Egypt
This may sound absurd but I will sell Henderson for 70, 80 million to Chelsea. Then go on and buy Luis Maximiano for around 35 m from Sporting amd loan him back for one more year. Will use De Gea for one more year and then try to sell him for 20 to 30 next year. Things will be back to normal by next year and there might be a market for de gea then.
I say that for two reasons. If we loan Henderson back, we can literally say him goodbye. He will try to find his way out from United. If we bring him in and send de gea on the bench, we are looking at Bale like situation where de gea will be relaxing on the bench every week with his account swelling without moving feet.
In current market and his current form, it will be very hard to find a buyer for him even at 15 20 million.
Why sell him to a rival that might actually end up solving one of their big problems ?
 

Jibbs

New Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2013
Messages
2,238
Why sell him to a rival that might actually end up solving one of their big problems ?
Happens all the time in Serie A. They will buy a goalie anyways. But this way we could solve our own problem and it gives us a hefty cheque too.
 

2cents

Historiographer, and obtainer of rare antiquities
Scout
Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
16,172
Surprised to see “Bring someone new in” polling so low. I presume this is primarily because people believe we’ve bigger priorities in other areas?

I’m not sure I agree. Like all of us who lived through it, I’m still a bit haunted by the years spent fecking around with Bosnich, Van Der Gouw, Taibi, Barthez, Ricardo, Goram, Howard and Carroll. It’s a position where the risk of failure needs to be minimized as much as possible, and there seem to be far too many doubts surrounding Henderson.
 

el3mel

Full Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2016
Messages
43,735
Location
Egypt
Happens all the time in Serie A. They will buy a goalie anyways. But this way we could solve our own problem and it gives us a hefty cheque too.
Don't know. I will just not like us to be the main way they solved one of their biggest problem recently. :lol:
 

edcunited1878

Full Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2014
Messages
8,935
Location
San Diego, CA
This may sound absurd but I will sell Henderson for 70, 80 million to Chelsea. Then go on and buy Luis Maximiano for around 35 m from Sporting and loan him back for one more year. Will use De Gea for one more year and then try to sell him for 20 to 30m next year. Things will be back to normal by next year and there might be a market for de gea then.
I say that for two reasons. If we loan Henderson back, we can literally say him goodbye. He will try to find his way out from United. If we bring him in and send de gea on the bench, we are looking at Bale like situation where de gea will be relaxing on the bench every week with his account swelling without moving feet.
In current market and his current form, it will be very hard to find a buyer for him even at 15 20 million.
You're completely wrong. Henderson has everything to give back to United as they have helped developed him and given him a path to succeed with the ultimate goal of being United's number 1 and probably England's number 1. United haven't had a homegrown number 1 in many, many decades. They will give him his deserved chance. United will not sell him and Henderson will not leave United as his path to the number 1 less than two years away. He has a lot to improve upon from his first year in the PL.
 

suheilsworld

Full Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2008
Messages
3,418
Location
Abu Dhabi, UAE
I would want to keep DDG and Romero for one more season. Still think DDG is class and he'll overcome the patchy form and errors we’ve seen this season.
Would’ve loved Sheffield United to qualify for Europe to see Dean get some experience in Europe. Prefer him being loaned to a team with Europa league or CL fixtures.
 

Jibbs

New Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2013
Messages
2,238
You're completely wrong. Henderson has everything to give back to United as they have helped developed him and given him a path to succeed with the ultimate goal of being United's number 1 and probably England's number 1. United haven't had a homegrown number 1 in many, many decades. They will give him his deserved chance. United will not sell him and Henderson will not leave United as his path to the number 1 less than two years away. He has a lot to improve upon from his first year in the PL.
I totally agree with you and this is the ideal scenario, but De Gea and the his hefty contract will make this transition a tad bit difficult.
 

edcunited1878

Full Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2014
Messages
8,935
Location
San Diego, CA
I totally agree with you and this is the ideal scenario, but De Gea and the his hefty contract will make this transition a tad bit difficult.
It's pretty straightforward. Henderson is at the club until at least June 2022 with an option to extend through June 2023. Ddg's contract ends June 2023, but an option until 2024.

The club will not resign DDG anywhere near his current wage and will appoint Henderson first choice soon, but next season is too soon.

The club and Ole have to have a clear succession plan regardless of manager and it should be this.

The 20/21 PL season is the last season for DDG as the clear number 1. He plays PL and CL. Henderson goes back on loan to Sheffield and gets another year of PL experience and his focus is improving to the point of ascending to England number 1 for Euros. He will have to overtake Pickford and Pope.

Before the 21/22 season, Henderson and DDG will both man United's goal with the intention of DDG grooming Henderson and being his deputy. However, DDG has to buy into this bridge year and that's on Ole and the club have to back this regardless if Ole is still manager or whoever is manager at the time. If DDG wants to leave, give him that opportunity. But if he wants to stick around and share the load with Henderson and slowly step aside, then credit to him. But I think DDG would leave first chance he can to go back to Spain or be number 1 somewhere else at a good level.

Henderson is the future and he's earned the right to have the first legitimate crack after DDG. But he might need a bedding in period or at least be ahead of a reliable, veteran backup like Tim Krul or the like.
 

manutddjw

Full Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2010
Messages
3,695
Location
Canada
From what I’ve seen so far, I’m not sure Henderson is the one either. He looks a solid a Premier League keeper and that’s it. There’s a difference between the 2. Tim Howard is a good example. Very good for Everton but a team chasing trophies would want someone better.

We should definitely give him a chance once we give up on De Gea, I’m just not convinced he’s the answer.
 

liamp

Full Member
Joined
Nov 27, 2015
Messages
1,203

Willing to make him one of the highest paid keepers in the world despite not being the starter? He must be getting assurances about being the next number 1 whenever Dave gets phased out surely
Understanding this is just a rumor, but if true then I just give up even trying to understand this club's decision-making process with contracts.
 

Sad Chris

New Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2014
Messages
1,641
If we leave the homegrown factor aside and the fact that he is still our player, would we buy him?

I don‘t think so. He isn‘t a clear upgrade with the ball at his feet. His shot stopping isn‘t as good as DDG‘s has been over his career. Even if DDG has peaked, shouldn‘t we be looking for a keeper with the ideal qualities for our mostly high press.

He is clearly one of the best English keepers for the future, but is that enough for us going forward?
 

roonster09

Hercule Poirot of the scouting world
Scout
Joined
May 10, 2009
Messages
36,514

Willing to make him one of the highest paid keepers in the world despite not being the starter? He must be getting assurances about being the next number 1 whenever Dave gets phased out surely
That would be such a dumb move.
 

SteveW

Full Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2013
Messages
7,194
This may sound absurd but I will sell Henderson for 70, 80 million to Chelsea. Then go on and buy Luis Maximiano for around 35 m from Sporting and loan him back for one more year. Will use De Gea for one more year and then try to sell him for 20 to 30m next year. Things will be back to normal by next year and there might be a market for de gea then.
I say that for two reasons. If we loan Henderson back, we can literally say him goodbye. He will try to find his way out from United. If we bring him in and send de gea on the bench, we are looking at Bale like situation where de gea will be relaxing on the bench every week, watching his account swell without moving his feet.
In current market and his current form, it will be very hard to find a buyer for him even at 15 20 million.
So we should solve Chelseas goalkeeping mess to make sure we can get a fee for De Gea? Not sure I can get on board with this thinking.
 

Jibbs

New Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2013
Messages
2,238
So we should solve Chelseas goalkeeping mess to make sure we can get a fee for De Gea? Not sure I can get on board with this thinking.
The thinking is we can not afford to send Henderson on loan for another year, he will be very hard to convince, especially with other big clubs sniffing around. But if we bring him back and relegate De Gea to the bench, we are giving De Gea 375k a week just to be a bench warmer and reducing his worth even further in transfer market.
If Chelsea pays us around 70m for Henderson, we not only can reinvest this amount in the team but also can give de gea another year to bounce back with confidence. Meanwhile buy a solid young keeper like Luís Maximiano for 30 35 million and loan out for an year.
If de gea regains his form, keep him for another year otherwise sell him for 20 30 m.
 

SteveW

Full Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2013
Messages
7,194
David should be moved on if somebody will take him. If not he should be loaned or benched. Whilst many have tried to suggest his problems stem from complacency there's just way too much evidence that his nerves are gone. He's knocked us out of Europe twice (Barca and Sevilla) cost us in the Cup Semi Final (Chelsea) and cost us a place in the CL (last season) and fell to pieces for Spain in the WC (Ronaldo goal and pretty sure he left in almost every shot he faced over the 3 games) He even almost fumbled a simple save to Vardy's feet at the weekend. That's not even taking into account all the daft mistakes throughout the season such as Everton, Watford and all the times he's been easily beaten at his near post.

If he had other great qualities like organsing his defenders, coming for crosses or being great with his feet there could be some argument made for him but he doesn't. So I'm not sure what we're still doing here. I like David as much as anyone. He's been wonderful and I never thought it would come to this. But he's a goalkeeper. They need to be highly confident and reliable. We all remember the chaotic few years before we signed Van Der Sar. We don't need to go through that again.

This summer all our cash will go on needed outfield players so we can't buy a keeper. So give it to Henderson a season. I'm not sure if Henderson is good enough to be our long term number 1 but he doesn't have the mental scarring David clearly has. If he rises to it, great. If not, we can put Romero in and we will have money available next summer to sign someone.
 
Last edited:

SteveW

Full Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2013
Messages
7,194
The thinking is we can not afford to send Henderson on loan for another year, he will be very hard to convince, especially with other big clubs sniffing around. But if we bring him back and relegate De Gea to the bench, we are giving De Gea 375k a week just to be a bench warmer and reducing his worth even further in transfer market.
If Chelsea pays us around 70m for Henderson, we not only can reinvest this amount in the team but also can give de gea another year to bounce back with confidence. Meanwhile buy a solid young keeper like Luís Maximiano for 30 35 million and loan out for an year.
If de gea regains his form, keep him for another year otherwise sell him for 20 30 m.
I've made this point a few times. De Gea has a contract. He will get the 350k whether playing or on the bench. I'd much prefer give it to him to sit on the bench and not cost us points than suffer the double pain of having him cost us games as well. Once he has the contract there's no much we can do. It's essentially sunk costs. Thankfully we will hopefully get numerous high earning fringe players off our books this summer.

With his wages and his decline nobody is going to pay big money for him. The best we can hope for is a Sanchez type scenario where somebody takes him off our hands in the hope that a new environment does him good. If so maybe we can get some sort of fee for him.

I'm also not sure why you're so quick to sell Henderson to a rival. He's performed very well. Can you be sure he's not going to be good enough here? You could be solving Chelsea's goal keeping position for a decade. Why not check is he can do that for us first?
 
Last edited: