No.1 for next season - De Gea or Henderson?

[Leg-End]

I think it’s time Henderson got a decent run to find out what he’s got. I don’t think we should be buying a GK when we have more important areas to be worrying about.

 

[spiriticon]

We're still very much in a tight fight for top 4

We are in a tight fight for top 4 every year. That's the bare minimum pressure that Henderson has to deal with if he wants the shirt.

There's nowhere to hide as a United #1.

 

[Welbeckham]

De Gea is far from good enough. Henderson deserves a chance, but needs competition. Although definitely not from De Gea, whose current contract is one of the daftest decisions the club has made in recent years.

 

[Grylte]

Not a fan of the "If i'm not nr 1 i leave" - attitude.
Fight for the spot, DDG isn't in his best form, so it's just up to him to show he can do better.

 

[Borys]

I honestly think we're playing De Gea to save his market value. We'll be in deep shite if we drop him and nobody wants him this summer.

But from a footballing point of view it makes no sense to keep playing DDG.

 

[Judas]

Not a fan of the "If i'm not nr 1 i leave" - attitude.
Fight for the spot, DDG isn't in his best form, so it's just up to him to show he can do better.

Eh for me if De Gea keeps being poor and Henderson still isn't getting a proper sniff, why should he stick around to "fight" if no matter how the other performs he still keeps his place. It's not a fair fight.

 

[Godfather]

I've had it with De Gea. The amount of times he refused to come off his line yesterday alone... Let Hendo show what he can do. He had one horrible outing so far but looked decent in his other games for us, so why not give him a shot.

 

[RkkMan]

But the manager doesn’t want to give him more of a chance. It’s not like Solskjaer hasn’t shown the balls to drop big name players before. He did it sharply with Lukaku and has dropped Pogba many times. Henderson has started one league game this season and he dropped as big a clanger as De Gea has all season. I don’t really see it in Henderson. The manager doesn’t seem to either.

Its more a case of him being too loyal to some players and De Gea being a club legend. Lukaku wasn`t really a big figure he`s easier to cast out and he`s never dropped Pogba due to him being a serious detriment to the team. He`s yet to really drop Martial or Lindelof and it took a while before he finally cast out Lingard/Pereira completely this is more to do with Ole being too nice rather than Henderson`s ability. You are the one here who doesn`t rate him

 

[Welbeckham]

We're still very much in a tight fight for top 4

And we might as well bottle it again by sticking with De Gea.

 

[Infra-red]

De Gea is finished at the top level.

Henderson should play till the end of the season so we can ascertain whether he's up to it or not. If he's not, they can both leave in the summer, if he is, we just need to dispense with De Gea. Either way, De Gea needs to leave this summer.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

Luckhurst is saying senior United figures believe De Gea should be sold in the summer. There's no way that's happening. We're stuck with him.

 

[sullydnl]

Not a fan of the "If i'm not nr 1 i leave" - attitude.
Fight for the spot, DDG isn't in his best form, so it's just up to him to show he can do better.

Agree with this except I also think Henderson should be getting more game time to actually show he can do better. There's only so much you can prove in training.

 

[MU655]

Not a fan of the "If i'm not nr 1 i leave" - attitude.
Fight for the spot, DDG isn't in his best form, so it's just up to him to show he can do better.

But how long do you let that go on for? De Gea has been in poor form pretty much all season and still hasn't been dropped. It wouldn't give you a whole lot of confidence that you would ever take his place.

It feels like Henderson won't get a proper chance until De Gea is injured. At the moment, I wouldn't be surprised if that seems like the only route to Henderson.

Henderson is barely getting any game time to prove himself, anyway. In the end, it seems like a vicious circle.

 

[Eire Red United]

Deano with Romero as back up. De Gea needs gone.

 

[Djemba-Djemba]

De Gea has been an utter liability for 2 years now.

Henderson for me.

 

[Eire Red United]

Not a fan of the "If i'm not nr 1 i leave" - attitude.
Fight for the spot, DDG isn't in his best form, so it's just up to him to show he can do better.

He has consistently shown he is solid when he has played, De Gea has consistently cost us points this season.

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

Neither, get Donnarumma or Oblak in.

De Gea should be sold. I'd keep Henderson as no.2 if he's happy.

He's not

 

[acnumber9]

Its more a case of him being too loyal to some players and De Gea being a club legend. Lukaku wasn`t really a big figure he`s easier to cast out and he`s never dropped Pogba due to him being a serious detriment to the team. He`s yet to really drop Martial or Lindelof and it took a while before he finally cast out Lingard/Pereira completely this is more to do with Ole being too nice rather than Henderson`s ability. You are the one here who doesn`t rate him

He dropped Pogba after the Spurs game and wouldn’t play him in central midfield again for ages. If he rated Henderson above De Gea, he’d play him. Time will tell if he’s just biding his time. For now, all evidence points to rating De Gea higher. Despite what you think.

Lukaku was a £75m signing and our top scorer the previous season. How was he not a big figure? You can’t just change the facts to suit your narrative.

It’s not like he had other options than Pereira and Lingard and the fact he regularly switched between them showed he was happy with neither. As soon as he had a better option he dropped them like a stone. Same goes for Lindelof. Who was he going to drop him for?

 

[Champagne Football]

De Gea needs to go. His heart hasn't been in it for about 3 seasons now. He's been giving 80% effort for 3 or 4 seasons. But will be impossible to sell due to ludicrous wages.

Not sure Henderson is the answer but deserves a shot.

 

[Judas]

Henderson might not work out, he might have issues De Gea hasn't, but at this point I'd like to see us at least try him. De Gea leaving the club and freeing up those insane wages would be amazing too. But lets face it, getting rid of him in the current climate looks like mission impossible to me.

 

[Grylte]

But how long do you let that go on for? De Gea has been in poor form pretty much all season and still hasn't been dropped. It wouldn't give you a whole lot of confidence that you would ever take his place.

It feels like Henderson won't get a proper chance until De Gea s injured. At the moment, I wouldn't be surprised if that seems like the only route to Henderson.

Henderson is barely getting any game time to prove himself, anyway. In the end, it seems like a vicious circle.

DDG has been our nr 1 for like 200 years, i think he'll be nr 1 for the rest of the season and Henderson get cup games.
At the end of the season they make a decision for the next year.

I just don't think it's the same changing your gk as your striker, when they're in bad form.

I do agree that DDG has been in bad form for a while now, so something has to change at some point.

 

[Skåre Willoch]

We should at least give Henderson a chance to show whether or not he can be a reliable number 1.
Start him in the league after our game against City, and let him play for the rest of the season (unless he has a total meltdown, that is).

 

[bsCallout]

I can understand Henderson's frustrations (even if I thought it was pretty clear De Gea would be #1 this season). At the same time, the idea that he should assured of being #1 next year also rankles.

The key point is that he has to be given more gametime this season to see what he's made of. At that point it's on him to earn the #1 spot rather than expect to be given it.

This is a daft argument. If we bought someone of Hendersons quality he would expect to start, just like all top keepers. Especially witnessesing DDGs performances.

 

[kundalini]

Henderson should be our starting keeper next season (unless his form collapses between now and the end of the season).

If nothing else, it would give us a better indication of whether Lindelof, Maguire and Bailly are good enough for United. De Gea's approach to goal-keeping asks a lot of our CBs and exposes weaknesses that they might get away with, at least to some extent, under a more proactive keeper.

I don’t think any of us can judge whether Henderson is up to the task yet.

This is true and we won't know until he has had an extended run in the PL for United.

 

[iHicksy]

I think the moment in the newcastle game where De Gea was terrified to claim the ball within his own 6 yard box summed it up for me. He panic punches away instead of catching it because there's an attacker near him, then has to pull off a second save because he doesn't have the physicality or determination to claim the ball in his own bloody box. We simply cannot have a keeper who's scared to dominate his area and instead gets dominated. Hendo for me going forwards.

 

[Wilt]

They were supposed to be “fighting” for the No1 spot ....not much of a fight when De Gea is still Ole’s automatic first choice.

Whether it’s a case of....
a) not wanting to bench a £375,000 per week player
b) keep playing him in the hope he actually manages to string a few clean sheets together
c) Ole hasn’t the balls to drop him

Its obvious Henderson is the better keeper, so Ole needs to give him a proper run of consecutive games.

 

[Withnail]

I think we need to give Henderson the job for the remainder of this season to work out whether he can be trusted for next season, or we need to buy a new keeper.

Ole needs to have the balls to do it because we need to see what Hendo is like week in, week out under big pressure and not just sporadic games here and there.

Absolutely, if we are going to have a decision to make in the Summer we need to know if he can handle it so it's an informed decision.

There's no point putting all our eggs in the Hendo basket only to find out he's not up to it.

 

[MadDogg]

Henderson will play against Real Sociedad in midweek which means he will have played in three of the last five matches. My hope is that Ole has been waiting the last few weeks (which is when the pressure has really been coming back on De Gea after a decent start to the season) for Henderson to get that run of games and if he does well then he can take over as the league keeper.

I doubt it, but it's my hope.

 

[sullydnl]

This is a daft argument. If we bought someone of Hendersons quality he would expect to start, just like all top keepers. Especially witnessesing DDGs performances.

You say "top keeper" like Henderson has actually proven he's a top keeper.

He's had one good season at PL level playing for Sheffield United. There's not a chance in hell we would have actually bought a goalkeeper to be our #1 based on that. He's in a position to challenge De Gea because he was already available to us at no cost, not because he's already proven his quality to such an extent that he can just expect to be Manchester United's #1.

I'm all for playing him ahead of De Gea and seeing what he's made of. But he still has a hell of a lot to do to prove he's the answer, even if De Gea isn't. It may well be that neither are good enough.

 

[Doracle]

Henderson wouldn’t start for Arsenal. If Henderson leaves United it will be for a club like West Ham. That for me says it’s De Gea or somebody else. Henderson’s reputation is growing on this forum just for not being De Gea. Reminds me a little of when people tried to fool themselves into thinking Darmian or Varela were going to be great just because they’re weren’t Valencia.

The difference is that Henderson was arguably the best keeper in the premier league last season. There is no way that anyone should be able to form a judgement that he isn’t good enough currently. What I’ve seen this season is a keeper who started nervously but has grown into his role in the matches he has had and looked very assured - far more than De Gea in recent weeks.

It may transpire that, over a sustained run of games and under the glare of playing for United, weaknesses become apparent and it is shown he isn’t good enough for the very top level. However, we simply aren’t going to know that unless we give him a run of matches.

 

[arthurka]

Easy give Henderson the gig till the end. DDG can wait on the bench and see how he likes that because his time at this club is up. If Henderson isn't good enough we will need to find a new keeper.

 

[acnumber9]

You say "top keeper" like Henderson has actually proven he's a top keeper.

He's had one good season at PL level playing for Sheffield United. There's not a chance in hell we would have actually bought a goalkeeper to be our #1 based on that. He's in a position to challenge De Gea because he was already available to us at no cost, not because he's already proven his quality to such an extent that he can just expect to be Manchester United's #1.

This is what I don’t get. He’s shown no more than Nick Pope and I doubt many would want him starting for United. This forum has gone overboard on De Gea. Last season most were convincing themselves Romero was a Premier League quality goalkeeper and yet he’s still at United as fourth choice keeper because nobody wants him.

We’re at a stage where replacing De Gea is something we have to be considering. Stating Henderson is already, definitely a better keeper? I’d love to have that level of positivity. Where it not more based on negativity on De Gea.

 

[acnumber9]

The difference is that Henderson was arguably the best keeper in the premier league last season. There is no way that anyone should be able to form a judgement that he isn’t good enough currently. What I’ve seen this season is a keeper who started nervously but has grown into his role in the matches he has had and looked very assured - far more than De Gea in recent weeks.

It may transpire that, over a sustained run of games and under the glare of playing for United, weaknesses become apparent and it is shown he isn’t good enough for the very top level. However, we simply aren’t going to know that unless we give him a run of matches.

He absolutely was not the best keeper in the league last season.

 

[The Urban Goose]

Henderson wouldn’t start for Arsenal. If Henderson leaves United it will be for a club like West Ham. That for me says it’s De Gea or somebody else. Henderson’s reputation is growing on this forum just for not being De Gea. Reminds me a little of when people tried to fool themselves into thinking Darmian or Varela were going to be great just because they’re weren’t Valencia.

Not yet he wouldn't, and I'm sure there'll be a stepping stone move in the meantime, but it wouldn't surprise me if that happens. The point is though we have no idea how good he is, and at this rate we won't find out until he's gone and consistently starting elsewhere.

 

[RedRonaldo]

Problem is Henderson plays so little we won't be able to properly asses him to make that big a decision (of having him as No1).
Plus who would buy De Gea on his wages.

We are not giving him proper game time. He was one of top keeper in PL least season though.

 

[RkkMan]

He dropped Pogba after the Spurs game and wouldn’t play him in central midfield again for ages. If he rated Henderson above De Gea, he’d play him. Time will tell if he’s just biding his time. For now, all evidence points to rating De Gea higher. Despite what you think.

Lukaku was a £75m signing and our top scorer the previous season. How was he not a big figure? You can’t just change the facts to suit your narrative.

It’s not like he had other options than Pereira and Lingard and the fact he regularly switched between them showed he was happy with neither. As soon as he had a better option he dropped them like a stone. Same goes for Lindelof. Who was he going to drop him for?

Pogba was still feeling the after effects of COVID hence why he was dropped he even came out in an interview saying it affected him heavily do your research.
Lukaku was a big signing yes but not a club legend like De Gea. Its much easier to drop an underperforming big money signing than an underperforming legend its not changing facts its saying them as they are
We are quite clearly a MUCH better team with Bailly in defence even Stevie Wonder can see it. He has injury problems but you dont need to be a genius to know that he should play WHEN HE IS FIT whilst rotating him wisely

 

[acnumber9]

Pogba was still feeling the after effects of COVID hence why he was dropped he even came out in an interview saying it affected him heavily do your research.
Lukaku was a big signing yes but not a club legend like De Gea. Its much easier to drop an underperforming big money signing than an underperforming legend its not changing facts its saying them as they are
We are quite clearly a MUCH better team with Bailly in defence even Stevie Wonder can see it. He has injury problems but you dont need to be a genius to know that he should play WHEN HE IS FIT whilst rotating him wisely

I know he had Covid but Solskjaer played him regardless. He didn’t drop him after getting Covid. He dropped him when his performances were hurting the team. When he brought him back in it was out wide because he didn’t trust him to defend. He dropped Matic after that game also when those two had been first choice since the restart.

Being club legends has nothing to do with it. It’s not like he’d be facing the wrath of the fans by doing it is it?

Isn’t that what he’s doing? Rotating them wisely? So why did you bring it up as evidence he won’t drop Lindelof?

 

[Lentwood]

We are effectively wasting our own time here and making our lives harder.

De Gea is now no longer fit to be #1 for a club with our ambitions. That’s been obvious for a couple of seasons now but I think any lingering doubts have been removed with this season’s performances.

I don’t think many people would disagree with the above statement, it’s just obvious.

The trouble is, we have learnt very little about Henderson this season.

We know that statistically speaking, he was arguably the best GK in the league at Sheffield Utd...but as I have said many times, statistics only tell half the story at best.

Likewise, I’ve seen some posters criticise Henderson and say he’s not good enough for United...I really don’t know how they could have formed that conclusion based on about 10 games, usually in cup games against weaker opponents.

The way I see it, in very simple terms is that continuing with De Gea is lose/lose. At least if we go with Henderson until the end of the season, we learn something about his suitability to be our #1

Even if he proves NOT to be good enough that’s still useful knowledge the club can act on. Currently, we’re doing nothing and learning nothing

 

[Denis' cuff]

He absolutely was not the best keeper in the league last season.

he absolutely was one of the best. DDG was one of the worst and is so again this season.

would not surprise me at all if Ole is instructed when to play both to protect value of DDG.

Anyone with a pair of eyes can see he is way of the mark for the third season running, costing us points that will:again hinder our progress. The defence, as culpable as they often are, are clearly undermined with him dithering behind them. How dumb is Woody or whoever is responsible for mega contracts for Jones, Sanchez, Ddg, to name but three. we’ll never know if we don’t give Hendo a chance. It’s possible we might end up in a transition period like before we got VDS but I fail to see how we can be any worse off other than taking a hit on Dave’s value. Can’t be for footballing reasons.

 

[acnumber9]

he absolutely was one of the best. DDG was one of the worst and is so again this season.

would not surprise me at all if Ole is instructed when to play both to protect value of DDG.

Anyone with a pair of eyes can see he is way of the mark for the third season running, costing us points that will:again hinder our progress. How dumb is Woody or whoever is responsible for mega contracts for Jines, Sanchez, Ddgto name but three

Matter of opinion really. I think Henderson is being remarkably overrated.

Of course he isn’t being instructed who to play.