David de Gea: why he could (and should) be replaced
Manchester United’s number 1 has been called into question (again) on whether he’s good enough or not
I’ve been a fan of de Gea’s for the past few years. We’ve seen him win more Player of the year awards than anyone else during his time at United, surpass greats such as van de Sar and Schmeichel in terms of clean sheets (188) and is up there with the most appearances for the club (540). This means that he has been with the Red Devils for a while and is one of our greatest players as you don’t achieve that by being a nobody.
David has also won the Premier League, Carabao Cup (x2), FA Cup, Europa League and one Golden Glove which isn’t too bad considering where the club has been post Sir Alex Ferguson.
During his time at Old Trafford, de Gea has seen much change from managers to teams to style of play. Most of that time, United have been pretty average at best no matter the football yet the Spaniard has managed to keep some sense of consistency by putting in countless brilliant performances over the years despite the mediocrity ahead of him. So much so, that he had kept the side relevant in seasons gone by with match-winning performance after match-winning performance with the game at Arsenal (17/18) being a standout in which he made 14 saves, the joint-most (with Tim Krul) in Premier League history for saves in a single game.
But there are times when he defies the odds, in a negative way. Butter fingers, being weak in the box, dodgy sweeper keeping and very poor distribution, and that was just in his previous game against West Ham.
Those are the issues he’s had throughout his time at MUFC and with Erik ten Hag wanting to implement a new modern style of football which includes a ‘keeper who can play out from the back, is David’s time up at United?
These two tables shows de Gea against his Premier League rivals as well as his potential replacements:
Stats via Premier League
Against his rivals, David has some pretty damning numbers as he is either average or worse than the rest, only being at the top in two aspects: clean sheets and accurate long balls, the second of which is a surprise to me.
In some areas like punches, high claims and catches, David isn’t that much better than those who are worse than him. These are aspects of his game that have always been called to question throughout his United career and hasn’t improved that much over the 12 years he’s been at the club when looking at these stats.
It doesn’t bode too well for him against his potential replacements either, specifically David Raya. Of the two, the Brentford goalkeeper has been more heavily linked with a move to Old Trafford compared to Robert Sanchez. Putting up numbers like that would definitely strengthen his case.
We all know that de Gea isn’t that great with the ball at his feet and asking him to play out from the back is almost asking for trouble. His 2 errors leading to goals is more than anyone of these six goalkeepers with only Ramsdale having the same amount of errors. With how it’s been going this season, I’m surprised it’s not more than that from de Gea tbh.
Other stats show that while he is an incredible shot-stopper, his save percentage is 70% meaning that he is average when it comes to saving. His post shot xG at -0.05 means that he is 5th when compared to the other top goalkeepers. Those are at least decent when compared to his ability to stop crosses. David is sitting at an inadequate 3.2% which is in the bottom half (@StatmanDave on Twitter).
In previous years, we’ve seen the best of de Gea mainly because a lot of his work was largely around shot stopping, which is his best ability regardless of those shot stopping numbers. The way United played in the last decade hasn’t been anything special allowing David to not have to do a lot of the ‘modern goalkeeping’ required of him today.
Now that United have a manager who does want to play this style of football, it is much more clear to see that David just doesn’t cut the mustard.
Reports suggest that MUFC’s number 1 will be given a new contract but his first-team spot isn’t guaranteed. Many fans have also had enough of the Spaniard and feel that he has to go if United are to progress in their way of playing.
I am a big fan of his but even I can’t deny that he has the ability to drop a clanger, which happens a little too often. His distribution can put us in trouble unnecessarily and looking at the other goalies in the league, I can’t help but think that I want one of those in my team. The stats don’t really back him up indicating that he isn’t what’s needed in order for the team to move forward under Erik ten Hag.
However, I do think that people go a little over the top in their criticism of him. He isn’t the best yes, but the career he’s had at United shows that he deserves more respect. You may not think he’s the keeper’ MUFC need and want him to leave but there is a way to go about lambasting David. Some of the abuse he gets online is a bit excessive IMO.
He made a few mistakes at West Ham and ultimately cost us the game but ALL the focus was on him even though the entire team performed badly and United were wasteful up front. I did a post on MUFC’s goal scoring here highlighting one of the more major issues of the team and why it sole focus shouldn’t be on de Gea on any other one player.
David isn’t THE problem for me (as some make out to seem) but he is A problem. What ten Hag decides to do with him in the transfer window and next season is up to the manager. Whatever decision he makes, I’ll back ten Hag.
