Some statistics for all the 'it woz the defence' posters who are once again hammering our CBs for being so terrible that they conceded three shots on target (arguably two if you excuse the one the GK directly causes) in a game against top six opposition.
These are the statistics for the shots on target faced by the GKs currently playing for our main rivals
| GOALKEEPER | SHOTS FACED | SAVED | GA | % SAVES |
| LLORIS | 89 | 67 | 22 | 75 |
| EDERSON | 44 | 32 | 12 | 73 |
| ALISSON | 52 | 37 | 15 | 71 |
| SCHMEICHEL | 86 | 61 | 25 | 71 |
| MENDY | 45 | 31 | 14 | 69 |
| PICKFORD | 70 | 48 | 22 | 69 |
| DE GEA | 69 | 42 | 27 | 61 |
As you can all clearly see, De Gea is BY FAR the worst GK, in terms of actually saving shots (his job). That's before you even get into the fact that most, if not all, of the GKs above have other standout attributes beyond shot-stopping i.e. Schmeichel = command of area, Ederson = passing out from the back, Alisson = playing as a sweeper-keeper.
Then, I have tried to break that down into something meaningful to show you how big of an impact those numbers have, because on their own I understand it's quite hard to quantify what the difference is between 61% save rate and 71% save rate, for example.
Here is what would happen if a GK with the same percentage save rate as De Gea played for each of our rivals
| IF DEA PLAYED FOR… | SHOTS FACED | SAVED | GA | DIFF +/- |
| TOTTENHAM | 89 | 54 | 35 | 13 |
| MAN CITY | 44 | 27 | 17 | 5 |
| LIVERPOOL | 52 | 32 | 20 | 5 |
| LEICESTER | 86 | 52 | 34 | 9 |
| CHELSEA | 45 | 27 | 18 | 4 |
| EVERTON | 70 | 43 | 27 | 5 |
As you can see, the difference is stark. Chelsea and Everton, neither of whom have good GKs, are both 4 and 5 goals better off respectively. Man City and Liverpool, despite facing a relatively small number of shots, are still five goals worse off. In the case of Man City, that is nearly a 50% increase on their TOTAL goals conceded this year.
Imagine what would happen if De Gea were in goal at Spurs or Leicester! The stats tell you those teams wouldn't even be in a top four race, having conceded 13 and 9 more goals.
See, this is the difference between the good posters (like me) and the bad ones. Many come on here bleating about stuff, mainly influenced by simple narratives pushed by sh**e pundits who don't know their arse from their elbow.
Some of us take the time to dig a bit deeper. The FACT is that United don't concede an unusual number of shots on target and we don't give away an unusual number of good chances. The FACT (sorry to get a Rafa) is that De Gea saves significantly LESS of these shots than his counterparts at our main rivals.
Again, I repeat, this is even before you consider his other major flaws as a GK, compared with the more aggressive, pro-active goalkeeping styles of players like Alisson, Ederson or Schemeichel.
The FACT is people....you can bleat about the defence all you like but football teams will always concede shots on target. No manager yet has worked out how to stop the opposition having ANY shots. No defence yet has been good enough to go an entire PL season without conceding shots on target (FACT).
Therefore, when teams inevitably DO have shots on target, like the three they had on target tonight (I repeat, one as a result of a direct goalkeeping error), it would be quite nice if the t**t between the sticks would have the good grace not to move out the way of at least one for his £350K per week.
If any of you want to seriously argue with me that our defence is poor because a top six team had three (arguably two) shots on our goal then go for it, I'm all ears....
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