But seriously, to have somewhat different opinions is normal. Personally, I think de Gea has improved compared to the last season and is playing quite well, but I don’t think his performances are brilliant. In my opinion, there is significant room for further improvement still.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 58
- Clean sheets
- 25
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 2
- Status
But seriously, to have somewhat different opinions is normal. Personally, I think de Gea has improved compared to the last season and is playing quite well, but I don’t think his performances are brilliant. In my opinion, there is significant room for further improvement still.
This is a thread with some of the most delusional opinions on Redcafe.
Really good game for Dave on Sunday, yet people focus on a few things, that are bs.
Corners: the tactic Forrest used can be done against any team. No gk can get through a screen like that. They have to be defended as a team.
His passing was close to flawless. Every keeper goes long when needed and some balls will not be won. This is NORMAL. Even for the delusionist‘s hero gk whoever they may be.
No mention of another ball over the top that put Sancho through.
Keep going Dave, ignore the haters.
Really good game for Dave on Sunday, yet people focus on a few things, that are bs.
Corners: the tactic Forrest used can be done against any team. No gk can get through a screen like that. They have to be defended as a team.
His passing was close to flawless. Every keeper goes long when needed and some balls will not be won. This is NORMAL. Even for the delusionist‘s hero gk whoever they may be.
No mention of another ball over the top that put Sancho through.
Keep going Dave, ignore the haters.
Dave is fantastic. Needs to be very careful with the passes out the back. Otherwise, he's fecking amazing.
Very good points, especially about the corners.
I’m guessing GK won’t be priority in the summer if De Gea is staying. Don’t see us giving him a new contract to be a number 2.
Means it’s an agreement on lesser terms surely?
Been critical of him at times this season but overall he's had a good season. I think he's only 6 games away from beating Stepney's all time appearance record for a goalkeeper 
. Heck of an achievement.
. Heck of an achievement.Good news. One less thing to worry about for now...
DDG, Bruno Fernandes, Toney are all skipped in the 40 nominees
While Kepa, Nunez, Havertz
, fckin injured Bentancur are all inGreat news. Dave stays, Dave saves.
Seemed pretty clear for a while that we were looking to give him a new contract.
That still leaves us needing to sign another goalkeeper mind as Butland is on loan and Henderson won't want to stay (nor should be kept).
It's just a question of what standard of second choice goalkeeper we can get. The complete back-ups we've had this season or someone who can theoretically offer competition, particularly if De Gea isn't playing well.
How would you rate martinez' season? He's had 3 nightmare matches this year as well.
Dave is obviously a great shot stopper. But I think his passing is extremely under rated. It's as if people watch a game and will see 9 good passes in a row but then when the 10th goes a stray they jump in and say "See!!! I told you his passing is shite". Psst.....9 out of 10 is still 90%
With that being said, he still struggles with crosses, and while he has gotten better this year at being a "sweeper keeper", his over all positioning is quite often poor as well.
With that being said, he still struggles with crosses, and while he has gotten better this year at being a "sweeper keeper", his over all positioning is quite often poor as well.
His season I would rate as fantastic
Everything has to be done as a team but an individual can make a significant impact. It's on De Gea to manage 1) his area 2) his defenders and 3) his own movement.
If he really doesn't want to be boxed in then he should be asking his defenders to push the surrounding players out AND be on his heels to move forward, backwards, sideways and push past players. The 6 yard box and penalty spot area should be his domain because as a keeper, he can jump and affect the ball with the length of his hands, which should be in his favour more times out of ten. When there's a will there's a way.
He doesn't do that because he's comfortable staying on his line and he doesn't have the game or impetus to start claiming aerials. Let's not excuse his deficiency there. He deserves praise for his form and contributing in his own way but we don't have to start ignoring what he should be doing.
That's extremely generous. 9 out of 10 good passes. Let's have some posters pull out the stats here.
The issue with De Gea's distribution isn't that he gives the ball away ever so much as is. It's the limited (and limiting) tactical expectation we place on him that constitutes "as is".
Teams with goalkeepers who are excellent on the ball use them to help the team keep possession and play out of defence under pressure, because that brings a whole host of benefits to the team as a whole. That's the point of having goalkeepers with that skill-set. We generally don't, because De Gea generally can't.
Instead when under pressure we use him in a more limited manner, typically expecting him to make short safe passes or hit the ball long. When not under pressure he can do slightly more, but still a limited amount relative to keepers who are better on the ball. All of which impacts how the rest of the team functions.
We're correct to use him like that, as it limits the impact of one of his weaknesses. But it also places limititations on how the team can play. He isn't the only reason we can't play out from the back the way the best teams in this regard can, but even if all the other weaknesses were solved he alone would be reason enough.
As it happens I think we can improve a lot even under the ceiling having De Gea in goal places on us tactically, so I'm not overly worried if he's still in goal next season. Though that's partially influenced by the fact that I have absolutely zero expectation that we challenge for the title next season. If you do, you should probably be more concerned.
Teams with goalkeepers who are excellent on the ball use them to help the team keep possession and play out of defence under pressure, because that brings a whole host of benefits to the team as a whole. That's the point of having goalkeepers with that skill-set. We generally don't, because De Gea generally can't.
Instead when under pressure we use him in a more limited manner, typically expecting him to make short safe passes or hit the ball long. When not under pressure he can do slightly more, but still a limited amount relative to keepers who are better on the ball. All of which impacts how the rest of the team functions.
We're correct to use him like that, as it limits the impact of one of his weaknesses. But it also places limititations on how the team can play. He isn't the only reason we can't play out from the back the way the best teams in this regard can, but even if all the other weaknesses were solved he alone would be reason enough.
As it happens I think we can improve a lot even under the ceiling having De Gea in goal places on us tactically, so I'm not overly worried if he's still in goal next season. Though that's partially influenced by the fact that I have absolutely zero expectation that we challenge for the title next season. If you do, you should probably be more concerned.
His passing percentage was easily above 90% last game. Look it up if you want.
Also, how many of those were in the first two disaster class games of the season? I reckon 2 or 3, which puts us around the teams around us.
Fair point. That mid range pass/ clip over the first press isn't something he is asked to do often. Anecdotally, I'd say he being quite poor at it. The ball over the top to Antony is far less risky, even if he misses, the ball would just go out of play.
81% - 29 accurate passes out of 36 attempted. (Whoscored)
One.
Brighton's goals were both counter-attacks (or similar). Brentford 1 - long range shot that should have been saved after Ronaldo lost possession. 2 De Gea pass to Eriksen who failed to direct his first time pass correctly, allowing interception then easy goal. 3 corner. 4 counter-attack.
I'm genuinely surprised we want to continue with De Gea as he is a poor match for the team being built. A CB like Martinez would be helped by having a keeper that came to collect crosses, corners, indirect free-kicks. A CB like Varane would be helped by having a keeper with superior distribution than he has. Our attacking players rarely win duels competing for long aerial passes. Rashford could run onto a precise ball over the top but it's rare for De Gea to deliver such a pass.
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Fair points. I had him on my list of top 4 priority positions to be upgraded that I made few months ago. The others being CF, CM (next to Casemiro) and RB. I don't imagine we'll be able to bring in starters for all four positions. Last season was an anomaly.
All positions are still of need, though I have softened my stance on RB as AWB and DD have shown some encouraging signs, even if I'm still not entirely convinced long term.
I think De Gea too has improved at some of the areas you mentioned above though some of that can be put down to ETH simplifying the ask.
The main problem is the contract issue. It forces us to either shite or get off the pot with him. I still think the CF and GK positions are the two biggest priorities. Plus as the season has progressed we have developed more needs. Mctominay and Maguire will most likely be sold and need replacing. Interesting summer ahead for sure.
I think you're overemphasising the benefits of these superior ball playing keepers. Let's face it the ball we're talking about is the 40 yard pass to the wide FB. Teams very quickly calibrate and are now well able to deal with it.
It's a nice thing to have in the arsenal but the difference it makes is extremely negligible. I wouldn’t get rid of a superior shot stopper for that pass thank you very much.
Real Madrid get by without it.
He's made quite a few such passes very recently
He did well on Sunday, his passing was better, but it was easy passing because Forrest were rubbish and put him under zero pressure. He claimed a couple of easy high balls, there were 3 or 4 in the first 15 mins that he was all at sea for. Otherwise he had shag all else to do.
As for his new deal, Jose said it 3 years ago that the 350k a week was madness and not needed because all the big doors were closed to him. He also said he doesn't compensate for the weaknesses of his defenders on set pieces or aerial duels. Now, it's the same again, no other big club wants or needs a keeper with his style and limitations. But maybe he will stay and we'll continue to go round and round in circles about him. Heavily inventivised or not, for me it's the wrong move to keep him on as a number 1 or 2.
Even if you were to get another keeper in, what if they turned out to be rubbish? City got in Navas for a ball playing keeper but then he was a bit rubbish, so they ended up using their reserve (Caballero I think it was). We don't have a recognized backup keeper to do that. So if the new keepers a bit dodgy, surely it's better to have someone proven at the club than bring in another who might also be a bit rubbish?
Ronaldo was a proven goalscorer.. what's the difference? He's the goalkeeping equivalent of Ronaldo, huge wages with huge aspects of his game that just don't suit the team.
Why does it have to be someone proven? Why not bring in someone with a point to prove or better yet, someone more suitable that will improve along with the rest if the team. 12 years and not a single aspect of his game has gotten better.
Awesome news if he's getting a new contract. He's a keeper when it comes to reflexes and he's not prone to injury.
This is a risk for any position. I take the note keeper is one of the most important positions in the spine of the team and basically the last line of defence so gets more scrutiny.
But if we're using city as an example, it didn't work out so they then went and got it right by bringing in ederson
We can also use Liverpool who replaced mignolet with karius. That ended in disaster so they went and got Allison
Arsenal were choosing between leno and Martinez but arteta then went and got ramsdale and in terms of his vision and what they're building ramsdale worked and they're challenging for the title.
Having the mindset that it might fail so why risk it is the mindset that will never see you risk trying to improve and challenge.
Yes, but they both already had backup keepers that they could rely on before they had the chance to bring someone else in. We don't.
Courtois is deceptive, he see's a lot more of the ball than De Gea has at any stage of his career - even this season. No ones saying he's Ederson with the ball at his feet but he is perfectly passable otherwise he wouldn't be trusted so much by his defenders. I don't tend to disagree with your general point in terms of people overstating the importance of an exceptional ball playing goalkeeper over a relatively average ball playing goalkeeper when looking at the other important qualities in a keeper, but in addition he sweeps considerably higher than De Gea and is three times as likely to deal with crosses into the box. As well as being a better shot stopper than De Gea. So long story short any comparison between the two is night and day.
I'm not claiming that De Gea has 90% passing. It's an example. But my bad. I forgot that everyone takes everything you say literally around here...ugh
I guess this depends on how we want to go and how much 'risk' we want to take.
The backup keepers they had were not top four quality. Mignolet and Hart/caballero were booted for a reason.
If you look at our options, it would be Heaton and probably if we get another loan (like butland).
They arent good enough as starters, but you could argue if we sign a keeper and its a total calamity like when we were trying to replace Schmeichel, the 'backups' arent any worse than what city/liverpool went with for the interim until they sorted the keeper the year after.
Saying that, if we sign up DDG, its defo not to be a number two. Hes on roughly around 350k, even if thats halved, he would be the best paid keeper. Ideally he should be getting <150k (but i dont see us being that ruthless even when you know no other Top team will offer him that).
The other option is how when we bought DDG, we also got lindegaard.
This is all fantasy anyway until we get the owners stuff sorted. Ideally, I want tosee DDG finish the season in fantastic form, get the golden glove, and another trophy or two.
I m a bit torn on this. He's undoubtedly a fantastic shot-stopper and saved our arses in so many games in last few seasons. Despite his initial flirting with Spanish teams, he did stay on and was loyal to us in last few years too.
But I m too spoilt by Schmikes and VDS - part of me feels that if we want to ever regain the type of title winning and CL-challenging eras, then we need a more commanding and progressive GK. Like the former 2. Also doesn't hurt if that said GK is a better penalty saver. Still haunted by that Europa League final where Dave failed to make a single penalty save...With Schmikes and VDS, you always feel that they had it in their bag to save 1 or 2 penalties.
Sometimes, these are the "little" things that can make a difference between a good and a great (and title-winning) team.
But I m too spoilt by Schmikes and VDS - part of me feels that if we want to ever regain the type of title winning and CL-challenging eras, then we need a more commanding and progressive GK. Like the former 2. Also doesn't hurt if that said GK is a better penalty saver. Still haunted by that Europa League final where Dave failed to make a single penalty save...With Schmikes and VDS, you always feel that they had it in their bag to save 1 or 2 penalties.
Sometimes, these are the "little" things that can make a difference between a good and a great (and title-winning) team.
I think we will get some young up and coming keeper in to challenge him for the 1st spot, with the expectation that he replaces him the following season.
De Gea has some good attributes but Ten Haag clearly adapted the approach after that 4-0 Brentford game, as his short passing under pressure is poor, and instead he goes long every time now when pressed.
If the Glaziers are still here through the summer we won't buy unless we can sell.
The 40 yard pass to the full back, De Gea's is not bad at that in fairness. Not brilliant but not bad. It's more about his willingness and ability to play out under pressure, if it goes back to him and he's under pressure it's getting dumped forward or out play. He capable under limited pressure, but when he gets pressed it's panic stations and he just smashes it.
Glad you mentioned Courtouis and real madrid, watch how comfortably Real knock the ball around the back even under a high press, see how happy Courtouis is to take the ball under pressure keep his cool and play good short passes to his defenders or even into modified even with the opposition breathing down his kneck. De Gea can't or won't do that.
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