Longshanks
Full Member
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2020
- Messages
- 1,925
Raya isnt good enough for Utd, as some anaylsis videos have pointed out.
De Gea just won the golden gloves, but isnt "suited to top level football anymore"
Also its not "beyond madness" to renew his contract, hes an assest you dont want leaving on a free.
He may not be the 'modern' keeper tgat ETH wants. However you have to work within the confines of your budget. A no9 and no8 have been prioritised over a 'modern' keeper.
Theres one elite characteristic a "modern' keeper would need to succeed at utd and thats shot stopping. Playing out from the back, contributing to the high press or playing sweeper-keeper is all well and good. If you cant pull off world class saves like de gea can, you arent going to last long at utd. Raya definetely cant. There are other keepers who can, however they wont be cheap and the priority this summer as we all know is a no9 and a no8.
So renewing de gea and bringing in some competition for him makes perfect sense. However his long term replacement? That will have to wait till next summer and the budget to go after the very very elite 'modern' keepers who can also pull off world class saves.
Ahh yes, the world class saves myth. All PL Goalkeepers pull off world class saves fairly commonly, Raya and De Gea included.
The thing with De Gea is he is very low risk in his style of GK, he gives himself every chance possible to pull of 'world class saves' by never ever taking a risk with his position to try to smother the chance. His style leads to him making more saves than a pro-active GK. He's also very athletic which makes his saves look very aesthetically pleasing. So his style leads to him making alot of eye catching saves. But realistically there saves that most PL GK's can make and do make maybe with less 'style'.
That's not to say that occasionally de Gea does wow us with a genuinely incredible saves that maybe some other PL GK'S wouldn't make, but considering the downsides to his game these don't happen anywhere near enough to make it at all worthwhile.
He isn't difficult to replace by any stretch of the imagination, maybe there will be less highlight reel worth saves but 100% the team will be better for it.