sifi36
Full Member
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2020
- Messages
- 225
Schmeichl and DeGea were also pretty inexperienced of playing and period of time at a top level, only Vn de Sar had lots of experience before coming.
I dont think the Dutch league is really considered as top level experience, it is a very weak league in comparison to others in Europe, though he got great experience in the champions league. Could also argue Serie A hasnt been a top league for some time.
The reason I said I am not totally convinced by Onana is I am just not sure he is a top level keeper. I hink he is great under pressure with his feet, but the other areas I dont see him as a big top quality keeper just a decent one.....is such an obsession with keepers and there feet and not other atributes, you yourself have stated he is a top level player....purely on that attribute. I am just 100% not convinced by any of the keepers we are being linked with in all honesty. I havent seen Costa but I am not so sure any others are ready to be the new number one here and handle the burden, thogh it is something we need and Onana seems another one who is a good keeper but maybe getting overhyped due to his clubs success this season and his modern style with the feet....I mean I cant remember seeing him or Maignan gettign mentioned often a yer or two ago
- Disregarding the Dutch and Italian leagues implies that one should only be buying players from English clubs, as no other league is the same level. This would be stupid and unworkable for many reasons. It would mean the best goalkeeper in the world (Alisson) shouldn't have been been bought from AS Roma because his elite performances don't count as they were in Serie A.
- Our current keeper is terrible, amongst the worst playing anywhere in Europe at claiming crosses and sweeping. Onana is well above average at both of these.
- De Gea is also mediocre at best at passing and uncomfortable under pressure - Onana is elite at both these things
- De Gea makes too many mistakes to be considered an elite shot-stopper anymore. Onana has outperformed him on shot-stopping metrics for the majority of the last three years.
- We already have a keeper who isn't coping with the pressure and hasn't done for around 5 years. He makes a disproportionate number of mistakes despite the fact that he is incredibly risk averse. A new keeper is not having to exceed a high bar.
- Plenty of people on this board and elsewhere identified Maignan as exceptional when he was at Lille, he was an obvious statistical outlier back then, even on freely available statistics - see here
- Onana wasn't spoken about the same way as Eredivisie data was not widely available until this season
- 10% of our keeper's touches are saves. The other 90% of the time it's build-up, sweeping, cross-claiming and long progression. That's why any manager not stuck in 1997 values these things more and fans like yourself need to catch up
For an example of what a difference it can make: Brighton swapped Robert Sanchez for Jason Steele (hardly an elite goalkeeper) and since the switch, every single measurable metric has them performing second only to City in terms of build-up, possession and chance creation. You do not need the best player in the world in each position - just ones that suit the way you want to play. Onana does and De Gea does not.