David De Gea Appreciation Thread

We did well by moving on De Gea, his shot stopping wasn’t at the high level it once was, and he was lacking in the other attributes.

But we should have signed a keeper who was first and foremost a good shot stopper, that’s the characteristic on a keeper that matters the most. That being covered then came things such as ball playing, commanding of his box, coming out from crosses.

I really hope Onana gets better and comes good. But I’m losing faith in him game by game.
 
You say that as if we didn't also sign a striker and attacking midfielder. Amongst the other obvious tactical nuances such as how deep our defensive line to had to be to compensate for the previous goalkeeper, etc.

You’re correct that in the quote you posted that I did not discuss all other aspects of the management of the club and personnel decisions. I was referring to the decision to sack De Gea and replace him with Onana, with predictable results.

However one wants to characterize our defensive our record, it cannot be denied that it was very good, even taking into account the 7-0 thrashing by Liverpool. Our attacking record? Not so great. We brought in a striker who will come good in 2-3 seasons, no question about it. As for Mount, he only makes sense if the plan is to phase out Bruno, which I support. Otherwise, the same funding could and should have been used on a DM as everyone can see that Casemiro cannot go 2x a week now.

I actually believe that if given 2-3 seasons that Onana will come good, but we clearly took a step backward at keeper for this season. Onana has become a meme and at this point we need to be thinking hard about our backup keeper, but everyone knows how stubborn ETH and his stubbornness presents a real risk of us getting mired in midtable and out of Europe altogether.
 
You’re correct that in the quote you posted that I did not discuss all other aspects of the management of the club and personnel decisions. I was referring to the decision to sack De Gea and replace him with Onana, with predictable results.

However one wants to characterize our defensive our record, it cannot be denied that it was very good, even taking into account the 7-0 thrashing by Liverpool. Our attacking record? Not so great. We brought in a striker who will come good in 2-3 seasons, no question about it. As for Mount, he only makes sense if the plan is to phase out Bruno, which I support. Otherwise, the same funding could and should have been used on a DM as everyone can see that Casemiro cannot go 2x a week now.

I actually believe that if given 2-3 seasons that Onana will come good, but we clearly took a step backward at keeper for this season. Onana has become a meme and at this point we need to be thinking hard about our backup keeper, but everyone knows how stubborn ETH and his stubbornness presents a real risk of us getting mired in midtable and out of Europe altogether.
See this bolded part is where I really disagree. I actually don't think he has been stubborn enough to this point. He has compromised on his style far more than I expected and for one I would prefer him to take more of "this is what we are doing, win lose or draw" approach. But last season he had to compromise to a degree, this season less so.

In terms of Onana coming good, I don't think it will take that long. Let's see where we are at when the players critical to our tactical set up like Martinez (proper Martinez, not the half fit version we saw this season), Antony and in particular Shaw are back in the side and get a proper run of a few games together. It was interesting that the players went to him after the game on Saturday, he clearly retains their faith and is popular with them which is half the battle sometimes.

The decision to get rid of De Gea was absolutely the correct one. Even if Onana turns out to get worse and worse, it was still the correct decision to move on a goalkeeper that was dreadful at most areas of goalkeeping and wasn't even that good anymore at the one area he used to excel, while showing very limited ability or willingness to adapt his game towards the managers stylistic preferences. If Onana wasn't available this summer we'd have still moved De Gea because of how deep we had to play to compensate for the goalkeeper last season (we spent the majority of the season with a similar defensive line height to the likes of Forest, Bournemouth and Everton), it was not possible to play front foot possession based football, or even maintain an effective high press, when the defence has to sit so deep. That's why the De Gea v Onana debates are ridiculous, I understand why they come about because it's obviously comparing players in the same positions but the reality is it's about the impact on what those in front of them are able to do; Onana may or may not be the right goalkeeper for how the manager wants us to be playing in 12-18 months, but we all know De Gea definitely wasn't the right goalkeeper for that. Ten Hag tried playing his way with De Gea last season, and we saw very quickly he couldn't do it, so there were compromises made to get us through the year, but Ten Hag would have known that the change needed to be made very early on (hence us going for Trapp and Sommer late in the window after Brighton and Brentford).

Giving De Gea another year would have meant another year of compromise. I guess the irony is that we got rid of him and still had to compromise due to the injury list, which has led to the line dropping deeper again, but that will change as players come back into the team.
 
Don't get me wrong, I am all for appreciating all of the good that De Gea did for the club throughout his tenure here, but are we really just entirely writing off Onana already?

He's had a very ropey start, there's no denying that, but so did De Gea. It's also worth remembering that the team in general has started the season poorly, and I'm convinced that we will start to see more of Onana's positive attributes as the team's play improves.

De Gea was practically still a kid when he arrived at United at 19 or 20. There's no comparison here as much as I think it's early days for Onana.
 
We did well by moving on De Gea, his shot stopping wasn’t at the high level it once was, and he was lacking in the other attributes.

But we should have signed a keeper who was first and foremost a good shot stopper, that’s the characteristic on a keeper that matters the most. That being covered then came things such as ball playing, commanding of his box, coming out from crosses.

I really hope Onana gets better and comes good. But I’m losing faith in him game by game.

David had been a liability for a few seasons and cost us in many vital matches over the years like the FA Cup semi against Chelsea, the Champions League defeat to RBL when he gifted them all 3 goals as they knocked us out, and the away in Sevilla last season.
 
David had been a liability for a few seasons and cost us in many vital matches over the years like the FA Cup semi against Chelsea, the Champions League defeat to RBL when he gifted them all 3 goals as they knocked us out, and the away in Sevilla last season.
That Arsenal game where he just stayed on the ground and they scored was pathetic
 
See this bolded part is where I really disagree. I actually don't think he has been stubborn enough to this point. He has compromised on his style far more than I expected and for one I would prefer him to take more of "this is what we are doing, win lose or draw" approach. But last season he had to compromise to a degree, this season less so.

In terms of Onana coming good, I don't think it will take that long. Let's see where we are at when the players critical to our tactical set up like Martinez (proper Martinez, not the half fit version we saw this season), Antony and in particular Shaw are back in the side and get a proper run of a few games together. It was interesting that the players went to him after the game on Saturday, he clearly retains their faith and is popular with them which is half the battle sometimes.

The decision to get rid of De Gea was absolutely the correct one. Even if Onana turns out to get worse and worse, it was still the correct decision to move on a goalkeeper that was dreadful at most areas of goalkeeping and wasn't even that good anymore at the one area he used to excel, while showing very limited ability or willingness to adapt his game towards the managers stylistic preferences. If Onana wasn't available this summer we'd have still moved De Gea because of how deep we had to play to compensate for the goalkeeper last season (we spent the majority of the season with a similar defensive line height to the likes of Forest, Bournemouth and Everton), it was not possible to play front foot possession based football, or even maintain an effective high press, when the defence has to sit so deep. That's why the De Gea v Onana debates are ridiculous, I understand why they come about because it's obviously comparing players in the same positions but the reality is it's about the impact on what those in front of them are able to do; Onana may or may not be the right goalkeeper for how the manager wants us to be playing in 12-18 months, but we all know De Gea definitely wasn't the right goalkeeper for that. Ten Hag tried playing his way with De Gea last season, and we saw very quickly he couldn't do it, so there were compromises made to get us through the year, but Ten Hag would have known that the change needed to be made very early on (hence us going for Trapp and Sommer late in the window after Brighton and Brentford).

Giving De Gea another year would have meant another year of compromise. I guess the irony is that we got rid of him and still had to compromise due to the injury list, which has led to the line dropping deeper again, but that will change as players come back into the team.

Reasonable minds can differ on this point, but it's clear to me that ETH has a stubborn streak him. That said, stubborness in moderation can be indeed a virtue.

As for predicting the future, who knows? Onana might pull it all together in his next match or his collapse may persist for months and years. Only time will tell which it is.

As for De Gea, everyone understands the proffered rationale that a ball playing keeper would have a "transformational" impact on the club. After all, look at City and Liverpool. But if you take a deeper look at City and Liverpool it was their outfield players that made all the difference in their quality of their attacking as well as defensive play. Look at City and Liverpool now...Ederson is still Ederson and Allison is still Allison, but their outfield players are a bit shaky this season (by their lofty standards) and their performances reflect that. Last season our strength was undeniably our defense, which included De Gea, but our weakness was undeniably our attack and no one could seriously argue that De Gea was responsible for our missed chances on goal which cost us key points in the PL. And speaking of the PL, "despite" De Gea we still managed to finish third despite all the chaos of Ronaldo and the shitness of Sancho and Antony. There is no reasonable scenario that had us winning the PL last season if we had only had Onana or some other "modern keeper". We were nowhere near City in overall quality and Arsenal were simply better than us -- although to the credit of the caf I don't recall seeing a single post from even the most rabid of De Gea haters, led by Beth on the United Stand, suggesting that if only we had Ramsdale and Arsenal had De Gea that United would have finished second and Arsenal would have finished third.

So we got rid of De Gea and replaced him with Onana at a cost of 40m, which no matter how one rationalizes it now looks pretty fukking daft club management. That same 40m we spent on Onana could have brought in a proper CB such as KMJ or a proper CDM to cover for Casemiro, which we desperate need.
 
David had been a liability for a few seasons and cost us in many vital matches over the years like the FA Cup semi against Chelsea, the Champions League defeat to RBL when he gifted them all 3 goals as they knocked us out, and the away in Sevilla last season.

I don't disagree it was time to move him on, but in all of those games our whole team was awful and we were never winning even if DDG was in superman mode.

Liability is a bit harsh. I would say just not quite good enough anymore. Even last season he was hardly our biggest problem.

He definitely deserved a better send off.
 
DDG should have been replaced, that much is obvious. The thing is he was probably the second to last person who should have been replaced.
 
I don't disagree it was time to move him on, but in all of those games our whole team was awful and we were never winning even if DDG was in superman mode.

Liability is a bit harsh. I would say just not quite good enough anymore. Even last season he was hardlly our biggest problem.

He definitely deserved a better send off.
Yes, fully agree with that. He had a couple of dogy seasons of late, but kept us on our feet for season after season a few years back, and has always been a really decent guy. Wittness his support of the women's team tonight. The way he was treated in the end was a total disgrace, and typical of the fecking Glazers.
 
We can only hope
Speak for yourself. Resigning DDG would be the most backwards move we could make, but if Ten Hag was to be sacked I could actually see it happening we're that poorly run.
 
Speak for yourself. Resigning DDG would be the most backwards move we could make, but if Ten Hag was to be sacked I could actually see it happening we're that poorly run.

In the unlikely event it was to happen, both sides would need to come to an understanding and it would likely be that De Gea came back as a number 2, to provide competition and back up for Onana rather than as number 1.

So I don't see why it would be a backwards step tbh.
 
De Gea is not coming back. I doubt even if we offered him the money he would want that he would come. He feels disrespected by us after years of loyalty.

Then on the flip side we need to move on and back our current goal keeper.
 
Should he have been replaced? 100% yes.

Problem is we signed the wrong replacement Onana is shite.

Love De Gea though glad to see him still connected with the club
 
Backwards and all it would be, he’s better than Onana. We may spend again. He’s free and knows the club, bring him back for now and try again when we have the funds. Won’t happen but when did we ever make a good decision to get us by.
 
So you're saying...it's possible??
Yes if he’s a free agent still and Ten Hag does get sacked before the New Years I could see a scenario where the club brings him back and while still being on obscene wages.
 

I was there too at the game tonight and I was a very good goal keeper( not as good as De Gea obviously) but supporting United isn’t a benchmark for being in goal for our first team. Still better than Onana though which is a bit sad (me not De Gea )
 
In the unlikely event it was to happen, both sides would need to come to an understanding and it would likely be that De Gea came back as a number 2, to provide competition and back up for Onana rather than as number 1.

So I don't see why it would be a backwards step tbh.
I think it’s all irrelevant unless DDG is willing to take a 50% cut on his wages, having a second choice keeper on anything more than £100K a week.

To me it’s a backward step because teams know how to target DDG and get mistakes out of him and his inability to play out from the back. Also imagining DDG with our very shaky defence is the stuff of nightmares and with him back in goals would mean getting pinned in by opposition teams more often again.
 
I was there too at the game tonight and I was a very good goal keeper( not as good as De Gea obviously) but

Are you sure? How can we know?

Sign DDG and Red Digger as competition for Onana. It's the only way but the fecking Glazers will cheap out again, pricks
 
I was there too at the game tonight and I was a very good goal keeper( not as good as De Gea obviously) but supporting United isn’t a benchmark for being in goal for our first team. Still better than Onana though which is a bit sad (me not De Gea )

Where did I state we should take him back? Just shows how much he cares supporting the womens team after being axed.
 
I am starting to appreciate his entire time at United a lot more after seeing a goalkeeper in Onana, who had what appeared to be one of the strongest mentalities in world football, who showed an incredible amount of bravery in the Champions League final a few months ago, come in and straight away crumble under the pressure at Manchester United.
 
The logical thing, and doesn’t seem to unrealistic, is to sign him on a short term contract when Onana goes to the African Cup
 
How much you wanna bet he signs as backup keeper and plays a bunch of games between now and the end of the season?
I think he will for when Onana goes away for the African cup. The backup keeper United signed is apparently awful, and it’s telling ETH didn’t play him in the League cup.