How much of a priority is upgrading our goalkeeper?

DM is definitely our biggest priority. After that though we have a number of roles that I'd have at fairly equal priority, and goalkeeper is one of them (the others being rightback and probably striker).

However, I'm more than happy to give Henderson a season in goal while we focus on improving those other positions. I doubt he'll be our long-term #1 (although I'd love for him to prove me wrong), but it would reduce the priority that we need to give the keeper position.

Plant0x84 said:
But he hasn’t played meaningfully since. If he pulled up trees he’d have been straight back in when he recovered but he didn’t and he wasn’t and frankly we haven’t missed him. Sell him this summer, get rid of his moaning in the press and Tom Heaton will be a perfectly adequate back up.
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Haven't we?

Why is it that the only time in the last few years that our defence hasn't been an absolute shambles just so happened to be the only time that De Gea hasn't been in goal? Could it have anything to do with having a keeper that refuses to deal with crosses, doesn't dominate his box, doesn't communicate and organise his defence, sits on his goal-line so our defenders have much more space behind them for attackers to run into, does everything he can to make it difficult to pass to him, and when he does get the ball regularly passes it straight to an opposition player in a dangerous position?

Henderson isn't even 'that' good at most of those aspects himself, so the fact that he's still much better at them than De Gea really shows how poor De Gea is at everything you expect your goalkeeper to do other than pure shot-stopping.
 
sullydnl said:
And though most here seem to agree that we can do better than De Gea, I rarely see people actually cite which specific high-talent modern keeper they'd want as Manchester United's new #1. Instead the most often cited potential replacement is Henderson, who himself is relatively limited compared to the best goalkeepers and was only really an option because he happens to already be at the club. Were he not nobody would be crying out for us to sign him to replace De Gea.
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Henderson will never be a top, top keeper - that is my prediction.

So, yeah - the Henderson thing is just a bit of a distraction if you ask me. We shouldn't have offered him that contract - it was a stupid move.

The question is whether we should aim to replace DDG as our starting keeper - not whether Henderson should replace him as such.
 
sullydnl said:
The other factor that would play on my mind here is who we'd actually replace him with.

First, you'd have to trust that the club have a clear idea of what top level football demands of goalkeepers in 2022. Which isn't a given when you consider how little they understood what top level football was demanding of fullbacks in 2019.

Also while it's easy to find goalkeepers who are better rounded than De Gea on paper, that wouldn't be the aim of any attempt to replace him. The aim would be to actually sign a top class goalkeeper on par with the likes of Allison, Ederson etc. In other words to try and repeat our approach when replacing VDS (where we successfully identified a long-term high-talent replacement) rather than our approach when replacing Schmeichel (which saw us waste years on a cycle of good but not good enough goalkeepers).

And though most here seem to agree that we can do better than De Gea, I rarely see people actually cite which specific high-talent modern keeper they'd want as Manchester United's new #1. Instead the most often cited potential replacement is Henderson, who himself is relatively limited compared to the best goalkeepers and was only really an option because he happens to already be at the club. Were he not nobody would be crying out for us to sign him to replace De Gea.

If/when I saw signs that the club was now purchasing towards a clear style of play and/or there were obvious high-talent potential target like Neuer/De Gea were back in the day then I'd probably be more keen for the club to make a decisive move. Whereas I'm much less keen to move on our longstanding #1 at a point where the club seem baffled in terms of the direction they're going and there's a high chance that his replacement would be some stop-gap we'd be looking to upgrade on again in a year or two.
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This.

GK is not a position you feck around with for no reason. If there's a sure thing on the market - yes get him. If your keepers a genuine problem, then upgrading them automatically becomes priority number 1 before any other position in the team.

If none of those is the case, leave it alone up until you've got everything else sorted and can take a bit of a risk.
 
Its not one. GK is hard to get right easy to get wrong. We don’t need a new one, we have one of the best in the world, no matter what the genius theoretical managers on here would have you believe.
 
I think we should wait until we get to a European final and lose it due to the GK.
 
peridigm said:
I think we should wait until we get to a European final and lose it due to the GK.
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That is the single most ignorant comment I’ve seen here. We didn’t we put them away before the shootout? We had the better attackers, didn’t we? Yeah he didn’t save a pen, but neither did their goalie until DDG missed, which is hardly something to get rid of him for. Its a shootout, luck determines who wins.
 
if you dont have the proper setup around having a ball playing GK will do more harm than help. Think you need to ensure the proper setup if that is how you want to play
 
I'll also pose the question: we did play the high line both under Rangnick and under Ole and have been mostly fine. Both our CBs are usually pretty high in the opposition half with acres of space behind them.

The biggest downside of having DDG deep in these cases is that our attack gets slowed down when we try to recycle the ball (e.g.., a typical attacking sequence LW (no space) -> back to LB -> CB -> gets pressured -> Back all the way to a very deep DDG -> Opposition has time to get higher up the pitch as a result).

It's a little unfortunate, but hardly the end of the world.
 
sullydnl said:
The other factor that would play on my mind here is who we'd actually replace him with.

Also while it's easy to find goalkeepers who are better rounded than De Gea on paper, that wouldn't be the aim of any attempt to replace him. The aim would be to actually sign a top class goalkeeper on par with the likes of Allison, Ederson etc. In other words to try and repeat our approach when replacing VDS (where we successfully identified a long-term high-talent replacement) rather than our approach when replacing Schmeichel (which saw us waste years on a cycle of good but not good enough goalkeepers).
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Sort of agree with your general principle but I think as a club and a fanbase, we need to get past the idea that every viable signing we make has to cost £70m+.

Where we once had 15/16+ elite-level players and 7/8 capable backups, we now arguably need reinforcements in every single area of the pitch. If we plan to address that one or two players at a time, as we have post-SAF, we'll never get to where we need to be.

I can't believe that with our scouting network, we can't find good players who either because they're less well-known, have a favourable contract situation or play for a club who don't have much cash, would be available for £20-40m

Let's face it, would it be a mammoth task to improve on some of our lot?
 
I think if United bring in a manager like ETH but don't replace De Gea this summer you'll find yourself in a situation similar to what Arsenal faced last year with Leno. It's very hard to put a system into place where you play out from the back and really try to keep control of matches unless you have a keeper who can play with his feet. Teams will adjust their pressing strategies to force the goalkeeper to play the ball more often, they'll put an extra man higher into the press if they don't believe that the goalkeeper can hit certain kinds of medium and long balls with accuracy when under pressure, etc. All this will make it much harder for the team to learn to play with the ball - your possessions will keep getting interrupted, poorly weighted or timed balls from the GK will put the other players into very difficult spots, and the team will lose confidence in the system after giving away enough bad goals.

Maybe United will hire a different manager but if you're going to commit to ETH, then you need to buy a new GK so that the side can implement his tactics.
 
we would wait until next manager come, can he utilize De Gea and fit to his system, while wait until De Gea's contract expire in 2023.
if he doesnt fit with new manager system, we can release him on free in 2023 and seek for new goalie.
but, for next season we can strengten our ST, RW, DM and looking for Pogba replacement.
 
Relatively high, but not the most important. I would buy a #6 and #9 first. Then I would replace De Gea. I don't see anything happening this summer, but if the next manager wants a better keeper on the ball, I can see him being replaced in summer 2023.

His main strength is exceptional, but he has too many weaknesses. During the period from 2018 to this season, we saw what happened when he stopped being a consistent shot stopper. It wasn't pretty. His current shot stopping form is also unsustainable. I want a keeper with a more all around skillset. Finding one that can make saves on De Gea's level will be hard/almost impossible, but it should be a bit easier to find one that commands his area much better, does some sweeping, and be better with the ball at his feet.
 
I would sell De Gea and Henderson. Get Sam Johnstone back as a backup with Heaton, and get either Robert Sanchez or David Raya.

If a Ten Hag or Luis Enrique comes in, they will want a keeper comfortable with their feet. We all know Luis Enrique doesnt favor De Gea, I wouldnt be surprised if Ten Hag would look at a better ball playing keeper.

I think Henderson already has a foot out the door, with all the frustration that he has towards the club for not playing him at all.

Selling both our current keepers and getting Johnstone and one of the Spanish keepers would get us a good profit, I’d estimate between 20-30 millions profit which can be spent elsewhere.
 
If Ten Hag is our manager, there is likely chance that keeper is more important than a centre back. The way how Ten Hag is using his keeper is almost the same way how Pep uses his keeper. Although, i just want to say that Onana is available for free while Dean Henderson was linked with Ajax at one point. So it’s not really doom and gloom. I just hope our board is not the one who makes the decision about our keeper situation.
 
Is there a cheap back up keeper that can be signed to give us variety in the goalkeeping position? There must be someone out there who we can bring in to challenge de Gea.
 
Most of us knew the importance of upgrading DeaGea and it’s been on the agenda for the last couple of seasons.
Yesterday proved the urgency of getting a replacement keeper. This was demonstrated after he passed the ball to Erikson resulting in Brentfords 2cnd goal, when there were clearly safer options. He went into complete meltdown and needs some time out of the game in my view.
 
DWelbz19 said:
I kind of equate De Gea to be the goalkeeping version of Fernandes, tbh. Both thrive in chaotic, uncoached environments.

De Gea will have a great individual season making endless saves and some audacious reaction stops, but it’ll normally come in a season where the entire defence is lost at sea because the guy behind them radiates an aura of nervousness and a lack of control.

Having a ‘keeper with a semblance of modern play about him would be nice. I don’t think Henderson is that answer, unfortunately.
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The second we go for a manager who wants to put some structure and agency on the goalkeeping position (as virtually every big club in world football currently does) he starts to crumble and perform how he is doing. Unsurprising.
 
Adnan said:
Is there a cheap back up keeper that can be signed to give us variety in the goalkeeping position? There must be someone out there who we can bring in to challenge de Gea.
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Might be able to get Ter Stegen on the cheap soon…
 
It’s on a list of priorities, trouble is that list is as long as your arm.

For me he’s unfortunately now amongst a group of players at this club that I just can’t see playing any part in a successful (or even semi-successful) rebuild.

Same goes for Maguire, Shaw, Dalot, Fred, McTominay plus a good few others. They’ll start games because of current lack of alternatives but I think they’re close to finished here. They can’t turn it around and in some cases shouldn’t be given any more opportunity ideally.
 
There’s been pretty much one constant on the pitch throughout all these years of shit. Wonder who that is…
 
NewYorkRed said:
Its not one. GK is hard to get right easy to get wrong. We don’t need a new one, we have one of the best in the world, no matter what the genius theoretical managers on here would have you believe.
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What you saying now?
 
Adnan said:
Is there a cheap back up keeper that can be signed to give us variety in the goalkeeping position? There must be someone out there who we can bring in to challenge de Gea.
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Nikita Haikin from Bodø/Glimt if you want to go ubercheap. Out of contract in December. Was at Chelsea in his youth days. He is excellent with his feet, solid shot stopper and a key reason why Glimt have been so successful both domestically and in the UCL (against the likes of Roma, Celtic, AZ) in recent years. If they reach the CL I don’t think he will be short of suitors on a free this winter.
 
De Gea has won only one PL title during his time here whilst playing under SAF as well.

We will never ever win a PL title again whilst he is our Goalkeeper.
 
Should've gotten Pope on the cheap as a stop-gap till next season, cost Newcastle only 10m.
 
De Gea will get a new contract because it will take is 6 years to scout another goalkeeper, and then we'll sign a 5'5 keeper the manager used to work with at Oldham anyway.
 
It's a priority but I don't know whether it's priority #1 or priority #5 there are that many areas to improve. But if you think about it in terms of wage vs value to the team, he's probably the shittest player in the squad, even ahead of Ronaldo. To think we're paying not far off a million per week for the pair of them. That's probably more than what the entire Brentford first team are earning
 
Give us some names. Can’t say I’ve been watching the keeper market.

Trapp?
 
The worst keeper in the league. It should be priority one with a midfield not far behind. And some industrious wingers. And a striker. Don't forget a right back...
 
Mainoldo said:
Give us some names. Can’t say I’ve been watching the keeper market.

Trapp?
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Not one for this summer as I don’t think they’d sell at this stage but I’d quite liked Sanchez at Brighton up until he shit the bed for half an hour against us last week. He lost his head and it seemed to take quite a lot of time for him to get it back, not sure we can accommodate that. If that’s something that can be coached out or will disappear with age then he’s a good shot stopper, comes out for crosses, decent with his feet. All the things you’d want in a keeper.
 
I'm surprised it wasn't one of the very first priorities when ten Hag arrived to be honest. I'm sure he has realised by now, but this is why a club's transfer activity shouldn't be solely dictated by the manager. It already feels too late to fix this problem now.
 
CM10 said:
I'm surprised it wasn't one of the very first priorities when ten Hag arrived to be honest. I'm sure he has realised by now, but this is why a club's transfer activity shouldn't be solely dictated by the manager. It already feels too late to fix this problem now.
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The club gave him a 1m budget for a keeper this summer. He had to fight to get it up to 7m.
DDG won’t be here next season anyway so thats good.
 
Cassidy said:
The club gave him a 1m budget for a keeper this summer. He had to fight to get it up to 7m.
DDG won’t be here next season anyway so thats good.
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Which they've put up to £7m and apparently will fo higher I need be. We definitely need a keeper though.
 
Cassidy said:
The club gave him a 1m budget for a keeper this summer. He had to fight to get it up to 7m.
DDG won’t be here next season anyway so thats good.
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Criminal. This team lost about a million off the wage bill before ten Hag even arrived and that's the money being put up for transfers.
 
Jazz said:
Which they've put up to £7m and apparently will fo higher I need be. We definitely need a keeper though.
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Yes but Ten Hag had to fight for that is the point.
 
Bestietom said:
We still need a RB, DM, RW, CF and that is in this window.
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Agreed, much higher priorities. DeGea needs a good no2 to provide competition for him. Ideally a hungry so and so who actually has the ability for this level i.e. not hendersen.
 
De gea will cost us points this season. In the same way he has for the last 3 years. That will pale into comparison that amount of points we will lose because we don’t have a functional team.

I know we will need a keeper more suited to ten haags football soon but I’m sure someone can teach de gea to pass it to our left back.
 
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