How well-regarded would de Gea have been in the 2000s and 90s?

[elmo]

I disagree. I think De Gea at his best, was better than VDS.

VDS was excellent, and consistenly an 8/10 but he never really saved shots that he had no right to get to that De Gea did - sometimes multiple times in games. De Gea was a one man defence at times - and during LvG there was just games where you could see the opposition teams running out of ideas in how to beat him.

Yeah, that’s because De Gea is shit at commanding his backline.

And you’re comparing a De Gea in his physical prime versus VDS who was in his late 30s. VDS is a much better keeper than De Gea and it ain’t even close.

De Gea’s propensity to chicken out from catching crosses makes him an easy target, everybody knows it’ll create havoc as long as they whip in a cross because he’s just going to punch the ball away leaving him in a bad position to make any save if the ball takes a lucky drop for the opponent.

 

[elmo]

De Gea at his best was easily better than any version of VDS at United.

Stop rating players by their fifa ratings.

 

[Based Adnan]

De Gea isn't close to Schmeichel or VDS' level

 

[Bole Top]

his reputation wouldn't suffer nearly as much as some think. if anything, it's the opposite. ball playing goalkeeper? in times with more limited access to internet (and thus matches) and youtube compilations being your only way of seeing certain player? give me a break. he would still be regarded as one of the best keepers around. Peruzzi had the same flaws and was about 1.79-1.80m tall - he was and still is regarded as one of the leagues's best goalkeepers in history and the same goes for Casillas. people weren't overanalyzing all this goalkeeper "stuff" as much as today. if anything, history will be less kind to the keepers like Ederson. it's spectacular saves that got you reputation in the past, not the fact you managed to pass to your centerback without missing by 5m.

 

[RVN1991]

Stop rating players by their fifa ratings.

I'm not. De gea didn't have the luxury of having prime Vidic and Rio in front of him, who btw were part of the best back four in Europe at the time, and people seem to have forgotten how much of a wall DDG was in the mid 10's. As good as VDS was he was never undisputedly the best GK in the Prem like de gea was for so long.

The bigger question should be how much differently would De gea be viewed if the whole fax machine fiasco didn't happen and he joined Madrid. He's a casualty of United's incompetence.

VDS wasn't perfect as his tenure at Juve would attest to but I will agree that he had qualities that made him age a lot more gracefully than De gea has who relied a lot more on his reflexes and athleticism, but mid 10's De Gea on the United sides VDS played on would 1000% be viewed in a far more positive light than he is now.