Is De Gea a bigger Man Utd legend than Peter Schmeichel?

Hughie77 said:
It's a bit Romantic to say Big Pete and its correct, imo though if DDG was in goal through Big Petes time it would probably been the same outcome in trophies. Both Keepers are top ones . As a prescence in goal to terrify opponents it Big Pete. Vds was great as well.
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Please stop!
 
Hughie77 said:
It's a bit Romantic to say Big Pete and its correct, imo though if DDG was in goal through Big Petes time it would probably been the same outcome in trophies. Both Keepers are top ones . As a prescence in goal to terrify opponents it Big Pete. Vds was great as well.
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He wouldn't have survived the opposing strikers and centre-halves in the 90s without getting injured in every match. I love DDG and he has been a really good servant for United. But the game was so different back then. DDG would've deserved more trophies as the team in front of him has been a mess for almost a decade, hope he wins some during the rest of his time here. But for me Schmeichel and vdS are pretty much neck and neck, David a step below. And there's no shame in that, still a club legend.
 
Better keeper. Bigger legend? So subjective, but probably not
 
I do appreciate DDG ability and length of service

but this isn’t even a contest.

Schmeichel won battles in the tunnel. He was feared by strikers. An absolute monster.

VDS for me is even ahead of DDG. If only we’d got him before he rocked up at Fulham!…of all places.
 
De Gea is an outstanding keeper, but Schmikes led us to a treble. Pete was not a passenger -- he was leader. Yes of course the Dane had clearly superior teammates, but he was a leader in that squad that won everything there was to win.

And on a pure footballing basis, although Dave is without question the better shot stopper (possibly the greatest of all time at his shot stopping peak), Peter is the better all around keeper.
 
If longevity and statistics were the only factors Martial would be a bigger legend than Cantona. The former has more goals and has been here longer than the latter.
 
Sammy McIlroys fan club said:
The most legendary goalkeeper in Uniteds history is Harry Gregg, football didn't start in the 90s. Schmeichel is a great keeper in his own right but some of the recency bias in some of the posts in here winds me up
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Schmeichel's era was 25/30 years ago, how is that recency bias?
 
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Overall, Schmeichel. But DDG should be amongst the legends discussion, when you think back to the number of seasons he was constantly the standout player in a tidal wave of shite about him.

Most disapprove of him nowadays, but you cannot forget how he used to win games as a GK regularly during quite a long period. It's a shame he didn't get more trophies to reflect those performances, but as someone who is up there with the number of appearances as a United players is an incredible achievement on its own. I for one will sorely miss him when he goes.
 
No. As a kid back in the day Schmeichel was a worthy goalkeeper to emulate. Same can't be said about DDG. Then you have the trophy count and the eras they represent.
 
sport2793 said:
He's right though, it would be hard to argue otherwise, especially considering that distribution by the GK wasn't important in those days.
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I think that's only considering one element.

Set pieces/corners defending against the Les Ferdinand's, Shearers, Heskey's would also be a much different profile of forward to deal with than what we see today. I'm not saying one is harder to deal with than the other but some of those 90's guys would try to bully him.
 
sport2793 said:
He's right though, it would be hard to argue otherwise, especially considering that distribution by the GK wasn't important in those days.
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Couldn’t disagree more. Our other players (strong characters) back then wouldn’t even have respected “coward” DdG. No leadership, shocking distribution (which was important even back then), doesn’t own his own area, unreliable with crosses.
 
No chance. Schmeichel won points that won league titles - plural.
 
Schmeichel the biggest United legend, van der Sar possibly the best keeper.
 
Stats and records can blur reality in a lot of things in sport, I don’t see LeBron James being a top 5 of all time basketball player yet records give him a claim to being the best of all time which of course he isn’t as Michael Jordan is.

Another example is Rooney is the top scorer for England as well as ourselves but is he better or a bigger legend than Law, Charlton, Best or Cantona ? De Gea may well break every single record for a keeper for us but personally I don’t see him as a bigger club legend than Schmeichel, VDS or even Stepney although he’s been a great player for us over the years.
 
Big Pete managed to win everything with us, and then have a son growing up and winning the prem before Liverpool won it. You cant beat that
 
If DDG finished in 2019, maybe him. One massive performance after another, and minimal mistakes. Club POTY 4 times in 5 seasons. Insane.

As it is, he started making a lot more mistakes and a lot fewer of those special games. And then of course titles and all that come into it. So pretty clearly Schmeichel.
 
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davidmichael said:
Stats and records can blur reality in a lot of things in sport, I don’t see LeBron James being a top 5 of all time basketball player yet records give him a claim to being the best of all time which of course he isn’t as Michael Jordan is.

Another example is Rooney is the top scorer for England as well as ourselves but is he better or a bigger legend than Law, Charlton, Best or Cantona ? De Gea may well break every single record for a keeper for us but personally I don’t see him as a bigger club legend than Schmeichel, VDS or even Stepney although he’s been a great player for us over the years.
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But it's not hard to put LeBron into the mythical all time starting 5:

Magic
Michael
LeBron
Tim
Kareem

Anyway, back to football, intangible factors have to be taken into account. Best was one of the greatest footballers of all time at his peak, but his peak was short lived. As was Ronaldo's (the Brazilian, of course) peak. I might even argue that Best and R9 at their peaks were the equal of CR7 at his peak, but CR7's peak lasted over a decade.

But back to De Gea, if next season United go onto a treble (no crackpipe here...we're building something under ten Hag) and Dave has a massive season for us, we may need to reconsider the Peter > Dave debate altogether. The form De Gea demonstrated during the wasteland years of Van Gaal and Mourinho are actually pretty hard for Pete to match, all things take into account.
 
United belongs into the list of clubs where- because of magnitude, past successes and a fanbase who knows and demands nothing but winning trophies- Those who'll end up being legends will almost always have played for us in times when we were winning trophies continously.

Give Casemiro and Eriksen 3-4 more years here with no major trophies won - and Michael Carrick will always be a bigger legend than them both,
regardless of who the better player was.

I'd say that by default DDG stands no real chance of being remembered as a bigger legend than Schmeikes / VDS ,
even if he breaks appearances and clean sheets records. And even if for some he's a better keeper than both (I'd take VDS ahead of both).
 
I think de gea is a better shot stopper

In ALL other departments, Big Pete was just better

So no
 
I never wanted a thread deleted so badly as this one. Big Pete is the greatest Gk in the history of this club.
 
As someone who grew up watching Schmeichel. He definitely had a bigger aura around him period.

People forget just how revolutionary he was. All round not just about shot stopping (he was the best at that in his time too btw).

It was similar to having peak Neuer. I rate both him and Schmeichel about the same. They are very similar in both stature on the field and development in whats expected of a keeper starting attacks etc.
 
No, Pete was a generational keeper imo. Full package, had trh aura too about him. Intimidated strikers too.


He's always in the debates for greatest ever goalkeeper.


But DeGod is a huge huge legend for me too. Only one of a few players to come away with credit this last 10 years. Possibly best shot stopper I've ever seen.
 
I appreciate DDG and all, but he has had multiple lengthy spells where he was absolutely terrible, and he tried to leave us for Real Madrid in his prime. He also has no apparent personality, there's no presence or charisma about him. Schmeichel was a better keeper, he was instrumental in our rise to the top, and he was a very iconic individual. His size and presence, his incredible throws, his penchant for going up in attack when needed, etc. He was just a much more notable person while DDG isn't really remarkable for anything beyond the saves he makes.
 
Are you kidding?

I only remember Schmeichel making stupid goalkeepers mistakes less than 5 times in his time with us. De Gea made at least 1 every game! Even the barca game yesterday, he stupidly kicked the ball straight to 2 barca players with not a single of his teammate in sight.
 
Swordsman said:
how about distribution/build up from the back ?
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One of the best in his era. Remember that the keepers then grew up with backpasses being legal. Big Pete basically won a European championship because of it but was able to adapt. He was pivotal in creating opportunities with his quick long throws and the accuracy of his punts.
 
I think it's quite clear that VDS and Schmeichel are both better than De Gea.
Also the fact that we were a CL and PL winning team back when those 2 were our gk help in assessing the situation that way. It's easier for a GK to be great when they had Stam, Ferdinand or Vidic in front of them. If we had De Gea and a great team that won trophies maybe the contest would be tighter.
 
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