I'd sell Bailly if it's up to me. No reason to have squad player that isn't reliably fit, no matter how good he is.
Our Defence - Has it actually been fixed?
- Thread starter Untd55
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I'd sell Bailly if it's up to me. No reason to have squad player that isn't reliably fit, no matter how good he is.
So in response to this post I have provided some statistics for 'expected goals against', which of course DOES attempt to take into account the quality of shot a goalkeeper faces.
Now the problem with this is that it doesn't factor into account goals that were caused by problems of the goalkeepers own making. For example, 99% of people believe De Gea was at fault for Everton's first goal yesterday. However, the 'expected save' metric for that shot would be very low...because the mistake was palming a tame cross straight to Doucoure. Doucoure's shot, which was an open goal from a yard out, would have had a very high xG percentage.
Likewise, it wouldn't factor in mistakes like De Gea's cowardice at corners/free-kicks leading to goals against or goals like Everton's 3rd yesterday, where he bottles a challenge, because again, once DCL actually gets on the end of that chance, his xG will be very high from that position.
Anyway....I've explained why it's flawed but people asked for it and it still looks horrible for De Gea
| GOALKEEPER | TEAM | GA | PSxG | PSxG +/- |
| Nick Pope | Burnley | 24 | 29.4 | 6.4 |
| Alphonse Areola | Fulham | 28 | 33.3 | 5.3 |
| Emiliano Martínez | Aston Villa | 24 | 28.3 | 4.3 |
| Robert Sánchez | Brighton | 11 | 14.1 | 4.1 |
| Bernd Leno | Arsenal | 22 | 22.6 | 3.6 |
| Hugo Lloris | Tottenham | 22 | 23.5 | 3.5 |
| Alisson | Liverpool | 15 | 18.3 | 3.3 |
| Kasper Schmeichel | Leicester City | 25 | 27.1 | 3.1 |
| Illan Meslier | Leeds United | 37 | 38.1 | 2.1 |
| Sam Johnstone | West Brom | 50 | 48.4 | 1.4 |
| Caoimhin Kelleher | Liverpool | 1 | 2.2 | 1.2 |
| Ederson | Manchester City | 12 | 11.6 | 0.6 |
| Dean Henderson | Manchester Utd | 3 | 3.4 | 0.4 |
| Darren Randolph | West Ham | 0 | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Łukasz Fabiański | West Ham | 28 | 28.2 | 0.2 |
| Rúnar Alex Rúnarsson | Arsenal | 0 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Kiko Casilla | Leeds United | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Fraser Forster | Southampton | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Vicente Guaita | Crystal Palace | 37 | 37 | 0 |
| Robin Olsen | Everton | 6 | 5.8 | -0.2 |
| David Button | West Brom | 2 | 1.7 | -0.3 |
| Zack Steffen | Manchester City | 1 | 0.6 | -0.4 |
| Marek Rodák | Fulham | 3 | 2.5 | -0.5 |
| Bailey Peacock-Farrell | Burnley | 5 | 4.4 | -0.6 |
| Edouard Mendy | Chelsea | 14 | 13.3 | -0.7 |
| Kepa Arrizabalaga | Chelsea | 6 | 4.8 | -1.2 |
| David de Gea | Manchester Utd | 27 | 23.7 | -1.3 |
| Willy Caballero | Chelsea | 3 | 1.5 | -1.5 |
| Karl Darlow | Newcastle Utd | 38 | 34.4 | -1.6 |
There we have it...a Manchester United goalkeeper on £350K a week mixing it with the likes of Bailey Peacock-Farrell, David Button, Robin Olsen, Kiko Casilla and Karl Darlow. De Gea is even below Kepa!
Yesterday I was accused of being arrogant by several posters...well, OK, I get angry and can be a bit patronising when I'm frustrated...but my feelings are that I can forgive any player a mistake. The problem is with De Gea is that he has been very poor since Jose's first season. Ever since then, visually and statistically he has been one of the worst GKs in the league.
Likewise, I can forgive handling errors. What I can't forgive, and I don't think any of us should forgive, is his cowardice. Most of us on this forum would give their right arms to play for Utd (and probably still be better GKs than DDG), yet this bloke is playing week-in, week-out and costs us goal after goal by being scared of the ball, opponents and his own shadow! Unforgivable for me.
Also, just one for the Henderson 'is not the answer' posters...I'd love to know how on earth you draw that conclusion? I'm not saying Henderson IS the answer....but last season he had the best save percentage and the best performance against xG in the Premier League. This season, he has only played 3.5 games in the PL and is performing like a proper keeper based on saves/expected saves...so how anybody has enough evidence to write him off is really baffling.
What really shocked me is that yesterday in the second half both McTominay and Fred were on the pitch shielding our back 4 and we still conceded 3.
A proper CDM and a new CB are absolutely mandatory.
A proper CDM and a new CB are absolutely mandatory.
30 goals in 23 games is nowhere near good enough when we're in a title race and the leaders have conceded 13.
We must be the only club that expects our goalkeeper to behave like superman day in and day out, just to avoid the topic that the defence isn't good enough.
He's been good when called upon this season, but De Gea seems to be an easy target.
I was a massive critic of him last season, and he had a few blunders this season, but nothing that says we shouldn't stick by him.
Its ironic that there's people saying sod off De Gea, but you also find a few of them saying stick by Martial. Ludicrous.
There are a litany of players I'd be looking at first before I would even think of De Gea as the weak point.
We have 2 CB's and a GK that couldn't command an army of toy soldiers,so I guess we should spend all of our summer budget on buying yet more players to protect the incompetent Maguire!
Shaw has played really well lately but he still has the same problem he's had since he came. He leaves massive gaps and his positioning is always one step behind. AWB can only tackle and that's about it, horrible going forward and he's always running to catch up with whoever he's supposed to be marking. Maguire just loves to watch players run into the box, and him and Lindelof are just too soft. Every team is now targeting De Gea on corners and set pieces and its costing us way too many goals.
We have huge problems on defence that maybe could be fixed with a commanding CB and a RB that can actually defend and help going forward.
We have huge problems on defence that maybe could be fixed with a commanding CB and a RB that can actually defend and help going forward.
What teams would you say are playing out from the back?
I would say it is quite common to play around in the back line and to the DM 90% of the passes, or even more. It’s about not losing possession even under pressure, force the opponent up close to you and then when the time is, you play through them. That’s how I see it at least. Plus occasional long balls.
If you look at the goals conceded vs Everton, youll see there was no protection at all from the midfield. Everton ran through without effort. No shielding.
No
Pathetic. Sick of how we start games.
Why do our centerbacks stop playing and look for fouls so often? Maguire got away with it recently, but defenders should never hold on to the ball and fall easily looking for a foul. It's way too risky and often you get punished.
Embarrassing
Need 2 top quality cb’s in the summer, feck Maguire's price judge him on performances he’s not good enough.
Need 2 top quality cb’s in the summer, feck Maguire's price judge him on performances he’s not good enough.
We start every game with our heads in the clouds, I’m sorry but that’s on the management.
Ole's done a brilliantly fantastic job by getting rid of Smalling, Rojo, Romero for nothing and trusting Lindelöf, Maguire and De Gea while spending £150m in transfer fees on that defence. Incredible management. Well done Ole.
I see the same thing every game. Lindelof weak as piss, Maguire two yards behind the defensive line and De Gea nervous off his line.
Does Ole not see it?
Does Ole not see it?
Am i paranoid or normal keeper catches such crosses with his eyes closed?
I don’t rate him particularly highly but that was a foul on Lindelof.
When a cross loops up that high, from that angle, dropping inside the six yard box, 19 out of the 20 PL goalkeepers would catch it with ease. Not ours though. Frigging rooted to his line. As usual.
Sorting a keeper should be first priority. Otherwise whoever we have in defence will end up looking a lot worse than they are.
No. If he did he'd start Henderson.
Why do you blame the defence?
Its the fecking manager who spent hundreds of millions on the defence and still cant fecking defend against the shitiest teams in the league. Not to forget every time his precious Lindelöf is fit he is the first name on the sheat no matter how good Bailly plays.
Its the fecking manager who spent hundreds of millions on the defence and still cant fecking defend against the shitiest teams in the league. Not to forget every time his precious Lindelöf is fit he is the first name on the sheat no matter how good Bailly plays.
Hahahahahaha
That goal was mainly the result of having a CB who isn’t big and isn’t strong, two of the more important attributes for a CB.
There’s really very little difference in quality among all the CBs we’ve had on our books since Rio and Vidic left.
And fecking send Lindelöf to the reserve.
It’s just as much of a goals as Maguire’s against Burnley. Contact IS allowed when battling for a header. Just a shame Lindelöf have the physical presence of a teenage CM.
Wait are you trying to claim getting rid of Rojo is a bad idea?
What's worse is Maguire and Lindelof both put more effort into waving their arms around toward the linesman after the ball was in the net rather than dealing with the cross in the first feckin place.
Not writing them off, but as a pair, they aren't at all good. They need someone more capable beside them, regardless of which of them plays.
Not writing them off, but as a pair, they aren't at all good. They need someone more capable beside them, regardless of which of them plays.
The CBs and GK are so pathetic that I have to laugh or cry, so I choose the former. 
Maguire’s comfortably the best but the fact he’s still so much worse than Rio/Vidic speaks volumes.
I'd give maguire 1 more season with a new partner but lindelof should be a sub. A useful one, but a sub. That's just everything that's wrong with him summed up in one flailing moment
Yeah he’s far closer to the rest than to those two.
It would help if our goalie wasn't afraid of crosses or hadn't lost his shot-stopping ability in a similar way to the Space Jam movie.
Right now we can only work with what we have. Main question is why the feck was Bailly benched for Lindelöf after five top, game-winning performances in a row? Simply unacceptable management.
Take a wild fecking guess why Eric Bailly suddenly disappeared from the squad...
Has the defense been fixed? There has to be an attempt to fix it first.
Per pound spent, is there a worse defensive partnership in Europe?
Probably the next partnership we manage to cobble together knowing our luck.
City probably took that tag after spending over £400m on defenders before actually getting something that worked.