Our most overrated keeper: it's Edwin / Don't Drink and Thread

John O'Shea is the most overrated goalie. His stats between the sticks flatter him, but he never had me convinced.
 
Very good organizer and calm goal keeper other than that, he was the weakest link in that 2008 team effort wise, he didn't try enough, he didn't put himself on the line enough, maybe because of age but no game we left saying it's him who has won us the points, Yes he saved the decisive penalty in Moscow but Terry had to slip for us to be out of jail, in a game he himself slipped for the Chelsea equalizer.


I know it's unpopular opinion but he was at fault for Kaka goal in OT, all finals goals ; near post Etoo (yes Etoo turned Vidic over), slipping in Moscow Lampard equalizer, Messi header he even didn't try to jump, Wrong footed by Xavi 2011, messi shot straight to him.

If he was that good he wouldn't be playing in Fulham after Juve. Even Valencia,Young,Jones came from small clubs and experienced success in United great teams. That doesn't mean there were that best talent individually.

Good player in a United team of golden Era, nothing much
 
It’s De Gea. Edwin’s qualities suited us perfectly. If we had had him in the last 10 years our defence wouldn’t be such a shambles.
 
Van der Sars greatest strength was his distribution. He was incredibly comfortable with the ball at his feet. He was right footed but you could play the ball to his left foot and he'd easily progress.it to a.teammate up the pitch. Made things so much easier for our centre backs I'd they were being pressed and had to play back to the keeper.

For as much as I rate and respect De Gea, I reckon Van der Sars distribution from his weaker foot was stronger than the formers off his dominant foot.
 
Yeah I think we won 4 league titles, reached 3 CL finals under him with 1 CL title.

With him we were the second strongest team in Europe after Barcelona during his time.

We have never been as good in Europe as we have been in this time.

#OperationFuetes scandal. I strongly believe that Barcelona were doping at the time. At Bari he was banned as a player and fought tooth and nail for a decade to clear his name in the court. Still. Guilty imo
 
He was such a good goalkeeper. I actually thought he got better every year and thought his final season was his best. He had a stinker in the CL final though.
 
When defenders in the calibre of peak Rio and peak Vidic felt safe with you in goal and trusted you fully to the point where you can shout at them and they will follow, then you cant be an overrated GK.
 
Dude did Dave like refuse to give you an autograph or something? We could be on a boxing thread and you’d find a way to tell us how crap he is haha.

Like, no way scoob.

Unlike people who don't understand the role at all aside from seeing saves. I can just see through the highlight moments and the hype. I'm not the only one that has mentioned him here. History will not be kind to our Dave. I can guarantee you that.
 
Saves arent necessarily the definitive bench mark. De Gea makes a lot of saves but you’d argue he does himself no favours by putting himself in positions through his poor distribution and general positioning that forces him to make saves. I’d say that stat was also a testament to VDS’ calming influence, leadership and organisational capabilities with the back 4.

Exactly this.

VdS was a keeper who organised his back 4 brilliantly.

He was constantly communicating with them and arranging the game in front of him.

As I said previously, he’s underrated rather than overrated.
 
What ? Have you ever watched him play outside youtube clips ? He was immense. I remembered his only weakness was longshots. He had a better footwork than most of current "ball playing" GK. He used to do some small footworks to get pass by the players pressing him.
 
Schmeichel was over rated too? I wonder if you are making that comment from being a bitter as he ended his career at City? If not, deary deary me, I cant read anymore of this thread its so ridiculous
I am bitter yes, but do think he was a little overrated. Roy Keane seems to agree with me :D
 
I wish we had someone like him again. Had many things he was good at to cover up any weaknesses.
 
I really shouldn't YouTube and drink scotch :lol: :lol: :lol:

To be clear! I feel his performances in those finals cost us, the Eto'o, Pedro and Messi goals are criminal attempts at saving the football.

Perhaps I veered into hyperbole
 
At least he was a vital reason why his teams used to reach those finals.

Watch videos of the goals DDG has conceded in Europe over the years and you'll understand what an overrated keeper actually looks like.

DDG is so divisive on here so not a fair comparison. VDS is held up as second only to Peter on here!
 
If you watch just highlights of old United games you would probably think Schmeichel is Taibi's level too.
 
Yeah I think we won 4 league titles, reached 3 CL finals under him with 1 CL title.

With him we were the second strongest team in Europe after Barcelona during his time.

We have never been as good in Europe as we have been in this time.
Under him?! He wasn't the fecking manager :lol:
 
What I used to like about him was how calm he made the defence in front of him. You could pick Jones and Evans ahead of him and yet there would be no nerves there, unlike what came later with De Gea in goal. For sure, especially towards the end of his time with us, his pure shot stopping ability was not in the same class as Schmeichel or De Gea but I actually think overall he might be the best keeper I've seen at United.
 
I remember when he dropped the ball against Wigan(? It was someone with blue shirts at Old Trafford game) and conceeded stupid goal, after literally years without making single blunder, everyone just kept quiet and continued like nothing happened, because he was simply the most consistent keeper we had, and no one minded that mistake.

People saying he was part of good defence keep forgetting how often Vidic and Rio were injured in late 2000s, and how often he's had make shift defences ahead of him. It was only that CL final that got to him, but it was obvious he was just old and that his reflexes were weak.
 
Worth noting that the players most likely to be overrated are the ones we rate the highest. Saying an extremely highly rated player is overrated doesn't mean they weren't very good.

Some of the responses here are far too precious.
Exactly. I didn't say he was shite, I said I watched the goals conceded in some of our biggest moments and he performed poorly. He's a superb keeper but people in here have basically proved me right; they don't understand the term overrated while screaming at me he's our greatest ever keeper. :lol:

fecking hell
 
Best thing I can say about VDS is that after years of not being able to find a reliable keeper, it was obvious within 2-3 games that he'd solved the problem.

All keepers make mistakes or let in cheap goals every now and then. The difference with him was you knew it wouldn't result in him turning into a donkey for 2 months afterwards. He'd just brush it off. He just had a calming assurance about him.

His decision making was also extremely good, which sounds like a basic thing, but having a keeper who will command his area and not flap at half the balls he comes for, or let someone head the ball in from 4 yards out because his feet are glued to the line, or suddenly appear on the TV screen 40 yards from his goal to boot the opposition striker in the stomach, makes a very big difference to the defence.

He also had very good distribution without the current fad of it coming hand in hand with dicking around with the ball for no reason and getting tackled every other game.
 
I think he’s the best tbh. Felt so good to have him come in after Barthez, Carroll and Howard and sort out our goalkeeping issues which had been key to our last 3 European exits. 2m was insane value, arguably Fergie’s last great bargain.
 
Yes he was. Class keeper. People calling him our best ever? No. That makes him overrated.

I agree, I think he’s overrated in comparison to De Gea, people often tend to overrate players in teams that win and underrate players in teams that don’t, even if it has nothing to do with 1 particular player in an 11 man team.

Vidic and Ferdinand in front of VDS meant he didn’t have that much to do vs a lot of chancers in front of De Gea for a lot of his United career. Same for someone like Bruno now who is getting blamed for shit that if he was playing with Keane and Scholes or even Butt instead of McTominay and Fred (the gap is laughable), the idea of him costing us winning games would be ludicrous.
 
VDS knowledge of angles, his tactical knowledge - organisation of back 4, where to distribute to and when, leadership - led to him to not have to pull off as many spectacular saves. He made the game easier for himself.

I don’t think he was as good as Schmikes as Big Pete was a icon and a larger than life goalkeeper who could be a cheat code when on form but he brought an air of calm to United and he’s a timeless goalkeeper - one who would look very comfortable in the modern era even more so than Pete.

DdG is not overrated - superb shot stopper but his overall command of goalkeeping and the other nuances that go into it are frankly below average - zero leadership of the backline, doesn’t seem to strike me as the sort of guy that understands the game outside of his own box and doesn’t really come out to collect aerial balls or sweep - something both Pete and VDS could do.
 
It’s not often in life I’m lost for words, but, honestly. Just. Wibble.
 
Van der Sars greatest strength was his distribution. He was incredibly comfortable with the ball at his feet. He was right footed but you could play the ball to his left foot and he'd easily progress.it to a.teammate up the pitch. Made things so much easier for our centre backs I'd they were being pressed and had to play back to the keeper.

For as much as I rate and respect De Gea, I reckon Van der Sars distribution from his weaker foot was stronger than the formers off his dominant foot.

He was poor by modern standards. In fact, in De Gea's first season where he in general had a tough start to his PL career - his distribution was still a marked improvement over VDS