No player is insusceptible to criticism, yet the off chance that there is one who ought to be given a lot of free passes, it is David de Gea. For all the issues at Manchester United, the form of their certainly splendid goalkeeper is not a thing to question every time. But what if the mistakes become so common to result in loss of points, that people start forgetting the prime version of the player? We cannot deny that his standards have dipped since 2018 but we aren’t dealing with a spent force. It is possible to differentiate between a world-class goalkeeper who is making errors and one in permanent decline.
Keeping the ball out of the net is one of the most remarkable abilities of David De Gea and he is showing his might by keeping goals out that would normally be scored. Ole Gunnar Solksjaer is also standing by De Gea and doesn’t consider anyone as a possible contender to replace him. But you have to wonder how long he will be patient for. De Gea has now been making mistakes with alarming regularity. With such a good backup goalkeeper in Sergio Romero and a huge prospect in homegrown Dean Henderson, Solskjaer might have to consider dropping De Gea to the bench.
“We want the best possible squad for Man United,” the manager said after the game against Everton where the first goal came off a pretty bad mistake from David. “David for me is the best goalkeeper in the world.
Delving deeper into the problems of the team we can also see that the defenders and defensive mideos don’t want to engage the opposition, which not only allows them speculative efforts on goal but affects his positioning under the bar as well. A goalkeeper doesn’t just take his positioning from where the ball is and the opponent in possession. He also has to look at the defender’s as well.
David always had a problem dealing with long-range shots. Granit Xhaka (Arsenal), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Gylfi Sigurdsson (Everton), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) have all had the better of him in the past years with a costly mistake in the World Cup. This generally happens when a person is busy watching or reading the game, not being involved in it. The level David is playing in, he can’t just stay aloof when the ball is rolling on the ground among 22 men.
What do you think might be the cause behind DDG’s drop in form?
David de Gea | Worst Mistakes ever
