Manchester United: It’s Time to Talk About David De Gea’s Awful Season
David De Gea has cost Manchester United on so many occasions with his uncharacteristic mistakes this season, and it’s time for us to get to the bottom of it.
If you ask football fans who the best goalkeeper in the world is, it’s likely that many of them will say ‘David De Gea’, as the Spaniard has been a standout in world football for years and is still only 28 years old. De Gea has become famous for his acrobatic, highlight-reel saves in crucial moments, and has been truly the only consistent performer in Manchester United’s backline since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson. Despite being on the highlight reel so often in his career, David De Gea has been on the bloopers reel more than anything else this season, as he has made a string of uncharacteristic mistakes that have cost his team dearly.
Many think of goalkeeping mistakes as letting a shot sneak under the glove, or kicking the ball straight to the opposition, but we also have to think of goalkeeping mistakes as things they don’t do, rather than only things they do. For example, De Gea often fails to come off his line to meet an oncoming forward or to claim a cross when he should, but this gets completely swept under the rug and overshadowed by his stellar shot-stopping. However, this season, his shot stopping has been so sub-par that many are starting to notice the other flaws in his game along with the errors with his gloves.
If that De Gea mistake was a one-off, then it could be dismissed as just that. But it's not even his first this month. May have been the world's best, but he's nowhere near that right now.
— Mark Ogden (@MarkOgden_) April 16, 2019
Against Arsenal toward the end of 2018, De Gea conceded the first goal of the match to Shkodran Mustafi of all people, when the centre-back’s header bounced off the ground and towards De Gea’s head, where he should have made a simply catch. Instead, De Gea palmed the ball over his own head and over the goal-line, giving the Gunners the lead. Against Southampton, young full-back Yan Valery scored a long-range rocket which beat De Gea’s at his near post, and while it was a powerful shot, you would have expected a save. There have been many other mistakes from De Gea that are too many in number to mention, but his highly-publicized mistake against Barcelona on Tuesday was the cherry on the icing on the cake for De Gea doubters.
United would have been hammered anyway but it’s time to cash in on De Gea. He has saved United’s dignity for far too long and now, with this season where he has been really poor by his standards, it’s time to sell.
— Alex Shaw (@AlexShawTel) April 16, 2019
So what is the reason behind his poor season? Well, maybe he isn’t having a particularly awful season, but our expectations of him are so high that it simply seems like one. After all, the official Premier League website says De Gea has 2 errors leading to goal, while the likes of Bernd Leno and Alisson Becker have 3 each. However, this isn’t completely reliable, as it omits mistakes that aren’t always noticeable at first sight, such as the types I mentioned earlier.
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Perhaps the Spaniard is simply having an off year, and at 28, which is quite young for a goalkeeper, it isn’t the end of the world. However, we cannot deny the fact that David De Gea has not been the same, consistent performer he has often been for Manchester United, and that has cost them across all competitions. He must get back to his best for the final 5 matches of the season, if his club is to land themselves in the top 4.