Background
On 19th July 2020, Manchester United lost the semi finals of the FA cup to Chelsea by three goals to one. Two of the goals were attributed to mistakes by the goalkeeper David De Gea. Reactions to this were as expected with some calling him to be replaced by their on loan keeper at Sheffield United. The solution to this is not so simple and in this article we will look further into this.
Article
David De Gea is indeed an enigma. Having signed from Athletico Madrid on the 29th June 2011, he endured a difficult first season as the Manchester United goalkeeper having taken over from Edwin van der Sar who was retiring. He soon found his feet and from 2012 to 2018, was a regular in club and national player awards shortlists when not actually winning them. However, in the last 2 years, his form has somehow been erratic.
Despite that initial year in which his form had become erratic and with one year left on his deal, he signed a new contract in July 2019 thought to be £375k per week until 2023. And this is where the complications begin. He is the highest paid goalkeeper in world football and similar to the Gareth Bale situation at Real Madrid, is unlikely to want to take a pay cut to move on. So simply dropping him and bringing in their backup goalkeeper isn’t really going to work.
The question to answer is what has happened in the last two years that has caused such an alarming increase in basic mistakes. Maybe, things linked to concentration more than technique. The solution surely has to be a review of his day to day coaching and training plans, maybe some work with sports psychologists and potentially bringing in better goalkeeper coaching staff.
When you are a rich club like Manchester United are, the temptation is always there to buy your way out of trouble but there is no guarantee that throwing money at the latest great goalkeeping talent is always going to work. Chelsea are a prime example of this when they in essence swapped out Courtois for Kepa, and face a similar problem this summer. Also, with the Covid 19 epidemic causing financial ripples in the football world, selling players for a good price is also going to be difficult.
In conclusion, it’s time to go in house and get back the De Gea we all know so well. The one who single handedly stopped Liverpool’s strike force of Suarez, Sturridge and Sterling in 2014 and Kane, Erikson, Son and Ali in January last year. Manchester United are currently 31 points behind Liverpool and “just” 13 points behind Manchester City in second. Having De Gea in peak form would surely help reduce this gap significantly. Of all clubs, Manchester should know this from the 1995-1996 season when a spine of Schmeichel, Bruce, Keane and Cantona helped them win the most unlikeliest of premiership titles. So instead of going back to 1999 for this team, it may be more prudent for Soljkaer to reference the 1996 team and get De Gea back to peak performance to get them back onto that perch!
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