Manchester United The Book of David De G
The start to the career in England of David De Gea, John Starks Jerseyis a highly contentious area that many have strong points about. Manchester Uniteds new number 1 has come in with more than his fair share of criticism. Is he solely to blame for the reason that though only by two points the Champions of England trail their money mad city rivals? I present to you the Book of David: Chapter 1The Beginning, let the reading commence!David De Gea was bought from Atletico Madrid in the summer for 17 million, a fee that I believe may increase depending on clauses. Viewers of La Liga would have already been alerted to his superb shot stopping capabilities from his teenage years. With the money spent by Sir Alex Ferguson the blueprint was for him to be the number 1 choice for many years to come. Bar homesickne s he could actually be their first choice for 10 15 years and that is no exaggeration given the lifespan of goalkeepers.His first game in goal for his new club came against none other then their noisy neighbours Manchester City in the Charity Shield, the curtain raiser for what has already been a crazy Premiership season. Here is where the trouble started. United went 2-0 down and he was looked at for both goals, the first a header by Joleon Lescott, the second a drive outside the box by Edin Dzeko. On the first goal by Lescott, De Gea seemed to make a rather casual attempt to dive to save the header. When you look at the goal again though the defences inability to clear the freekick meant that it wouldve a taken something special to stop him scoring gathering how close Lescott was allowed to get to the goal. Dzekos strike was more where United fans saw cause for concern, about 25 yards or so from goal he let loose a strike that though not right in the corner of the goal and closer to the centre of the goal & De Gea failed to keep it out. Though United went on to win the game 3-2, the fans were already alert to the po sible vulnerability of their expensive new keeper.The first league game of Frank Ntilikina Jerseythe season would arguably and be where De Geas biggest crime lay. Against West Brom he somehow let in a rather tame effort by Roy Hodgsons new signing Shane Long. How De Gea let the ball creep in I dont think God knows. Again though the Red Devils went on to win the game 2-1. At the end of August in the 8-2 win against Arsenal, he saved a penalty to begin some kind of road to redemption. Though the scoreline was emphatic there was a minority of fans who were not happy with manner of the two goals that United conceded, on another day De Gea probably would have kept out Theo Walcotts goal, but the defence must be looked at for the way they carved open on both goals. Arsenal also made & mi sed one or two other decent chances in this game.In October when United were thrashed 6-1 at home to their city rivals, the only goal you can say De Gea couldve done better on was maybe David Silvas goal and that is at a push as Silva was quite composed in placing his finish. The defending in this game by United before and after the sending off of Evans wasnt good enough, the fact that out of the 7 goals scored in the game Darren Fletcher scored probably the best goal for United shows how City cut them open time and time again leaving De Gea much too exposed to a clinical set of individuals.The 3-2 defeat at the end of December at home to Blackburn was where interesting talking points occurred. After coming back form 2-0 down United conceded a soft goal from a corner by Grant Hanley. De Gea was ripped apart for not dealing with the cro s into the box. Hanley headed and then at the second attempt forced the ball into the goal. Now as much as De Gea is to blame, surely again the defenders can be questioned. Not one of the United players in the box made a resounding attempt to get the ball out of the danger area, the fact Hanley was allowed two bites at the cherry shows this. Now this goal stems from two things. De Gea is arriving from Spain where goalkeepers are from aLatrell Sprewell Jersey culture where they tend to punch the ball more often than not then come out to catch it. Also Uniteds defenders are naturally still used to Edwin Van Der Sar coming out to catch the ball clearing any impending danger. The team was spoilt as there arent too many in the busine s better than Van Der Sar at commanding the penalty area. There Earl Monroe Jerseyhas to be some adapting done by the defence and De Gea, how long it will take remains to be seen as in the recent FA Cup defeat to Liverpool a similar goal to the one at Blackburn was scored by Daniel Agger for Liverpools opening goal. De Gea didnt know whether to come or go, the defenders seemed to only be concentrating on Andy Carroll who was altering De Geas view and before you knew it Agger was heading in for 1-0. Now this game is one I could certainly not back De Gea in, he was poor from start to finish. His uncertainty didnt help things on a day when Liverpool seemed more hungry than United. He kicked poorly and his concentration overall seemed elsewhere.Keepers supposedly dont peak until they are 28 and De Gea has only a few months ago turned 21, his come to a new country and will be expanding on any English he spoke before. I pitched these same things to a close friend who is a United supporter, he said well how do you explain the succe s of Iker Casillas at Real Madrid & Gianluigi Buffon at Juventus for instance. Both these keepers became their teams number 1 choice at ages similar if not younger than De Gea. The main significance I pointed out is that they stayed within their own country. We cannot take for granted how hard it is to move to a new country at a young age. Add to that the expectation levels of a club that has been highly succe sful for almost 20 years and taking over from a former world-cla s keeper in Van Der Sar.Indeed if we look at stats some of my backing for De Gea at certain times becomes slightly more obvious. Earlier on in the season United had allowed the most amount of shots in the league. This statistic may have slightly changed more recently but what is more current is that at courtesy of Opta we know that up to a few days ago at 77% De Gea has the 4th best saves-to-shots percentage in the Premiership. Though weve all seen the apparent mistakes, fans Austin Rivers Jerseyespecially should look at the fact that against Stoke and Liverpool in the league his saves consolidated a point in both games. Especially against Liverpool when saves from Kuyt & Suarez amongst others bought the team an undeserved share of the spoils. In Novembers league game against Swansea, United finished strong and couldve added more goals but before then De Gea made 1 or 2 key saves to keep them in the lead. His contribution in these games shouldnt be overlooked because if these points were dropped United could be even closer to if not under Tottenham in the table. Add to that his performance on the weekend against Chelsea, after Unite
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