DAVID DE FLAYER! Long-suffering keeper real sad-do masochist
DAVID DE GEA must be the biggest masochist in Manchester.
The definition of the term above is someone who enjoys “an activity that appears to be painful or tedious”.
Is there a more fitting description for the life of a Manchester United goalkeeper than this?
For some reason unbeknown to everyone apart from the man himself, De Gea has chosen to fulfil this role for more than a decade now.
Being one of the highest-paid goalkeepers in the world on £400,000 a week provides some sort of comfort amid all the suffering. But years of abuse tend to take a toll and when De Gea looks at his bank balance, he must still wonder if all the financial reward has been worth it.
The Spaniard has been voted United’s Player of the Year four times, which tells its own story.
Four also just happens to be the number of trophies De Gea has won since arriving at Old Trafford from Atletico Madrid in 2011 in a £23million deal.
On current evidence De Gea isn’t going to be adding to a collection of medals that betrays his talent and dedication.
It’s not a stretch to say he could spend another decade at United and still have just one Premier League title to his name.
The final nail in the coffin containing United’s current title hopes was hammered in at Old Trafford yesterday, when Manchester City cruised through one of the most one-sided derbies in living memory.
How United limited the damage to just 2-0 is anyone’s guess, but there is no doubting De Gea has to take some of the credit.
He produced some world-class saves in the first half to remind all those in the
red corner just how fortunate United are to still have him between the posts.
Okay, so he might have been at fault, along with Luke Shaw, for Bernardo Silva’s scruffy goal on the stroke of half-time.
But it’s no exaggeration to suggest that Pep Guardiola’s side would have been 5-0 up by this time had it not been for De Gea.
He had mitigating circumstances to fall back on too.
If being made the last line of defence behind an unfamiliar and dysfunctional back three wasn’t bad enough, De Gea
had to put up with the fact that Victor Lindelof was part of a unit about as secure as a sieve.
When these three wise men also include an unfit Harry Maguire and Eric Bailly, doing his best impression of a headless chicken, then De Gea can be forgiven for thinking that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is having a laugh at his expense.
United were not even content with scoring just one goal for the opposition, following Bailly’s horrible shank into his own net inside seven minutes.
Lindelof then tried to notch a second
but was denied by the brilliance of De Gea who stood there, hand on hips, puffing out his cheeks like someone wishing he’d rather be shopping with missus than being made a fool of once again by people supposed to be on the same side.
By the final whistle, United had had more shots on target against their own keeper than against City’s.
Christmas is still almost eight weeks away, but the pantomime season was in full swing at United, who have not kept a clean sheet at home since March.
But De Gea remains one of the few exceptions to the current rule by not playing the villain.
He might have even raised a smile in the home dressing room at the break when Solskjaer decided to revert to a back four in a bid to limit the damage, or as Gary Neville said, at least reduce the second half to a “calm annihilation”.
But why had it taken Solskjaer so long to make the change most people could see was needed after less than 15 minutes?
Even this felt irrelevant though, because whatever Solskjaer tried it wouldn’t have made a jot of difference.