De Gea must change style to please Erik
DAVID de Gea’s fellow professionals at United might have voted him their player of the season, but the goalkeeper remains in the international wilderness despite his club displays.
The 31-year-old enjoyed a good season, making 128 saves in 38 Premier League games, and his teammates clearly recognised that but for the Spaniard, their dreadful season could have been worse.
This was United’s worst season defensively since 1978/79 but their long-serving goalkeeper still emerged with credit, although this was a campaign that in a way played to De Gea’s strengths.
He is an excellent shot-stopper and he had a lot of shots to try and stop as the Reds fell apart under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and then Ralf Rangnick. He was given plenty of opportunities to excel.
Those saves haven’t helped his international prospects, however.
De Gea hasn’t been capped by Spain since October 2020, when his mistake led to Viktor Tsygankov’s winning goal for Ukraine in a Nations League fixture.
Luis Enrique launched a passionate defence of his goalkeeper that night, telling critics that “blaming De Gea is already a bad habit”, but he’s not picked him to play for Spain since then and in March he left him out of the squad entirely.
That pattern has continued for June’s Nations League double headers against Czech Republic and Switzerland, with Athletic Bilbao’s Unai Simon staying as No. 1, while Premier League pair Robert Sanchez (Brighton) and David Raya (Brentford) are ahead of De Gea.
You wouldn’t find many pundits who would claim that Sanchez or Raya are better goalkeepers than De Gea, but one area they are better is with the ball at their feet.
Behind Ederson and Alisson, they might well be the best passers in the league; indeed Raya is so good that Jurgen Klopp said he should wear No. 10 on his back.
It is those attributes that have led Enrique to pick them ahead of De Gea in his squad.
“A goalkeeper should start the play and generate the first superiority, they must dominate the aerial play,” he said before Spain’s game against Czech Republic on Sunday.
“I need a goalkeeper that transmits peace and calmness to me, that doesn’t mean they won’t make mistakes, errors are part of football. What they generate I like a lot.”
For all De Gea’s excellence, his ability to “start the play” – distribute accurately with his feet – isn’t a significant strength, at least it hasn’t been in recent United teams. But that might have to change under Erik ten Hag.
Like most modern coaches Ten Hag wants a proactive goalkeeper, who can not only start the play but also command a high line, sweeping up behind a defence and coming to claim high balls where possible, starting fast attacks.
That’s not something you’d readily associate with De Gea at the moment, but that is what he needs to do to have a chance of adding to his 45 caps for Spain and maybe Enrique spelling out his demands so clearly will help.
He will begin next season as United’s No. 1 but will know he might need to change to keep that status for the long-term as well.
Enrique has added to that expectation and De Gea now has the summer to prepare for a new approach in 2022/23.
A goalkeeper should start the play and generate the first superiority Luis Enrique
McClaren. The former England manager and Old Trafford assistant has provided precious insight into Ten Hag over the last few months.
McClaren has lauded Ten Hag’s tactical nous, his meticulous approach to training and how hard he works his players in pre-season and beyond.
That might explain why Ten Hag thought Van der Gaag would be the perfect foil to complement his methods.
In an interview four years ago, Van der Gaag outlined his own approach to management and it has clear similarities with accounts of Ten Hag.
“I believe in a lot of training work,” Van der Gaag told Voetbal International. “I’m not saying what I do is better or worse, but I believe that more training work makes you a better player. If you are physically strong, you will have more focus and sharpness.
“Of course we don’t just have training sessions of more than two hours. There are also times when we start training shorter and more
intensively. I notice that the boys who have been here for a while sometimes need to be stimulated. Sometimes they ask for that themselves. In terms of duration, it may seem long, but it is also a matter of getting used to.
“But new players still have trouble with the training work. I know that football fitness training is sometimes harder than the game. Opinions are divided on this, there are also specialists who think that this competition should be the peak in labour, but I happen to believe in
this approach. I think the players are the best judge of it.”
Ten Hag and Van der Gaag have both expressed that fitness training is a priority.
That suggests United’s dressing room should be prepared for a long summer with a brutal schedule, but the group should reap the rewards of that work in the new season.
Ten Hag wants United to be a pressing side and building higher fitness levels will be key to that.
The foundations for the new campaign will be laid in pre-season
and it seems like Ten Hag, Van der Gaag and McClaren will implement a hard-hitting training regime.
United’s pressing was in the bottom 20 per cent of clubs in Europe’s top five leagues last term.
That confirms the visual impression they left behind and it also highlights the size of the task ahead for Ten Hag to get the team playing in his image.
That will be a challenge for Ten Hag, but his task should be made easier by the expertise of Van der Gaag and McClaren.