DE GEA DISASTER

Keeper’s troubled times

DAVID de Gea’s reputation as one of the best goalkeepers in the world has taken a battering over the last couple of years. Usually so assured between the posts, the Manchester United shot-stopper has begun to make the sort of mistakes that were unimaginable only a short time ago. in July was the perfect illustration. He could have done better to keep out Olivier the stroke of half-time and then somehow let Mason Mount’s innocuous-looking effort squirm past him just moments after the restart.

As the Red Devils slumped to a 3-1 defeat at Wembley, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that the Spaniard was largely culpable.

For me, De Gea’s problems began at the 2018 World Cup. He butchered a Cristiano Ronaldo effort in the 3-3 draw against Portugal and it’s widely appreciated he’s not been the same since.

He went into that World Cup as perhaps the best in the world and now he’s literally a mid-table Premier League goalkeeper - his 96 saves last season placed him 10th out of the 20 ranked keepers.

De Gea’s decline has been well documented, as it would be for any top-level goalkeeper.

A keeper makes a mistake and it usually costs his team the game whereas, say, Marcus Rashon to the next - Rashford might get a post-match mention from Gary Neville, but De Gea’s on the receiving end of a Roy Keane exposé.

The odd mistake can be forgiven pretty quickly, but De Gea’s are becoming more frequent and costly.

United goalkeeping legend Peter Schmeichel has put forward one theory as to what’s gone wrong.

“This team is evolving under Ole (Gunnar Solskjaer) and that means that David’s role is changing too,” he said soon after the season’s end. “If you’re a goalkeeper that has been busy for years and now you’re not busy, you have to change your ways of keeping your concentration, of staying with the game.”

So with United’s defence becoming more and more solid each season, De Gea is becoming less and less busy, leaving him vulnerable to the odd effort on goal.

And as the mistakes have piled up, his

Again, thinking back to that World Cup - ber, was embarrassed on the game’s biggest stage.

Then he came straight back into a cut-throat, globally digested league at a club with huge expectations. One more mistake was all it was going to take to exacerbate the situation.

In this modern day world we live in where everything is captured on camera and scrutinised from every angle, the

Liverpool’s Loris Karius was effectively banished from the footballing world for - mance. Former England number one Joe Hart has had a tough few years.

With the impressive Dean Henderson waiting in the wings, De Gea needs to up his game to stay as the Red Devils’ number one. He needs to show that form is temporary, class is permanent. easily see his resurrection.