De Gea's Dilemma

As commented by Greg Stobart in his article about the ‘The five things we learned from the Community Shield’ on Goal.com, De Gea is simply not yet ready to play in the English top flight.

Not too long ago, I remember having a large argument with a group of football enthusiasts as to how Spain could replicate their World Cup performance and their current world dominance in professional football for many more years to come. For every position, we seemed to argue about who would rightfully own their position in Russia 2018, except in between the sticks. De Gea, to us, owned that position. After all, he was the greatest Spanish youth prospect, AND he was getting a lot of play time with Athletico Madrid at the time. But Manchester United is different.

It’s not just about Manchester United though. With the Red Devils, De Gea would have the problems Greg Stobart had stated. But in the Premier League, he has much more to worry about. De Gea was bought to United for his reflexes, technical ability and his status as a fabulous current player and tremendous future prospect. His reflexes will not change, and his status as a footballer can only get better. However, here the difference between the two premiere leagues in the world shows, and influences the validity of his technical ability.

The least talented of players in La Liga are known to be quite ‘artsy’. Many-a-time would you see a defender trying to score an over-head kick after receiving a rebound from a corner kick. However, in the very ‘sophisticated’ artsy football, the best strikes are those that curl into the corners of the goal. The euphoria of a perfectly executed curling effort is hard to replicate. The most recent ‘real match’ (non-friendly) which I can think of where a brilliant goal was scored in that manner was Wayne Rooney’s goal against Barcelona and David Villa’s goal against Manchester United in the Champions League Final. While both of these goals seem unstoppable, it’s the beauty that the strikers were really after. It is the beauty of these goals that the players had practiced on.

It’s this artsy football that all players in Spain are trying to replicate at every opportunity. What does this mean to David De Gea? Almost 80% of the shots De Gea has to deal with in Spain are those that usually target the top corners of the goalpost, and are always above waist level. De Gea is used to diving for the ball; De Gea is used to stretching to his full height. However, De Gea is not accustomed to going down quickly on the floor to block a low pile driver. De Gea is also not used to having to block well targeted and purposefully struck headers. These are the little things, which differentiate the role of the goalkeeper in England, and the role of the goalkeeper in Spain.

De Gea is a Spanish goalkeeper. He is a fabulous Spanish keeper. But if he can’t deal with all sorts of shots that come his way, he is definitely not a world class player at the moment. More importantly, it seems that De Gea is not a Premier League player; after all, most of his games this season will be league games. Maybe, it seems more fitting, that Anders Lindegaard should start for the first couple of games until De Gea gets accustomed to the English footballers’ strike of the ball. And most importantly, give him some time to learn the language. As a goalkeeper, communication is key.