David de Gea struggled on the Carrow Road surface last Saturday. It was raining hard and he slipped and looked unsteady. Fortunately, this was after the game, when he spoke to television cameras from around the world, his white flip flops perhaps not the most suitable footwear for a soaked football pitch.
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The Spaniard had been asked to talk because he had just been named man of the match. Again.
It has become a common theme, just as it was when he was named Manchester United’s player of the season four times in five years between 2014-18. When United are at their worst, De Gea is often at his best and this has been true again this season.
Another reason is that as a senior player he’s expected to do more media, something he did too little of for most of the previous 10 years since he moved from Atletico Madrid. De Gea, 31, is a private person, but standing there, hands in pockets, cap on head and so relaxed he could be horizontal, he is fronting up ably to the cameras even after the recent Watford debacle.
The main thing for United is that the best-paid goalkeeper in world football is playing well again. Under Michael Carrick and now Ralf Rangnick, De Gea has three clean sheets in his last five games. Before that… no, let’s not go there.
Norwich was De Gea’s 160th clean sheet. If he makes another whenever United next play a game, he will have kept as many as 70s and 80s goalkeeper Gary Bailey. Only Alex Stepney (175) and Peter Schmeichel (180) have kept more.
“If you look at some of the saves that he’s made in the last two or three weeks, you’re back looking at David at his best, the exceptional talent we’ve all loved and watched,” Eric Steele, the club’s former goalkeeping coach and the man who first told Sir Alex Ferguson about De Gea after seeing him playing for Spain’s under-17s, tells The Athletic. “The one at Norwich from Kabak — there’s not many goalkeepers who could make that one, who have that unbelievable extension of the arms added to his anticipation. He’s making the big saves when they matter on a regular basis.”
“He’s a unique goalkeeper because he’s got a few super strengths,” one United source tells us. “They are his shot stopping, agility and reactions, but he took a long time to mature in terms of mentality and leadership and there are still questions — just look at the opening goal against Arsenal when Fred stood on his toe, David went down and Arsenal scored. We need a man in that situation, it was a bad goal to concede and that had been coming. Good lad, average trainer, excellent goalkeeper on his day. Deserves huge plaudits for his service to the club.”
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Last season, he’d lost his position as Manchester United’s undisputed No 1, which he’d held for the best part of a decade, instead sharing the role with Dean Henderson. De Gea played 36 club games last term, Henderson 26.
“David’s dip corresponded with the fact that he wasn’t being challenged enough by Sergio Romero,” says Steele, the man who told David Gill and Sir Alex Ferguson that if United signed De Gea, they’d have their goalkeeper sorted for the next 10 years. Romero was excellent when called up and was key in the run to the 2017 Europa League triumph, but there were just doubts that he could be excellent over a sustained period. And De Gea knew that.
De Gea’s form declined at the end of 2019-20 and the start of 2020-21.
“Maybe United regretted not bringing Dean Henderson back off loan a little earlier (then for 2020-21) because David lapsed a bit,” says Steele. “That’s going to happen at some point over 10 years and when you’ve set the standards that David has set, people will notice. It’s incredible that he was so good in the first place because there has been so much transition and change at United. Look at the number of changes in front of him. When he first arrived he was behind Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic for his first two seasons and United finished second and first.
“All the changes of managers and ideas are not easy, nor was the change in rules to goal kicks. I never agreed with the way United played out with Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof because it took away one of David’s best attributes: his unbelievable natural ability to pass accurately and distribute the ball over distance. He can hit a 40-yard ball more accurately than Maguire and Lindelof. I looked at some of his clips from his second year recently — the distribution was incredible.
“It’s sad to have that taken away because it was part of the reason that we bought him, we wanted a young Edwin van der Sar. Maybe that will change under Rangnick because he’s not a big lover of playing these short triangles and inviting pressure. It should also help the players in front of him that they know they have an in-form David behind them.”
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De Gea’s period in the doldrums also coincided with him losing his place in Spain’s national team, for whom he has not played a minute in their last 21 games. He’s been on the bench for 20 of them, travelling around Europe to do not very much, having damaged his reputation in Spain after a poor 2018 World Cup. He didn’t play a second in Spain’s six Euro 2020 games.
“The good thing was that after that, he went away for a break and then he came back to United earlier than expected to do his pre-season,” says Steele. “He got himself in the gym, he set himself up for the season and I think he’s seen the benefits. Physically, he’s completely different to the player who first arrived in England, who needed building up. He’s got broad shoulders now but one thing which hasn’t changed is his reach — that’s how he could make that save at Norwich. The fact that he fully knows the Premier League and that there’s no switching off a) when you play for Man United b) in the Premier League.
“When he first came, David and (Shinji) Kagawa would sometimes laugh if we were playing a weaker team. He soon learned that everyone wants to beat Man United.”
De Gea’s training has definitely improved.
“The goalkeeping group there now are all grafters who do their work on the grass and in gym — they help David,” says one source. “He’s working better, spending more time training. Dean Henderson has definitely been positive for him.”
Steele, meanwhile, has noticed other changes.
“He’s more vocal now, on and off the field,” he says. “Just about the only good thing about fans not being in grounds was that you could hear how loud he was shouting, ‘Away!’ and, ‘Man on!’ I could remember teaching him, ‘Left shoulder!’ and, ‘Right shoulder!’ in English. Not only that, I can still hear him in a full stadium. He’s a senior member now too so he needs to be, but he gives more information to the players in front of him. He has always been popular in the dressing room, so that has never been a problem — people will listen to him.”
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Is there anywhere De Gea can improve?
“Should he have been more commanding with all the changes going on in front of him and different formations? Probably,” says Steele. “But there has been a lack of confidence in that back line and there have not been many games where it has looked secure so maybe David has to do a little bit more there.”
Others The Athletic spoke to said he could — and should — be better coming for high balls, which will need more physical contact, but views vary.
“He might have dipped a bit and let a few easy ones in at the start of last season,” former defender Wes Brown tells The Athletic, “but come on, he was player of the year four times and now his concentration levels are well up there. His shot stopping is as good as any goalkeeper — and the top three have very good goalkeepers. He’s in form. Football’s all about form.”
De Gea has found his form again when United really need it.
(Top photo: Stephen Pond/Getty Images)
