The Faithful would like to welcome our new team member Sal Romney. Sal is an MUFC fan of 26 years and a season ticket holder. Here is his first article for TF. Please feel free to leave him comments.
David De Gea said adjusting to football in England wouldn’t be an issue.
Speaking after United’s community shield victory, David De Gea said the following….
“I’m very happy about the victory. I don’t think I will have problems getting to grips with the game in England. Football is football in any country.”
If Edin Dzeko’s goal was De Gea’s first mistake, those comments were certainly his second.
Players such as Veron, Barthez, Stam and Ronaldo quickly found out that playing for Manchester United ensures that every half error is under the microscope regardless of fee or reputation.
Two of the four players mentioned above went on to be Manchester United legends and I expect De Gea to be the third.
De Gea is young enough to take on board the united coaches advice as Ronaldo and Stam did unlike Veron and Barthez who were already highly decorated world class footballers.
The fact De Gea chose to leave his home town club already shows he has the ambition, hunger and determination to fulfil his undoubted potential.
And the boy certainly has potential, Real Madrid & Spanish Keeper Casillas commented recently…
“He will soon be fighting for my place. He’s a great keeper,”
“We have to take care of him because he is the future. He is 20 years old. He will pension us all off.”
With such praise expectations are very high and whilst their is no doubt you should expect a goalkeeper of David De Gea’s quality to save West Brom’s equaliser on his league debut it was by no means the howler some suggest.
The shot from Shane Long came through the bodies of Smalling & Cleverley, meaning the ball was right upon him by the time he saw it, not giving him time to adjust his feet. Yes it looked awful on the slo mo but the young spaniard was playing in real time. The media now smelling blood and wanting blood are now going for the kill as did West Brom, who the referee gave license to bully & blatantly foul the young keeper. All we ask from referees is to apply the same rules they do to any other keeper, the same protection they afforded Peter Cech on the same day, the same goes for the media who micro analyse every single misjudgement.
Going back to the earlier Stoke versus Chelsea game I found it ironic that Cech’s opposing keeper Begovic happened to claw a looping shot from under the bar onto the post and was credited with a wonderful save by the Sky commentators, yet when De Gea made the near identical save but clawed the ball further away from danger the Sky Commentators stated it was only a routine save.
Ben Foster escaped criticism on both goals, had those goal been conceded by the Young Spaniard I highly doubt he would have been given the same benefit of the doubt.
It’s also worth noting that when Joe Hart is culpable for England or City it’s glossed over as was the error by Manuel Neuer in the 2nd leg of the champions league semi final who I noticed made an equally bad error on his league debut for Bayern.
All Sir Alex would ask of fans and media alike is to let David De Gea settle in and settle down in his new surroundings before casting judgement.
Nothing that has happened in De Gea’s short Manchester United career will have surprised Sir Alex Ferguson hence the only words he had for the young Spaniard were…
“Welcome to England David”
Firstly, a good start to Sal with this article. I couldn’t agree more. Monday morning I took the time off and watched the highlights of Real vs Barca game. Both Casillas and Valdes, didn’t do much to save their territory, ignoring the fact that Villa scored a fantastic goal giving Casillas no chance. So I think David needs to get some consideration. Everyone is highlighting his mistakes, but he made some good saves in the friendly, a save off Adam Johnson in the Shield match, and also the save you mentioned above. The Kid has talent. In my opinion, the media think SAF can’t spot a good goalkeeper given the past history and they want to just spice things up here. I’m not sure why the fans are making so much noise about his quality, the media is a different thing, they thrive on this kind stories. Plus, the media would really like to get one up on SAF, thats all that I think there is to all this negativity. All in all De Gea is a good acquisition and will go on to display his talents to the world.
I completely agree, as a keeper myself it is horrible to make silly mistakes as they are often punnished. However lets let this clearly talented keeper have a full season and then cast judgement on how well he fills the gloves of the big Dutch man…. also are we not forgetting a more costly mistake last season at old trafford against west brom by VDS where he dropped a routine cross costing United 3 points as we ended up drawing 2-2… i dont believe we called for him to be dropped or sold we simply said it happens and pushed on, we won the league and Edwin remained one of our best ever keepers… i personally predict the same for De Gea, he will be a great player for the club if we all accept that he will need a little time to bed in.
Yes, De Gea like Cleverley needs to be treated as individuals rather than replacement for Great individuals in VDS and Scholesy…Hoping this season, Old Trafford is dazzled by the likes of Jones, Pogba, Cleverley, Ando and DE GEA himself.