Should David De Gea still be considered as one of the Premier League’s best?

After a turbulent first season at Old Trafford, David De Gea began to establish himself between the sticks, becoming one of the best keepers in the league. The Spaniard was picked in the PFA Team of the Year four seasons in a row, including the 2017/18 season where he was awarded the Golden Glove after keeping 18 clean sheets. However, since then, the United number one has struggled with form, producing many below-par performances that have been riddled with individual errors.

Just a couple of seasons ago, De Gea was widely regarded as one of the best keepers in the world. His performances were undeniably good, becoming a “one-man wall” at times for United with his world-class saves. However, his fall from grace has been stark. De Gea’s last season was his worst in a United shirt, with the Spaniard suffering an alarming dip in form that looks to have continued into this season.

This inconsistency has had a huge impact on United’s results and led to many questioning whether he can still be regarded as one of the Premier League’s best, or whether United are dealing with a spent force.

De Gea’s poor run of form began in Russia at the 2018 World Cup during a crunch game with rivals Portugal. The Spanish number one spilt a long-range effort from Cristiano Ronaldo gifting Portgual a goal. For De Gea, this unfortunately started a trend with the United man coming under fire for making a number of individual errors that season, costing his team vital points at times.

ESPN report that since the 2017/18 season, De Gea’s errors leading to goals have risen fourfold with his save percentage also falling by 11%. This stat shows a worrying decline for the Spanish keeper, who is unquestionably suffering his worst run of form in his career.

Opta’s analysis (via Sky Sports)  of De Gea’s performances last season indicate a shocking decline from the previous high standards that he had set for himself. Opta’s analysis found that De Gea was likely to concede between 46-47 goals on average but in fact, the Spaniard conceded 50, more than all but three keepers in the country last season. Worryingly, this was the most that any United keeper has conceded in 40 years.  Similarly, De Gea’s expected goals saved shows a declining trend with his figures showing -3.5. In comparison, Liverpool’s Alisson and Tottenham’s Hugo Lloris are reaching numbers of +5.2 and +5.0 respectively.  Opta’s analysis also highlights De Gea’s reluctance to come off his line to prevent attacking chances. The Spaniard anticipated the danger just twice last season whereas the league’s top three keepers prevented goalscoring opportunities between 16-18 times each. It is clear that De Gea’s confidence is shot; he looks a shadow of his former self, and worryingly for the Red Devils, this form looks set to stay.

Just three weeks into the new season and a De Gea mistake cost United points. The Spaniard gifted Crystal Palace an injury-time winner at Old Trafford as Patrick van Aanholt’s shot beat him easily at his near post. This continuation of poor form will be a cause for concern for United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who also finds himself under fire this week. According to Talksport, the Red Devils sit 17th in the form table over the last 10 league games. Whilst many blame United’s midfield balance for their run of poor results, Danny Murphy claims fingers should be pointed at the United goalkeeper. He told Talksport host Jim White:

"“A worrying thing for United is David de Gea.“It doesn’t matter how good he can be, we know how good he can be, but there’s something not right.“It’s a problem for Man United.”"

It is clear that Solskjaer cannot ignore his goalkeeping issue much longer, De Gea’s form needs to be addressed before his decline taints his legacy at Old Trafford.  Many United fans took to Twitter to vent their anger over De Gea’s recent performances with many commenting on how the United man is past his best and that he should not be rewarded with the bumper contract deal that is rumoured.

Whilst it is still early days this season, the early warning signs indicate that De Gea has been unable to shake last season’s poor form.  If the United man is to be regarded as one of the Premier League’s best, he will need to drastically improve moving forward and prove that the past 14 months are nothing more than a blip.