Manchester United must not sell their talented goalkeeper…
Sheffield United have astounded everyone in the English Premier League with their performances this season, whereas Manchester United have somewhat struggled.
Their forward line has been deadly, their midfield energetic complemented with industry and who can forget about their defence with its over-lapping centre-back being its defining feature yet Dean Henderson in goal is the unheralded star in a team that has the conceded the second least amount of goals behind league-toppers Liverpool.
The Manchester United loanee has gone from strength to strength since his loan spell with the Blades in the Championship last season.
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Clearly, the continuity and familiarity with Chris Wilder’s approach have no doubt helped Henderson but the talented shot-stopper has improved far more than anyone could’ve imagined.
He has the equal most amount of clean-sheets with nine, same as Alisson of Liverpool and fellow Three Lions goalkeeper, Nick Pope.
When you compare the stats of Kepa Arrizbalaga with those of Dean Henderson, you can see why Frank Lampard is considering a move for Henderson, the young Englishman has four more clean-sheets than Kepa, conceded eleven fewer goals than the Spaniard but crucially has a save percentage of 75.58% in comparison with Kepa’s 56.16%.
Quite simply, Henderson is a better shot-stopper than Kepa which is no surprise to keen-eyed observers of the Premier League, who on matchdays will have seen Kepa flapping at a cross while Henderson punches it with confidence which is reflected in the stats, with Henderson having 11 punches whilst Kepa has 4 punches.
However, the real question is why are Manchester United even considering selling Henderson to a fellow Top 6 side, David De Gea has clearly regressed over the last two seasons and cannot lay claim to being the best goalkeeper in the world.
Surely, Solskajer will have thought about incorporating Henderson into his future plans with essentially his whole blueprint built on youth.
His stats simply tell us that he is ready to succeed David De Gea as the No 1. goalkeeper at Old Trafford; he has four more clean sheets than De Gea and has a save percentage of 75.58% whilst the current Red Devils stopper has a save percentage of 69.15%.
With De Gea signing a 4-year contract last season, there simply is no way that Henderson will able to displace De Gea as No 1. goalkeeper without creating a headache for Ole Gunnar Solskajaer as David De Gea will certainly not take kindly to being demoted to No 2. and Henderson will want to play as well after featuring prominently for Sheffield United.
Yet, there is a clear solution for Solskjaer, Sheffield United reportedly want to loan Henderson for another season.
This a win-win move for all parties, Henderson gets playing time essential for his development, Sheffield United get a good, young goalkeeper and Manchester United can delay the inevitable.
The Red Devils simply will have to overtime replace De Gea with Henderson or else they could miss out on seeing one of the world’s top goalkeepers playing in a Man Utd shirt and that would be tragic.