The meteoric rise of David de Gea

When Edwin Van der Sar retired as the goalkeeper of Manchester United in the summer of 2011, a legacy came to an end. It was always going to be difficult to replace a goalkeeper of such pedigree. After much scouting, United identified David De Gea, a rookie goalkeeper who won the UEFA Europa League in 2010 with Athletico Madrid and signed him last summer for a record fee of 18.5 million pounds.

Coming to Manchester United with big money tag and to fill such a huge gap was a tremendous challenge for any player, never mind the young Spanish keeper. He made his competitive debut for United against local rivals, Manchester City in the FA Community Shield. Although united won the match after a scintillating second half comeback, De Gea was at fault for both the goals conceded, especially the Dzeko’s shot which went under his arm. It did not end there. United’s first Premier league game of the campaign against Westbromwich Albion saw De Gea concede another goal under silly circumstances. Press started comparing De Gea’s performance with that of earlier flops Taibbi and Bosnich. They claimed that De Gea’s size and slim frame would not suit the rigors of the premier league. All the teams started marking De Gea as the weak link of the United lineup and pumped in long balls and crosses to unsettle him. De Gea was susceptible to aerial balls and dropped them under pressure from opponents.

But the performance which turned a few heads was the one against Stoke City in September at Brittania Stadium. He gave an assured performance. But that was followed by a Manchester derby disaster which saw United trounced by City. Critics often stated that De Gea had the tendency to save shots with his legs rather than hands. De Gea’s lowest point came in the match against relegation battlers Blackburn Rovers in new year’s eve. De Gea was poor that day and he was blamed rightly for Blackburn’s winner. Subsequently he was dropped for the next four games and was replaced by Anders Lindegaard. However, Lindegaard’s injury handed the goalkeeping duties back to De Gea on the eve of the 4^th round FA cup match against Liverpool. It was another bad match for the Spaniard who was blamed for the opening goal by Agger.

The turning point for De Gea in his fledgling united career was against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. De Gea gave a virtuoso performance and his reflexes were excellent. He made a lot of stunning saves, the best among the lot was denying Juan Mata’s freekick in injury time. Against Norwich in Carrow road, he gave a wonderful performance and denied Grant Holt and Anthony Pilkington on a lot of occasions. United faltered against Athletic Bilbao in UEFA Europa League Round of 16 but everyone would agree upon the fact that if it were not for De Gea, the scoreline would have been even more embarrassing for United. After the match Sir Alex claimed “But for David de Gea, we could have lost by four or five goals. He was absolutely superb”. He was no longer the shaky, unconvincing goalkeeper who was considered a liabilty. He has become much more assured and has started giving solid performances on a consistent basis.

His distribution has been excellent and it has aided united to initiate quick counter attacks. His Shot stopping ability is unquestionably brilliant. From being a goalkeeper who might cost united the title this season to the player who is playing a very significant role in United’s title dreams, David De Gea has come a very long way indeed. He is just 21 years of age and he still needs to improve his game before being compared to legends such as Van der sar or Schmeichel. But in seeing De Gea’s recent performances, the manner in which he has taken criticism by his stride and answering them on the pitch, the Old Trafford faithful can be extremely confident that they have a goalkeeping legend in the making.