David De Gea, 22-year-old Spanish footballer, starting keeper for Manchester United, and subject of much scrutiny stitches together a sparkling performance in Madrid.
The waxing and waning success of De Gea's young career was once again highlighted in yesterday's 1-1 draw with Real Madrid. De Gea put together a world class match against one of the best teams in the world, giving up just one goal off of an un-stoppable header by Cristiano Ronaldo.
Madrid featured a potent attack, with 61% possession, 28 shots, 8 shots on goal and 12 corners. Despite continuous pressure in the penalty area, De Gea's shot stopping was crisp and unorthodox (as expected). But more importantly, his timing, angles and positioning were better than in any other match to date with United.
His performance was central to United taking a draw from The BernabĂ©u, and will hopefully work wonders for the sophomore’s fractured confidence. Because as we all know, confidence is a cardinal element to a keeper’s game.
Lacking confidence begets bad decisions and bad decisions beget conceded goals. Conceding more goals, in turn, hurts a keeper’s confidence. Observe the cycle?
David De Gea’s season has been wrought with errors, poor decisions, inability to handle a cross and a bizarrely weak presence in the penalty area. As a shot stopper, De Gea is one of the best in the world. It’s just the “everything else” that he needs to work on. He shows all the symptoms of a physically gifted, yet inexperienced and under confident keeper.
As such, the media and fans have virulently and sometimes justifiably excoriated De Gea for his lack of quality and consistency. Couple this criticism with his lack of experience and the recipe is ripe to hinder the swagger this keeper so dearly lacks.
At this point most of De Gea’s problems are psychological and our lack of support will not help. Don’t get me wrong, I have been a harsh critic of the Spaniard at times. I also have a hard time blaming his detractors for their dissension.
However, we have to realize, as Sir Alex does, that our criticism will only compound De Gea’s fragile confidence.
Ferguson has been a solid supporter of De Gea throughout his tumultuous season. He has even gone as far to publicly deem De Gea’s critics as “idiots”! (Err…wait…surely he doesn’t mean me?!) This public support of De Gea is both wise and calculated. Even though some of the criticism is warranted, Ferguson clearly understands how important belief-in-oneself is to a keepers overall performance.
I believe that Ferguson will ultimately be correct about his keeper. He just needs a bit more time to marinate at this level. Moreover, when we come down to it, how bad has David De Gea’s season really been?
United are 12 points clear at the top of the premiership and the team is in a great position to contend for the champions’ league and FA cup titles.
Ferguson further states that he believes De Gea’s “wobbles” are over.
Sir Alex recently commented, "What we are good at is developing people. He came to us as a very young man, not used to the English game and unable to speak the language. Also, he was still to mature physically. But it's like a young kid taking his first steps forward, he wobbles, then gets up, wobbles, then gets up again and eventually he walks. The boy is walking now.”
The manager clearly believes in De Gea. He believes that he is destined to become a world class goal keeper, and at this point, I can’t muster much of a retort.
I can’t say for certain where David De Gea’s career is going, but if he is able to overcome these growing pains, I think yesterday’s match against Real Madrid could be a career-defining moment.
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