Football News: David De Gea - The best in the world?

Big Dave as he's affectionately known by the Old Trafford faithful has rapidly grown into a brilliant goalkeeper, but the question remains - Is David De Gea the best in the world?

On 29th June 2011, Manchester United signed a young Spaniard for a fee only topped by Italian Legend Gianluigi Buffon, of £18.9M.

At the time, playing big bucks for a goalkeeper had to guarantee instant success, so when Big Dave failed to deliver during his first season at Old Trafford many wondered if United had made the wrong choice. Rene Adler, Maarten Stekelenburg, Asmir Begovic & Tim Krul were all names being linked with number 1 jersey at Old Trafford both before and during the Spaniards tenure.

His command of area was probably the biggest weakness in the Spaniards arsenal, but the problem with failing to command those around you is that when mistakes happen, you lose confidence and when you lose confidence as a goalkeeper you're just asking for trouble.

Don't get me wrong, his first season was abysmal, his second was pretty bad as well but all the way through you could see the flashes of brilliance waiting to escape, you could see this young man who was destined to take the world by storm, and that's exactly what has happened.

Specifically looking at this season, I'm going to compare the great German, Manuel Neuer, against the United stopper David De Gea.

Something that I think needs to be taken into account before the statistical analysis is done, is that the two goalkeepers play in very difference environments. Neuer plays behind a solid defence in a system that keeps the ball very well (averaging 61% possession) but therefore is called into action less frequently and cannot afford to have lapses in concentration, whereas De Gea is playing in front of a weak back 3, in a new system, where he's largely unprotected and has had to deal with a lot of defensive errors this season.

Not to mention the difference in quality between the league opposition.

I'm not making excuses for the Spaniard, I'm simply pointing out glaring differences between the playing environments of the two players.

In 17 games for Bayern this season Neuer has kept 13 clean sheets and conceded only 4 goals, however against superior opponents to that of the Bundesliga in the Champions League Neuer has conceded 4 goals in 6 appearances - a stat which paints him as a far less super human goalkeeper.

David De Gea on the other hand has conceded 20 goals in 20 games and taken home only 6 clean sheets. It is also worth noting that De Gea has conceded 2 or more goals on only 2 occasions this season (Leicester 5-3 and West Brom 2-2), in his previous 12 games De Gea has only conceded 9 goals.

In some cases, goals cannot be helped and goalkeepers cannot be held responsible for conceding, so let's look a little deeper into the specifics of each goalkeeper this season.

Neuer has had to make a mere 27 saves, averaging at 1.59 saves per game, 5 of which (his season high) came in the 0-0 draw with Borussia Monchengladbach at the end of October, and on 5 other occasions has not even had to make a single save (including against one of Germany's better sides - Bayer Leverkusen).

Moving onto Dave the save, who has had to make an astonishing 47 saves in 20 games, which averages at 2.35 saves per game. De Gea has had to make 5 or more saves on 2 occasions; 8 saves featured against Arsenal in the 2-1 victory in November whilst another 7 came against Liverpool in mid-December. However De Gea didn't make a single save in the 2-2 draw with West Bromwich Albion in October or against Leicester in September (Ironically enough the only games he's conceded more than 1 goal).

In terms of claiming the ball from crosses and corners Neuer has been once again, impressive, claiming 88% - Neuer has claimed 100% of every cross this season apart from in two games, both of which he failed to claim a single ball (vs Stuttgart in September claiming 0/9 crosses and 0/2 of crosses were claimed against Freidburg in December).

Moving onto David De Gea, the Spaniard has claimed more balls that Neuer at 93%, having claimed every ball in all but 2 games (vs West Bromich Albion 0/7 crosses taken and vs Manchester City where 14/22 were collected).

This following area of analysis will be slightly distorted by the style of play that Bayern play in comparison to Manchester United.

With the ball at his feet, Neuer has successfully distributed the ball 89% of the time, with an average distance of 29 meters, with the longest kick reaching 31 meters. Whereas in complete contrast De Gea has only been successful with 67% of his distribution this season, averaging a total of 41 meters. De Gea's longest kick was 52 meters and his shortest has been 26 meters.

This also demonstrates De Gea's lack of confidence in his defence, bypassing them on nearly every opportunity he's had this season.

So there you have it, two very different styles of goalkeepers in two very different environments.

The verdict

Neuer has the added protection of playing in a team which very rarely concedes opportunities, whereas De Gea is playing in a team that is making error after error every single game. However, even with this consideration Neuer has proven to be the better keeper judging by these statistics.

That said, if you were to swap the two goalkeepers around the difference in results and performances would most likely be minimal.

Overall, I would say that Neuer is better but De Gea is catching him quickly, in a better environment with a stronger defence I can see De Gea surpassing the German within the next 12-24 months.

Let me know what you think, who do you think is better and why?

Written by Jordan Lombard January 03 2015 20:29:50