The 31-year-old David De Gea is back at the top and has played the highest level of a goalkeeper in Europe's top five leagues in front of Manchester United's goal this season, a position that has been confirmed by the statistics.
Nowadays, the trend of international football is to let the goalkeeper strike more and play the role of scavenger, and if you compare this dimension, De Gea is undoubtedly not the best. But if you return to the basic quality of the goalkeeper - the save link, Manchester United goalkeeper is the well-deserved number one in Europe!
The data shows that in the 17 league rounds so far this season, De Gea has saved 7.6 "must-score goals", in technical terms, expected goals. In layman's terms, it's the shots that fans think will definitely form a goal.
In United's 1-1 draw in the Premier League with Newcastle, Magpies substitute Almiron's left-footed arc was an expected goal, but De Gea flew to defuse the ball and saved a point for United. At St James' Park, De Gea was able to meet and make seven saves, two or three of which were extremely threatening.
Manchester United boss Ronnick thanked De Gea again after the game: "He made two or three more fantastic saves and without a doubt he is one of the best goalkeepers in the world."
After this match, De Gea also overtook The Portuguese goalkeeper José Sa of The Wolves in the Premier League, becoming the goalkeeper with the most rescues in the five major leagues in Europe. Bundesliga promotion Mabochum's goalkeeper Manuel Lehman is third.
After the battle against Newcastle, De Gea encouraged his United team-mates to redouble their efforts: "We have to start scoring points in these games and let's work hard again on Thursday." At that time, Manchester United will face Burnley at home, and as long as there is no injury, De Gea will certainly be the starting goalkeeper.
But De Gea's bravery undoubtedly reflects the huge loopholes in United's current defense. In the battle against Newcastle, captain Maguire and French iron guard Varane, who returned from injury, both had low-level mistakes that directly led to the first goal conceded. Meanwhile, Swedish centre-back Lindlev will be absent for a while due to a positive pre-match COVID-19 test.
As a result, at St. James' Park, Lonnick had to place the long-absent Phil Jones on the bench because Ivorian centre-back Eric Bai had already set out for Côte d'Ivoire to prepare for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations.
Manchester United had previously approved Bai's early return to prepare for the game, but did not expect lindlev to have problems. According to the British "Daily Telegraph" report, Bay had already flown to the destination, but received a call from Ronnick at the airport and could only fly directly back to Manchester. Now, Bai will have a chance to compete for the starting spot in Thursday's battle against Burnley.
Bai's last start for Manchester United was a month ago, but Lindelev is ill and Varane has just recovered from injury and is in poor form, and there are doubts about whether he can play two games in three days. So it wouldn't be surprising if Baie were to enter the starting line-up at Old Trafford and play for Burnley.
Manchester United captain Harry Maguire blamed the poor performance on the previous 16 days of no game experience. "In the middle of the season, suddenly 16 days without playing, it will not help you." "Also, the training ground was shut down and half of the players who started this game were people who had just recovered positive for COVID-19, so it was definitely going to be affected," Maguire said.