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Data from last season has revealed that Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea was the tenth-best in his position in the Premier League last season.
As United finished third in the league table to qualify for the Champions League, De Gea won the Golden Glove after keeping 17 clean sheets.
The Red Devils’ campaign however ended in disappointment however, after a 2-1 defeat at Wembley at the hands of Manchester City, who can now secure the treble with a victory against Inter Milan on Saturday.
Central to Man City’s triumph during the FA Cup final were a number of errors from De Gea.
For Ilkay Gundogan’s first goal, the Spaniard barely moved as he remained planted on his line. Gundogan’s second goal squirmed past him. De Gea got a hand to it but could not keep the effort out.
De Gea’s inability to play with his feet and distribute the ball was a recurring theme all game against City, as it has been all term.
He frequently went long and even then, he only ceded possession back to Man City who were all to happy to mount repeated attacks.
After the game, Erik ten Hag admitted that for United to advance to the next level of their development, improvements were needed from the goalkeeper position.
The Daily Mail obtained data from Goalkeepers.com, which analyzed all 39 goalkeepers to feature in England’s top flight last season.
The data revealed that De Gea was the 10th best in the Premier League. Nine other goalkeepers were better than the 32-year-old.
“When analysing shot-stopping performance alone, rather than all aspects of goalkeeping such as cross claiming, sweeping, kicking and throwing, De Gea came out as the fifth-best keeper this season, but the rest of his game has let him down statistically.
“In addition, the Spaniard made three clear errors which led to goals in the Premier League this campaign.
“The data experts claim that any save probability north of 90 per cent indicates a major goalkeeping error. His blunder to gift Said Benrahma the winning goal during West Ham’s 1-0 home victory over United in May had a 98 per cent save probability.”
The data uncovered that De Gea’s embarrassing mistake against Brentford in August when Josh Da Silva’s effort went in could have been saved 96% of the time.
Gundogan’s goal that sealed the win for City last week at the national stadium would be saved 81% of the time by top goalkeepers.
These numbers are yet more proof that United cannot afford to have De Gea as an undisputed starter next season. At the very least, the club should secure competition for him. There are valid options in the market.
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