Ruben Amorim needs a new goalkeeper - but he must beware falling into a popular trap
Never go back to your ex, in life or in football. The Premier League is littered with examples of players who returned to their former clubs only to prove a shadow of their previous incarnation who delighted home fans.
Romelu Lukaku to Chelsea, Alvaro Morata to Real Madrid, Diego Costa to Atletico Madrid, Didier Drogba to Chelsea, and even some players who never played for Chelsea - indeed Manchester United themselves are no strangers to the curse thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Pogba.
No matter the team, every single supporter can recall a former favourite who let them down the second time around - as a Preston fan, I remember the return of England’s most prolific goalscorer since the Second World War and our former record sale David Nugent was hugely exciting after three decent Championship years for Derby. Then the reality of one goal all season set in, from 25 appearances.
That’s one more than David de Gea has scored in his entire 706-game career, but Manchester United fans should still heed the warning as rumours of a sensational return to Old Trafford swirl.
Man United need to sign a new goalkeeper before the transfer window shuts
Sir Alex Ferguson reportedly once said that a good goalkeeper is worth 15 points a season, which would’ve pushed Manchester United all the way up to the heady heights of ninth last season, though it also seems a bit of a stretch.
Archived 2015 posts from the United forum Red Cafe rate De Gea as worth around 10-12 points over a campaign, which again may be an overestimation, but after last season Ruben Amorim could do with all the points he could get and Sunday’s defeat to Arsenal once again laid bare the need to upgrade between the sticks.
While David Raya began his quest for a third successive Premier League Golden Glove (a feat achieved by three previous goalkeepers, can you guess who?) in fine style, as the second best keeper of the weekend by post-shot expected goals minus goals allowed, Altay Bayindir was at fault in the biggest moment of the game: Arsenal’s winning goal.
Manchester United finished the game with an xG of 1.6 but Raya was magnificent and produced a save-of-the-season contender to deny a low driven Matheus Cunha shot, while Bayindir was bullied from set-pieces and his weak punch under pressure from a corner sent the ball goalwards even before Riccardo Calafiori finished it off.
Meanwhile despite Amorim’s insistence that Andre Onana hadn’t been dropped for the season-opener, it’s hard to believe the Cameroon international will see it the same way after spending 2024/25 as first-choice.
And after De Gea’s return to Manchester in a pre-season friendly with Fiorentina, when he made two superb reaction saves from point-blank Leny Yoro headers and generally marshalled his six yard box well - with one notable exception - many fans are wondering whether De Gea could be the answer.
David De Gea isn’t the answer to Man United’s problem
When De Gea left Manchester United there was already a sense that he’d already spent a season too long on Sir Matt Busby Way, that his legendary shot-stopping was slowly but surely deteriorating and was no longer enough to make up for his deficiencies with the ball at his feet as the base for the Red Devils’ attack.
Ironically Dean Henderson, the player he spent much of the end of his Mancunian career holding back by his presence between the sticks, would be a much better alternative for Amorim but the 28-year-old is busy thriving at Selhurst Park and has won two more trophies in the last 12 months than his boyhood club.
Simply put, the problems that meant De Gea was no longer a viable option at Old Trafford haven’t magically been fixed by a season in the wilderness then 12 months in Serie A.
Out of 25 goalkeepers who played more than 10 games in the division last season, De Gea was the ninth-best shot stopper by post-shot xG minus actual goals per Opta via FBRef.com (he was actually worse by that metric than Onana) - not terrible but no longer the brick wall that Manchester United fans fell in love with.
As a sweeper keeper he was in the bottom eight of that selection for defensive actions outside of his penalty area per 90 minutes, and his pass completion rate of 70.8% in a league with considerably less aggressive pressing than the Premier League isn’t much to write home about - Onana managed 79.3% in his stint at Inter Milan.
So while the decision to bring De Gea back would be a PR win from a club that could use all the popularity boosts they can get after going to war with their fans’ wallets in the last year, it is not the silver bullet and would only risk eroding the legacy of a club legend - just ask Lukaku, Morata, Costa, Drogba, Ronaldo and Pogba. Or David Nugent.
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