Is that the 22 year old VDS who had only just broken into the Ajax team, or the 22 year old Schmeichel playing in the Danish 2nd division? Time will tell whether De Gea will actually reach a similar level of either of those, but he is streets ahead of where they were when they were the same age.
Is de gea Uniteds youngest title winning keeper? must be one of them. Infact has a PL keeper been younger and won the title?
IIRC Pat Dunne was younger in 65, but only by a few months. De Gea is second after him. Cech was only a few months older in 2005, but De Gea is definitely the youngest in the PL era. Not sure if anyone else has been younger outside the PL, other than Dunne, but there must be a couple of others at least.
De Gea the best keeper... Good one guys! Having played in the position, having watched my brother week in week out in the Leeds Academy for goalkeepers, I know what I like in my keepers, and what coaches look for. De Gea is a good shot stopper, not the best as people will throw around erroneously. He's remarkably nimble for a big man, but skinny and weak as anything, so he can pull off a certain kind of flashy save, where he has ages to move across and flip it round the corner, but the bread and butter premier league goalkeeping is still lacking. He still uses his feet and legs too much for shots he could/should be holding on to. Very continental style, rooted to the spot during corners and afraid of catching crosses for the most part, but he's got potential. I think it's an insult to rational thought to call him the best in the league though. I mean, Foster was canned for a few mistakes in one season despite undoubted ability, but De Gea has made much worse errors and he was given time... Difference? About 17 million quid in transfer fees. I'm actually still disappointed Ben didn't take his talent anywhere and cut out the errors, but he's made better saves than De Gea and put in more impressive premier league performances. A certain penalty save comes to mind, which was absolutely incredible. De Gea's distribution is good, granted, but why not stick an outfielder in net if that's the kind of keeper you want? Personally, he'd be way down the list of goalkeeping options if I had the choice to pick a perfect squad. Vorm, Cech (now he's rediscovered some of his previous best form), Mignolet and Begovic are all ahead of him at present. But he's young, I'm sure he'll adapt to the game more and more over time. Maybe he will be the best one day, and an undoubted best, even on a biased Man Utd fan thread. At the moment though, he'd be in the group with the likes of Hart, Foster etc, still not bad company to be in
I think Stuart Taylor won the PL at 21 and Alex Manninger at 20. Cech was also the same age as De Gea when first winning it. On a related note, Casillas won the CL at 19.
Again UIR throws opinions at something far more tangible like the above in a vein attempt to prove his point
No it's not, poor attempt btw Its about those being the best in the league when they played in the PL and a measure of what you have to be like to be above everyone else beyond any reasonable doubt, simple enough for you to grasp? De Gea is in no way able to claim the No.1 slot in such a way, that is what I was getting at Swarbs. It ain't as if anyone is knocking the guy, last season yeah parts of his game were exposed, but to turn in his first good PL season then claim he is no.1 nah, UIR is grasping at massive straws and still can't reach them. Being GK in team of the year doesn't make you best as much as winning the GG doesn't make you the best keeper, quality is such and De Gea still has to master a bit of his game, he is young as I've already said. But even a young Peter is better than David at that age, Schmeichel was ****ing unbelievable and one of the best in history never mind the PL
Ahh Manninger, forgot about him. Probably the best on season wonder keeper ever. Was he 21? and technically he shouldnt count as he dint play the required amount of games the season he won the title. he got a winners medal but only because it was deemed he played a significant part. 8 games at the end of the season or something. Stuart Taylor? he was closer to 30 when he was at City. I would still consider De Gea the youngest first choice goalkeeper to win the PL. Oh and while he cant quite match Casillas he did win the Europa League with A. Madrid aged....19.... I think.
The stats only prove so much. I like a good stat, I use them to defend Nani all the time but they only tell you so much information.
Well, tell me what the criteria was for team of the year anyways? opinions? who picks it? I haven't a clue. At no point does it say anywhere that the best player in each position gets picked for team of the year, RvP came 3rd in player of the year, according to.. you guessed it. Footballers and he was in team of the year. Only on this board will you hear De Gea is the best keeper in the league but on every other board it will be Cech, so that's enough for me tbh
I doubt it would be Cech. More likely to be Hart as people regurgitate the boring ****e from the press about how orgasmicly good the insanely bland and average hart really is. And the team was voted for by the players, so I would guess its down to their experience against said player.
No, hart would not be it, for me clean sheets are credited to the entire team and not the keeper alone so GG don't mean ****. I would be happy with De Gea being in the top 3 but this year Hart was not top 3 Cech was by a medium margin No.1 but no one is saying he is perfect but he is showing the form he had before he got banged in the head by hunt
Should De Gea go as Spains number one to the ConFed Cup? I think hes earned the chance, its an insignificant competition with the likes of Tahiti involved but would be a good chance to assess him as a potential number one for the WC in 2014.
They got medals, but were second and third choice at Arsenal respectively. Kevin Pilkington could have had a league winners medal at the age of 21 had Schmeichel had Seaman's injury record Barthez won the CL at aged 21 with Marseille as well. Ah I see. It was the fact you said "a younger VDS and Schmeichel" which made me thing you were talking about them when they were around his age. De Gea isn't as good as either of those yet, but then when those two reached the top of their game they were in their thirties, so I don't think the comparison is entirely fair. They were also better than any keeper currently playing in the PL by quite some way, and arguably better than most of the keepers playing in the world today, so not entirely sure of the point of the comparison. But don't let that stop you comparison king Depends what you mean by "a young Peter". A 25 year old Schmeichel definitely, but a 22 year old Schmeichel was similar to De Gea right now - very talented but with some weaknesses in his game that weren't exposed at the level he was playing at back then.
