Now, don't get me wrong whilst we have conceeded a fair ammount of goals, there have been moments of genius and quality from both our defenders and De Gea. The problem is both aren't magic at the same time, for consistent periods. De Gea has the best reflexes around but who do you blame for goals where by he quickly reacts but blocks the shot back into play? (i.e. see Newcastle game and Sturridge's goal against Liverpool) Fergie seemed to blame defenders in the post Liverpool match interview suggesting that the defence is to blame for not getting there quicker and clearing the ball to safety. Personal I would rather De Gea block the ball into a corner but Fergie is right in a sense that our defenders need to be more alert and block the opponents' shots better. P.S. I love having Vidic back, he organizes the defense well at set pieces and we're more defensively combative with him in the team. On the other hand Evra as captain just seems to give us more fighting spirit when we're attacking and he is getting in among the goals!! Then again he started his career as a striker. Ideally they would both captains play all the time but sadly Vidic needs to be managed whilst thankfully Evra is quite literally never ending, the guy has extra and serious juice to play all these games over the past 5 years. It's another topic all together but I am glad that we have these two quality guys of different attributes leading our squad.
I think your right about De Gea's reflexes, his shot stopping is very good, the problem he has is that he is very young at a massive club and mistakes are highlighted a lot more than some other keepers. Fergie may be able to get a better keeper for right now if he was to splash the cash on a more experienced stopper, but if we stick with De Gea through this rough period I'm almost certain the lad will come good and possibly be even better for it. Personally I think he's already showed signs of improvement, he hasn't made that many mistakes this season, he's just been unlucky that most of those mistakes have led to goals. P.S. It is great to have Vidic back, especially for the likes of Evans because he needs a leader alongside him.
I personally think that the one on Sunday would have been prevented if Rafael was on his toes, it's not the first time this has happened and he's been caught asleep in the box either. He's improved on many aspects of his game but this is another where he needs to kick on with. At the same time though, De Gea needs to work on his parrying, they need to go out or away from play. He no doubt expects his defender to be following up but can't expect that anymore. I'm not massively concerned as it is gradually improving so we've got away with it so far, I don't expect it to get worse now and also with Lindegaard hopefully out of the equation the communication between goalie and defenders will become better.
This, tho' we also need to get back to a settled back three asap. There's nothing worse for a young keeper, or even any keeper or defender, than having constantly changing CBs and keepers. We even had that problem with Schmeichel, Johnsen and Pallister - I remember the CL semi against Dortmund when Schmeichel was injured and Pallister and Van der Gouw nearly conceded, and almost injured each other, as Pallister was so used to Schmeichel coming out to claim that he didn't deal with a loose ball. The most solid our defence has looked for the last two seasons was this time last year when De Gea, Rio and Evans played nine or ten games in a row. If we can get the same this season, probably with De Gea, Vidic and Evans, a lot of the problems should go away.
i think that both defenders and De Gea are to blame a bit, a lot of this i would put down to age and experience, in a few seasons i immagine Rafael would have been there to cover the ball, likewise De Gea will make sure to parry shots away from danger. I will say it was interesting to so Schmeichel analyse it on MOTD to suggest De Gea struggled due to Ferdinand blocking his view of the shot and that he thought it was a very good quick reaction save, and that was the reason it was parried, cant be 100% sureon this of course, but was an interesting view of the incident. Overall though these things will hopefully go with time.
Our biggest issue has been communication. VDS was excellent at this, he made sure everyone was where they're supposed to be. Vidic is also good at this, but he's been out the majority of the time De Gea has been here. If Vidic had been fit for the last year we would have been much more assured at the back more down to Vidic's ability to organize things at the back.
Madrid and Barca want De Gea for future. Confirmation the guy is good, hope is loyal to us when he is finally top goalie in the world.
it's the defenders fault for being stuck on their heels. as soon as they see a shot going goal bound they need to be on their toes ready to sweep up any possible ball being parried by de gea. it was a good save by de gea, but the defenders arent alert enough facing their own goal. same at newcastle. rafael has improved immeasurably, but i can remember a similar situation at home in the champions league knock out stages a couple of years ago when he was guilty of the same thing and it cost us
I thought it was 50/50: 1. Carrick/Cleverly for getting pushed off the ball easily under pressure 2. Rio giving Gerrard so much time and space to shoot De Gea was blameless IMO
Am glad that this problem has been fixed. 6 consecutive clean sheets is good for anyone. Although upfront it's not perfect atm. Nani of all people seems to be what is making the team tick atm lol.
