David De Gea - ready for a run in?

The start of David De Gea's Manchester United career was rocky. During his opening game in England he was beaten twice by city rivals Manchester City in the Community Shield at Wembley. He followed this up the next week by letting a soft Shane Long shot in at the Hawthornes against West Browmich Albion. These goals gained a lot of media attention and critical inches in the press as everyone asked whether De Gea was fit to be the new #1 at Old Trafford.  The key factor to both these matches was that the mistakes didn't end up hurting the team as United won both games.  Although going behind in both to 'mistakes', they turned it around to win 3-2 and 2-1 respectively. The team had bailed their 21-year-old Spanish keeper out. The next couple of games showed some improvement from the man signed in the summer of 2011 from Atletico Madrid (then 20 years old) for around 17 million pound. Sir Alex Ferguson was keen to replace the retiring Edwin Van Der Sar with a talented and confident number 1. 'He's outstanding replacement for Van der Sar,' Ferguson said at the time of signing. De Gea's first game in front of the Old Trafford faithful was an easy one, a 3-0 win and his first clean sheet against a Tottenham Hotspur side slightly off the pace and understrength. The next home game at Old Trafford saw a big moment for the young man in the infancy of his United career. 1 nil up against, then title challengers, Arsenal at home, the potent Robin Van Persie had a chance from the spot to make it one-all (1-1) and change the complexion of the game. De Gea, unlike so many before and since, managed to keep out the Dutchman's spot kick with a smart save and maintain the Red Devils 1-0 lead. That amazing game ended up 8-2 to United and De Gea was fast becoming the established #1 that Fergie and Eric Steele his goalkeeping coach had hoped he'd be.


Comparisons with his predecessor were obviously going to happen, especially at a club as hit and miss with their goalkeepers as United.  From the recent greats of Peter Schmeichel, Fabien Barthez?! and Edwin Van Der Sar to the flops of Massimo Tiabi, Roy Carroll and at one stage an overweight and questionably sober Adam Goram - there has been some real uncertainty between the sticks since Schmeichel left United in 1999. Like all goalkeepers big mistakes will be replayed for years and decent saves will be forgotten about after one repeat on Match of the Day. After this iffy start De Gea went on to suffer something that all the past goal keepers at United, excellent and 'other' would have nightmares about...

Losing 6-1 to the enemy. The noisy neighbours, Manchester City.

This was United's biggest home defeat since 1955 and De Gea was the man who shipped all six. De Gea on the day looked lost and completely out of his depth as his defence went missing in front of him and the expensively assembled Man City front line ran through at will and dispatched their finishes with the minimum of fuss. The wispy bearded Spaniard who does look rather like a chipmunk or beaver would have done anything to scamper up a tree or into a dam for solace, privacy and escape. It was one of those days when he would have wished the Old Trafford pitch would swallow him up. After this defeat and latter statement declaring that De Gea's eyesight was troubling him - turns out he's longsighted, (insert joke here... 'That's why he's so bad at dealing with LONG shots!' 'Everyone could see that coming from a mile away... except De Gea') Anders Lindergaard got a chance for United and played a few games with mixed results but no real mistakes. Lindergaard was only beaten by brilliant and unstoppable efforts if anything - Newcastle United's Yohan Cabaye with a wonderful freekick and Demba Ba's superb volley on the turn in a 3-0 defeat for the Reds at then St. James Park (now the SportsDirect Arena?!) Even English youngster Ben Amos got a league debut and kept a clean sheet before De Gea coming back in. It seems the break has benefitted De Gea and the competition for his place has made him hungrier to succeed at Old Trafford.

Then of course was the infamous doughnut incident in which he ate a Krispy Kreme in Tesco without paying for it (it was a quid and change and he is reported to be on 70k a week) again causing a lot of column inches to be inked about the keeper in an unflattering light.

After watching him get put through his paces this summer during a training session at American University by Eric Steele during the clubs tour of the US.  I wasn't overly impressed with De Gea and more importantly neither was Steele from the way he was coaching the new man, before their game at FedEx field against Barcelona. The Spaniard's training style was technically solid but flat and lacking in the intensity and courage that you associate with top keepers.  He was going through the motions and Steele was having none of it!  The goalkeeping coach was constantly in the ear of De Gea about finishing his reps or not stopping the play till it was dead. Obviously it's a new team, staff and environment but Lindergaard and Amos were setting the bar higher than the new big money signing and frankly showed him up at times with their quality and determination. One other simple factor that has improved for De Gea since this early summer work and will have helped him almost more than anything else is his English.  He may have also put on a few pounds to deal with the physicality of the Premiership, as he looks a little more robust than during his summer workouts (must be all those doughnuts eh?!)
-He has been taking English lessons and has admitted it has helped with his communication to his defence already and will surely make the dressing rooms at Old Trafford and Carrington a more pleasant place to be with the pranks and jokes of players like Rio Ferdinand now not lost on the Spaniard.


This has been a season of highs and lows for the new United goalkeeper and it was always going to be a birth of fire in one of the biggest teams in the world in one of the most physical and exciting leagues. One important fact that must not be overlooked or belittled is United's league position throughout the season. They have always been there or there abouts with drops in form (and of the ball) from their new goalie and the men in-front of him but they have still found a way to grind out positive results and turn a loss into a win which is what has made them so great over the past 15 years in the Premiership.

With 10 games to go and their new goalkeeper finally looking to have found some solid form, United are ahead of the team that beat them 6-1 earlier this season and are now back in the driving seat.  Whatever happens this season, De Gea will get his eyes fixed this summer and come back stronger and more prepared than ever after his topsy turvy debut season in the Premiership.  The keeper will have a massive role to play in the run in and I wouldn't bet against him coming up trumps when called upon.  He is a young man who seems to be finding his feet in a time in which he is losing his eyes.

McCarthy and the rise of the Scots

This week Mick McCarthy became the third premiership manager to get the axe this season.  It's a low total of firings thus far, but that number will inevitably rise before May.  The Irishman is well liked throughout the game but during Wolves bad run he found himself 'undermined' by his Chairman, Steve Morgan, after he entered the changing room post match after an embarrassing 3-0 defeat in which even Andy Carroll scored! The writing was on the wall for Big Mick after the battering they took at the hands, or should I say feet, or Woy Hodgsons average West Bromwich Albion side.


So McCarthy follows the dismissals of Steve Bruce at Sunderland and Neil Warnock at QPR.  Sunderland have made the greatest strides since replacing Bruce with the energetic Martin O'Neill, not only have Sunderland won some games but they're are the in-form team in the Premiership.  Mark Hughes hasn't enjoyed a honeymoon period in West London, but he has been able to blow some of Tony Fernandes' cash in the January window and strengthen the squad with much needed firepower.  Wolves however have now missed the window and by not allowing a new manager to get involved earlier and bring in some fresh faces they will face the rest of season knowing it's the current squad, who's results ultimately got McCarthy sacked, to get themselves out of it and avoid the drop.  The Wolves job is a tough one to take over, expectant fans of a club which has maybe stayed up in the Premiership a little longer than they perhaps are capable of (they of course escaped relegation on the final day of last season).


McCarthy may argue that with the backing that Roberto Martinez enjoys at Wigan he would have been able to turn it around.  Maybe it's his broad Yorkshire accent that hurts him, perhaps if the 'Irishman' had a thick Scottish accent he'd still be in the job.  Steve Kean, the most hated manager in recent Premiership history has weathered attack after attack from his own support but has managed to keep his job at Blackburn and therefore granted the chance to turn it around.  Owen Coyle at Bolton has the same kind of support and even though his team isn't playing the 'attractive' football, he is for some unknown reason associated with, he finds himself employed and relatively safe.  Alex McCleish appears to be anti-football in his style and setup and many Villa fans would rather have last seasons Caretaker manager and fellow Scot Gary McCallister back!

What then is it about these Scotsmen that make them so attractive in the English game?  Is it the fact that they have accents that half of football fans don't understand and the other half enjoy listening too even if they're talking drivel? Or is it that they are living off of great Scottish managers past and present, Docherty, Shankly and Ferguson to name a few.  Possibly they hope that their Scotch boys will be more like new coach Paul Lambert and take the Premiership by the scruff of the neck, or like King Kenny and hold onto his legions of supporters with undying love for his job and club.


Whatever it is there are 6 managers in the premiership who hail from north of the boarder and after seeing what's developed in the last 24 hours at Rangers it's no wonder they are fleeing their homeland looking for work in the biggest and best league in the world, maybe the surprise is so many of them find the jobs and are able to hold onto them so long, despite playing poorly and losing games...