Last year (after the away win at Sunderland), I wrote of my love for a young Spaniard, how I felt he could be the one, the guy who’s gonna be there for me when I needed him for the foreseeable future.
Given the way the player awards were handed out at United at the end of that train wreck of a season, most by then shared my view that in David De Gea, we had a keeper we could look forward to protecting our goal through the time in office of the next 3 shitbag prime ministers.
This might look like a knee jerk reaction to Sunday where he stole all my Kirkby Reds under 11 moves with saved penalty and reflexes that defied science, and to be fair it is, but I’ve decided not to close Gmail (other email providers are available) at that realisation, because there are points that need to be made about the lad that justify my continued typing.
Roseanne, the sitcom in the 80’s, remember it? I do, dya know what I remember most about it? The way that someone different played the eldest daughter every season, it must’ve been hard for the cast to adapt to such a vital role constantly being played in a different way by different people!
Now apply that logic to the situation of a young Spanish goalkeeper, adapting to a new team, a new league, and new team mates, then break it down.
Season 1 – unbelievable throughout, whether he was pulling off 1 handed stops worthy of Escape to victory, or dropping crosses that looked easier to catch than hepatitis from a backstreet tattooist, throughout the season you were guaranteed to kept wandering what this guy was gonna grow up to be.
Season 2 – it kicked off and I prepared myself for the worst, I’m a Yorkshireman, it’s a default setting is pessimism.
But it took little to no time to assure me that this kid was coming on leaps and bounds, he’d a year under his belt behind a settled back line, he’d done some exceptional work in developing his physique to cope with the demands of the league, but maintained the agility that made Sir Alex do the deal to bring him in.
Season 3 – the great man had retired, the new man dismissed the goalkeeping coach who’d played such a huge role in helping him achieve all the positives in step 2, and he was also robbed of a consistent back four to play behind, and I don’t care how old a keeper is, where he’s from & how long he’s been at a club, if week after week after week he’s constantly having to second guess what his centrebacks are gonna do, it will restrict his ability to command the 18 yard box, but despite that, he was by a mile the best keeper in the premier league last season!
Season 4 – for some reason I’m coming across people who needed Sunday to realise how great this lad is, that upsets me, in my 20 odd years of being a red I’ve had the chance to see some truly great goalkeepers help United deliver some truly outstanding individual performances, the one I saw on Sunday was second only to Schmeichels at Newcastle that unforgettable Monday night, it’s not by fluke or fortune that this young man delivered such a fine performance, it’s down to the huge level of work he’s put in to justifying the faith placed in him by Sir Alex when he signed him.
So going forward, it’s as simple as this for me, give the quality of defensive cover that Schmeichel & Van Der Sar had in their time at United to this lad, and I’ve every faith that we’ll see Spanish Dave provide a last line of defence that’ll play a huge part in keepings clean and the clubs honours boards regularly updated!
