Oct 02
Is this the most important fight for position at Manchester United in 2012?
Not everyone will agree, but personally I consider the goalkeeper to be the number one most important position on the football field.
Outfield players can spend 90 minutes grafting in search of goals and denying the opposition scoring opportunities but, in an instant, a goalkeeper can undo all that hard work and send morale spiralling to the floor if he’s easily beaten. It’s no coincidence that the greatest teams in history have all had a great, great goalkeeper.
At Manchester United, since the beginning of season 2011, there’s been a fight for the green jersey that’s seen both David De Gea and Anders Lindegaard share the responsibility of keeping sticks. An injury to the latter providing De Gea with an extended run in the team which, in my opinion, led to a marked improvement in his previously questionable form.
This season the responsibility was once again shared with De Gea now seemingly out-of-favour thanks to a mistake at home to Fulham which in all fairness could be attributed as much to Nemanja Vidic as it could De Gea. After spending the summer at the Olympics with Team Spain (against the wishes of Sir Alex Ferguson) then I guess the boy was lucky to begin the season with the shirt in the first place. Having then made that error, I consider the decision to immediately drop De Gea in favour of Lindegaard an easy one for the gaffer.
There’s been much discussion on RedRants, especially this week, about the need for a settled team and how the lack of one is possibly costing us the chance to build any kind of consistent form or create partnerships within the team, the goalkeepers position fits in the same category for me. Players need a run of games to build experience, fitness, form and more importantly an understanding & consistency within the team. Players at Manchester United over recent years are not receiving that.
When you take into account the difficulties the club is currently experiencing keeping the defenders fit and fielding a settled back four, it’s even more (I would have thought) important to settle a position that can be rather than purposely (needlessly perhaps) tinker with it.
Lindegaard has had this to say on manutd.com this week about tonight’s trip to Romania:
“We want to get through the group. We need it to be a no-nonsense campaign for us this time – we cannot afford to make the same mistakes as we did last season,” he told ManUtd.com.
“The Champions League is always a very special competition to be involved in. Hearing the music before the game and the whole atmosphere around the matches is something special every time.
“Tuesday’s game is another important one for us, but we look at every match as being important,” he added. “As I have said before, the amazing thing about being at United is there no difference between, say, playing Crawley at home in the FA Cup or Liverpool away in the league; we take the same approach every time and that is to work in the professional manner that has made the club into what it is today.
“We played in Romania last season and we hope for a similar result there on Tuesday. We have to go out there and win again.”
Does that suggest he’ll start tonight? I hope so. Not because I prefer him over De Gea, but because it’s about time one of them was given the opportunity to start every match in every competition, the other could easily go on loan (with Sam Johnstone capable of playing understudy) or sit tight and wait for their chance.
What do you think? Is De Gea too young at just 22 (next week) to command a regular start after a shaky start to his United career? If so, surely we should’ve bought an older, more experienced keeper with a few years left at the top (I’m thinking Buffon here) as well as De Gea, and given him more time to develop? Was Lindegaard purposely bought as an understudy but found himself getting games thanks to the obvious mistakes made by De Gea? Have United made another transfer market blunder? Is Lindegaard up to the standard required to become United’s number one? (He’s certainly got the right attitude). Does the price-tag on De Gea mean ultimately he has to be number one to avoid any more egg on any more faces?
Related items from Red Rants:
The_Philosopher (402)
Redrich (220)
Opti (207)
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Stephen (146)
I personally think that Fergie is costing the team at the moment by playing Lindegaard. I think the Gaffer may be having a few off-pitch / personal issues with De Gea.
I think that De Gea (Even with his tender age & mistakes) is still better than Lindegaard. De Gea most likely wouldn’t have conceeded that second goal against spurs, he has very good reflex and positioning in one-on-one situations.
Make up your mind Gergie……..
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@Kash: Agreed. The 2nd goal was not exactly the best of finishes by Bale. It was on his week foot and not well placed by any standards. Fully expect De Gea to have saved that from what I’ve seen of him. Expect him to be eventual #1 too. I mean if he’s good enough to be the future #1 of Spain he must be doing something right
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I’d take De Gea over Lindegaard and I am a Dane who is advocating that Lindegaard start for Denmark’s national team. De Gea is just so much better, technically, that a good run will see him improve mentally as well — unless our defense is shredded to pieces with no midfield in sight
In that case, let the more mature Lindegaard suffer 
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De gea’s definitely been badly treated as far as im concerned.
Fergie goes on about him making that mistake against fulham.
Well id say
A- that mistake was just as much the fault of vidic, maybe even more so, than it was de gea so surely vidic should have bore the brunt too, and
B- if your going to unfairly chop and change on the basis of 1 mistake (even after he had a GREAT game the week before against everton that seems to be totally forgotten) – then surely that has to be a rule that applies to everyone.
So by that logic surely we should have seen the back of evra 2 years ago, and giggs and rio wont be featuring next game?
Oh no silly me, it doesnt apply to them does it because they have that magical attribute fergie seems to over value- experience (which actually makes it worse as they should know better by now).
That and they happen to be members of his blue eyed boys club, that unfortunately de gea doesnt happen to be a part of.
David will just have to sit tight and wait for his limited chances it seems. Lindegaard is a more than able deputy dont get me wrong, but he never tends to excite me by pulling off a miraculous save or look that outstanding.
Great goal it was by bale on saturday, but with de gea in goal, i actually happen to think he gets a hand on that. Just my opinion though.
Regardless of my preference for de gea, i agree with ian. Can we please just pick a keeper and leave him be, rather than all this rotation BS, i mean we have to be the only club on the planet who actually rotates bloody goalkeepers.
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Line ups are out
CFR Cluj: Mario Felgueiras, Ivo Pinto, Sepsi, Cadu, Rada, Camora, Muresan, Rafael Bastos, Aguirregaray, Kapetanos, Sougou Subs: Stancioiu, Maftei, Piccolo, Diogo Valente, Luis Alberto, Nicoara, Bjelanovic
Manchester United: De Gea, Rafael, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Anderson, Fletcher, Cleverley, Rooney, Hernandez, Van Persie. Subs: Lindegaard, Buttner, Wootton, Nani, Powell, Kagawa, Welbeck.
We playing a midfield diamond? with rooney at the top of it??
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@RMJ: 4-3-3 with Rooney and RVP on both sides of Chicho.
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Seems we are playing centrally… strange because if we are, I would have thought it would suit kagawa perfectly. Nevertheless we played pretty well against Newcastle so I remain optimistic.. I like the midfield trio though. Add kagawa to that and push Rooney up alongside Robin ..would have been perfect… let’s see
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good formation good squad, exciting team!! Its a shame the one time a formation and selection favours shinji hes on the bench, any how 3-1 United!
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@Robbie: I think that is a decision based on keeping him fresh rather than tactical. It’s just Cluj, so what can go wrong
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On Rio (to @JayWire, especially).
While Rio is not fully to blame for poor performance / conceded goals against Spurs, I think he deserves the most blame after Fergie. Rio is making mental mistakes and committing simple errors that lead to cascading effect on rest of team and contributes (along with Fergie’s inept tactics) to our teams demise.
For example,
1) Against Tottenham Hotspurs for the first goal, he just watched Verthongen as he marched into box and decided not to provide a challenge at all… just watched (mental)
2) Against Tottenham HotspurS for the third goal, he chased Defoe out wide leaving a huge gap in the defense and wasn’t able to halt/slow down Defoe from rounding him and dribbling past Rio. This was very poor defending in my book. He make it too easy for Defoe
3) Agains Cluj, Evans and Ferdinand only had one man to cover and they are unable to mark him tightly enough for their first goal. School-boy defending. While Ferdinand was not 100% at fault here, as the senior player he should have known better and directed accordingly (mental).
Ferdinand has been poor this season so far barring one game, I think. Sure, the midfield is worse and so is Fergie’s tactics, but if we need to rely on perfect defending then Rio should be playing better.
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Wow. Did we just waste 30 minutes of time in the second half? That’s our new ambition?? Zzznoozefest!
Shortly,
A) De Gea did really well today with important save at end. Should warrant a starting role next match.
B) Van Persie is so much better than our other players. Thank you, Arsenal! That second goal was high class.
C) Fletcher is still in need of games and rusty. Good our group is so easy, we can afford bringing him back from dead.
D) We had a central tactic today and we managed 73% possession (source: ESPN), yet we only managed 6 shots on goal and 5 corners (Cluj had 6 corners). This is quite worrying, imo, of things to come when the opponent is not Championship material.
E) Chicharito makes excellent runs, but was not services well, imo.
F) Good to see Wooton get some minutes.
G) Is anyone else worried about playing van Persie and Ferdinand EVERY game? I feel like we are tempting fate and surely cannot expect much success without Persie… and Ferdinand.
3 pts = 3 pts = 3 pts… I know, but still..
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@Opti: One positive, atleast we managed to keep the ball for more than 2 seconds and our midfield didnt get absolutely raped once again.
Sums us up really.
Still no excuses though we were horrendous 2nd half and seemed to have absolutely no oomph about us- every pass was back to the keeper, there was just no attacking intent about us.
But thats just par for the course for us these days im afraid. We are just simply a very boring and overly negative side which again goes back to our coaching and possibly something mentally too (like we turn up and think the win is a given).
You only really need see evra and his total lack of any real concern to bust a gut and get back to stop the cross getting in which led to their goal to see that- and he is meant to be our bloody captain ffs
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Cracking game tonight and an excellent three points. Cluj is not an easy place to go. Rooney to RVP – kiss kiss bang bang. That will do nicely. So many quality performances but the stand out for me was Tom Cleverley. Ran the show he did. Top drawer. And what about young Scott Wootton? Been watching him for years in the academy and reserves. He will be a top player, mark my words. Right, off for a Tommy Tank.
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@nm: cracking game? Can you elaborate, because what I watched was 30 minutes of drivel after we went up 2-1. Agree that Cleverley did well today.
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This team basically sat back with 10 men behind the ball at home, no wonder we kept the ball so long, I think today was a step in the right direction. Seeing us pass a football properly and with some purpose at times was good to see. Id love to see the same team in a premiership game now. Anderso and cleverley played good games as did fletcher. If fergie would allow these guys a run of games wed start to se a lot more creativity in the team
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I Gree Robbie. True Fletcher is rusty but I would take him any day ahead of Carrick for the simple reason that his fiorst instinct is to go forward when he wins possession and that puts a lot less pressure on everyone else. I guess with a good run of games we will be fine.
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while Lindegaard is a “safe” keeper he’s not going to improve much.De Gea is around 7 years younger and has only 1 major weakness(dealing with aerial threats) he constantly pulls of world class saves.Also,I don’t see what Fergie gets out rotating the keepers,we saw what it did to Howard and Carroll although they are not on the same levels as De Gea and Lindegaard.
CONSTANT first team football will do wonders for De Gea,look at Joe Hart as an example.Spent a year at BIrmingham then Mancini placed him as the first team keeper over Given.The effects of that were for all to see against Dortmund
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We are going to have a tough time at Newcastle on Sunday. But, the good and bad thing with united is that, the team is completely unpredictable now, so you never know. I hope they don’t take the life out of us like the last few games and win it convincingly.
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