Player Focus: Was Van Gaal Right to Downplay De Gea Display?

At first, it just seemed like Louis van Gaal was being wilfully obtuse – as he so often is. In the press-conference after Manchester United’s win at Liverpool on Sunday he was asked how important David de Gea had been to his side’s win. Essentially it was: one of your players played well today, Louis, say some words about how good he is then we can bolster our observations that he was good in our match reports with your expertise. 

But Van Gaal refused. “Everybody is saying that [he was man of the match] but so many of the balls he has not stopped, otherwise you don't need a goalkeeper,” he said. Perhaps he spied a trap. Perhaps he thought this was an indirect way of establishing De Gea’s importance to United as part of a story about his future as Real Madrid face a transfer ban. Perhaps he thought that by stressing how well his goalkeeper had played he would be giving ammunition to those who felt United had been a touch fortunate in their win. 

“I think that's why he is our goalkeeper,” Van Gaal went on. “I have to say he is always reaching a very high level so I'm very happy but I cannot say he has done a lot. He has stopped the balls he has to stop. Maybe that one-hand [he acted out the diving save to his right from Emre Can’s shot], but I think he has to stop that ball. I demand it also of the player, that's why he is playing for Manchester United." 

Yet, up to a point, Van Gaal was right. De Gea made only four saves in the game. There was the early one from Adam Lallana, who ended up heading tamely at him as he came to the edge of the box after a long ball had sown confusion. There was a sidefoot effort hit straight at him by Jordan Henderson from the edge of the box. There was the one with the side of his right foot as Can was set free at a narrow angle. There was the diving one to his right from Can that Van Gaal acted out.

Were any of the saves exceptional? No, although there was much to admire in De Gea’s positioning and presence for the first and third and for his athleticism for the fourth. Is four a huge number of saves for a goalkeeper to have made? Not really. It was four more than Simon Mignolet made, admittedly, but it was only one more than De Gea had made in the 3-3 draw at Newcastle or in the 2-1 win over Swansea City and two fewer than he made in the 2-0 defeat at Stoke City, and nobody thought he’d played especially well in any of those games. In fact, he averages 2.8 saves per game this season in the Premier League. 

The point, perhaps, is that such was the perception of Liverpool’s domination – having 53.3% possession overall and 57.8% in the second half, and 19 shots to United’s seven – that there was a need on the part of those watching to overplay De Gea’s role, partly because it stands to reason that if a side has had a lot of shots and failed to score the goalkeeper must have played well (and there is thus a confirmation bias, making his saves seem more important and memorable), and partly because it’s difficult, trying to assess a game as its going on, to visualise or appreciate the defensive structures that prevented Liverpool from having a better calibre of shot. 

If Van Gaal’s argument was that his side had, despite the shortcomings he acknowledged, defended well and that De Gea therefore hadn’t had an especially heavy workload, then perhaps he was right. Being Van Gaal, though, it is equally possible that his familiar habit of striking off on crotchety tangents once more acted as a means of deflecting focus from yet another underwhelming performance.

How did you rate De Gea's performance at Anfield on Sunday? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below