Why Man Utd must replace De Gea with Costa this summer
Saturday's FA Cup final showed why Manchester United should be in the market for a new goalkeeper this summer. David De Gea was caught off guard for Ilkay Gundogan's stunning opener after just 12 seconds at Wembley, but could easily have done better for the German and Manchester City's second just six minutes after the interval.
Talk of replacing a goalkeeper who won the Golden Glove last season is perhaps misguided, but 17 clean sheets masks what was another sub-par campaign for De Gea. A 69.7% save success rate was worse than Neto and Bernd Leno, two goalkeepers whose respective teams finished below United in the Premier League last season and while United had previously explored the possibility of extending the Spaniard's stay at Old Trafford, Saturday's mishap appears to have been the straw that has broken the camel's back as far as Erik ten Hag is concerned.
"But there are occasions in the game, issues in the game, we have to improve," Ten Hag said when pressed on De Gea's problematic distribution following the 2-1 defeat to City. The 32-year-old, whose contract expires this month, made more inaccurate passes (18) than any other player in the FA Cup final and for a side that looks to build attacks from the back, interest in a ball-playing goalkeeper isn't a surprise.
United do have other priorities in the market this summer, notably in attack with Harry Kane and Rasmus Hojlund seemingly the top targets, even with Real Madrid now courting the former following confirmation of Karim Benzema's summer exit, but De Gea's performance in their final game of the campaign could well have adjusted United's targets in the market.
Finding the right goalkeeper, then, is key. Not only do they need a top quality shotstopper, but one who is capable of picking out a teammate with relative ease, which will allow United to build attacks from defence. Unfortunately for De Gea, this is a weakness of his, and it means United are unable to dominate opponents as they would hope under Ten Hag.
In United's bid to return to the summit of English football, there is no room for sentiment and as loyal a servant as De Gea has been, they do need to move on from the 32-year-old in order to continue this rebuild at Old Trafford. That has seen them linked with a move for FC Porto's Diogo Costa. The Portuguese goalkeeper ended the season with 16 clean sheets and a save success rate of 76.8%, both of which were the second most in Liga Bwin.
What does stand him in better stead than De Gea, though, is his distribution. Porto had the third largest share of possession (58.8%) in Portugal's top tier last term, so a goalkeeper good with his feet is vital if they are to dominate opponents. This is why Costa has been so important for Porto in both domestic and continental competition. He evidently shines when opponents chance their luck at goal, but has also developed a statistically calculated WhoScored strength of 'long passing', this coincidentally a weakness of De Gea's.
The strength and weakness is deserved for each respective goalkeeper, too. Costa finished the 2022/23 campaign with an average of 7.3 accurate long balls per game, that ranking fourth in Liga Bwin, whereas De Gea made just 4.9 accurate long balls per game. The former had the superior long ball accuracy, too, returning a 49.1% success rate, a huge improvement on De Gea's 36.0%. Given United have developed a statistically calculated strength of 'Counter attacks', a goalkeeper to rapidly get the ball upfield would give United a far greater chance of maximising this quality to their game.
Even in terms of keeping the play ticking over, Costa outshines De Gea, having made 18.6 accurate short passes per game, a rise on the latter's return of 14.6, which would allow United to keep possession to a better standard.
United remain in the midst of their rebuild, but it's been a positive debut campaign under Ten Hag. However, he now needs to be ruthless if United are to build upon their top-four finish and Carabao Cup triumph, and that means improving the first team squad, starting from the back.
De Gea has been a consistent performer between the United sticks following his arrival from Atletico Madrid, yet now is the time to move him on and look to the future. Costa is seemingly the number one goalkeeping target for United and given his shotstopping ability combined with his distribution, the Portugal number one looks the perfect fit for Ten Hag's side.
