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Is David de Gea the best keeper in the world at the moment?

Manchester United keeper David de Gea has been hailed by some as the best in the world after a st...



Is David de Gea the best keepe...
Soccer

Is David de Gea the best keeper in the world at the moment?

Manchester United keeper David de Gea has been hailed by some as the best in the world after a string impressive performances for the Red Devils. 

He denied the Arsenal attack on several occasions as Jose Mourinho's side won 3-1 at the Emirates at the weekend.

Former Sunderland shot-stopper David Preece joined Monday's Off the Ball to analyse the Spaniard's recent displays and speaking to Joe Molloy, he said: "He's definitely a man in form. The most pleasing thing from my point of view is that he's not got this brilliant over night - he's had his dips in form. He had his troubles when he first went in at Manchester United.

"He was very promising - preformed very well at Madrid and went and had his bad time for the first couple of years but he went back to the drawing board with Eric Steele and he kind of re-jigged his game and they both learned off each other - the coach and the player.

"And, more than anything, he has just become more confident in himself. He started to doubt his positional play and the positions he takes up are a little deeper and he maximises his response time by doing that - by being a little further back and you can see the amount of saves, especially the other day, that he puts himself in that position where he's not just getting something on the ball - he puts himself in a position where he can either parry or catch and when he does parry the ball, he tends to put it out of danger," he added. 

Asked where he thinks the Spaniard ranks amongst the game's top keepers, Preece said: "At the moment form-wise and a big part of it for me is his demeanor, the fact that he doesn't seem to let his emotions get on top of him and that keeps him at a level where he can make good decisions and that's what goalkeeping is about. 

"As much as it's about ability - it's about the mental part of the game and making good decisions. Now you've got Manuel Neuer who is out injured at the moment so we don't know what kind of form he'd be in but, just a comparison between the two over the last five seasons - David de Gea has made half as many mistakes...as Manuel Neuer over that time and I think that's a big part of it."

The full discussion can be heard here:

Is David de Gea the best keeper in the world at the moment?

00:00:00 / 00:00:00

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