David De Gea has signed a new long-term contract to keep him at Manchester United until 2023.
Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has called De Gea the world’s best goalkeeper and here, the PA news agency assesses the Spaniard’s value to United.
Clean sheets
While the role of a goalkeeper is becoming more rounded in the modern passing game, keeping the goals out remains the primary concern.
De Gea became the 15th keeper with a century of Premier League clean sheets when he shut out Liverpool’s vaunted attack in February’s goalless draw at Old Trafford, his 264th appearance in the competition.
He now has 102 in 280 games, the most of any goalkeeper in the time since De Gea’s debut. That includes a run of six in a row during the 2012-13 season, when he did not concede a league goal across February and March.
De Gea has another 16 shut-outs to his name in 42 Champions League games with United.
Saves
De Gea’s superb reactions have led to a host of breathtaking saves for United, with the club taking to tagging the clips #DaveSaves on social media.
He combines quality with quantity, saving 73.6 per cent of the shots on target he has faced in the Premier League – 785 saves against 282 goals conceded, according to the league’s official website.
That percentage jumped to 80.4 as he won the league’s Golden Glove award for the 2017-18 season, conceding only 28 goals in 37 appearances with 18 clean sheets.
Honours
De Gea has helped the club to four major honours since signing from Atletico Madrid in 2011 – the Premier League in 2012-13, the 2015-16 FA Cup and the League Cup and Europa League in 2016-17.
That title-winning campaign saw him make his lowest number of appearances in a full Premier League season, 28, as Anders Lindegaard played 10 games. De Gea still kept 11 clean sheets and saved 76.4 per cent of the shots that came his way.
He played six games in that FA Cup win – missing only the fifth-round win at Shrewsbury – and kept two clean sheets in five matches en route to 2017’s League Cup success, but played just three group-stage games in the Europa League as Sergio Romero took the bulk of playing time.
De Gea has also played in three Community Shield wins, including the first of his 367 United appearances in all competitions so far.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here