20 Mar 2015

Aldo raves: 'Massive' £25m star is the 'player of the year' because he's a point-winner

Earlier this season, Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher predicted that Manchester United stopper David De Gea could be the first goalkeeper in almost 25 years to win the 'Player of the Year' award, and it seems that John Aldridge is also a fully paid-up member of the De Gea fan-club.

In a December column for the Daily Mail today, Carra hailed the £25m-rated Spaniard's 'amazing' performance against Liverpool, and tipped him to win the prestigious personal award:

"De Gea could be player of the year. He is now the [Premier League's] No 1, having just edged past Chelsea’s Thibaut Courtois. If he maintains this consistency, it might be hard to overlook him".

Speaking to the Liverpool Echo this week, Aldo concurred:

"He [De Gea] was massive for them [against Spurs]. He’s the Player of the Year this season in my eyes because he’s given them [Man United] an extra 15 points".

As much as it pains me to admit, De Gea is having an excellent season for Man United, and he's big reason why Louis Van Gaal's team of impostors are in the top four right now. That said, is he really more effective than Courtois? Here are the primary stats for both 'keepers:

* De Gea: 33 goals conceded in 35 games (0.9 per game)
* 13 clean sheets (37% of games)
* 97 saves (Saved 75% of shots)

* Courtois: 28 goals conceded in 31 games (0.9 per game)
* 12 clean sheets (38% of games)
* 81 saves (Saved 74% of shots)

Clearly, there's not much between the two at this stage. As a related comparison, how does Simon Mignolet stack up against Courtois and De Gea?

* Mignolet: 41 goals conceded in 44 games (0.9 per game)
* 15 clean sheets (34% of games)
* 105 saves (Saved 72% of shots)

Despite a poor first half of the season, Mignolet is still on a par with Courtois and De Gea, which is an admirable achievement. However, since the turn of the year, the Belgian has outperformed both players:

* Mignolet (Post-Drop) 12 goals conceded in 21 games (0.5 per game)
* Clean Sheets: 11 (52% of games)
* 41 saves (saved 77% of shots)

Mignolet is currently blowing De Gea and Courtois out of the water with his stunning stats; perhaps he should be up for 'Player of the Year'? ;-)

But seriously...

Mignolet and De Gea go head-to-head this weekend, and it'll be interesting to see who comes out on top. The Spaniard had a worldie against Liverpool in December, so here's hoping history doesn't repeat itself.

Author:


29 comments:

  1. Your an idiot if you think mignolet is anywhere near the other two, so sick of people using stats to judge players, your all just modern day championship managers who don't seem to be able to judge players by actually watching them

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  2. Mignolet may have better stats this year, but he's (imo) still not up to De gea standard..i can't count how many times he's rescued woeful man u this season

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  3. And Utd fans were completely slating him when he first joined.

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  4. It's not saying much for the mancs when their keeper is their best player for the last 2 seasons...

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  5. Admirable turnaround by MIngs. I wonder if Mignolet had this form from the beginning of the season whether he would be talked about in the same way? I doubtfyt for some reason.

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  6. Oh, every goalkeeper has to concede five every now and again..

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  7. Tim Howard approves

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  8. De Gea is currently being spoken of more highly than Courtois because De Gea has had to bail out his team a lot more than Courtois

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  9. But 'team of imposters' is an accurate way to describe United. As Molby said, the fact they are in the top 4 is a minor miracle.

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  10. He was pretty unconvincing in the 1st few months though...we would/have done exactly the same.

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  11. I wouldn't have. I would've called for patience, pointed out that he was very young, under-developed physically for the Premier League and would need time to adjust to a new club, country, team mates etc.
    I take your point though, an unfortunately large section of our support would've wanted De Gea's head on a spike had he put in the performances for us that he did for United in that first 6 months

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  12. One may say Mignolet could be the best stopper of the three as they dont have Lovren.

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  13. Since the dramatic turnaround migs very rarely plays the ball out from the back, unless under no pressure whatsoever. He generally just puts his foot through it now and imo taking the pressure off him by no longer demanding he play the sweeper role, it's allowed him to just concentrate on being a goalkeeper, which he's pretty good at and that's allowed his confidence to return.
    I like Migs and I'd like to keep him at the club but I expect to see him usurped by somebody better in the next couple of years

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  14. I'm actually surprised Courtois' numbers aren't better. With the boring & conservative style that Chelsea play, one would expect that they would give up much less.

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  15. I agree, most fans would've. I guess my point was more around giving players time before you jump on their backs.

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  16. I am backing Harry Kane as player of the year and Raheem Sterling as young player of the year.


    De Gea will not be staying at UTD hence the signing of Valdes. De Gea has also been heavily linked with Madrid.


    You can have the best goalkeeper in the world, if your defence is a shambles then your GK stands no chance.

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  17. The ball spent far too much time with our defence at the start of the season and that in return made Mignolet stick out like a sore thumb. He was the whipping boy game after game. Most teams enjoyed the way played a patient and slow build up game.

    Solution...

    Pressing higher up the pitch it immediately alleviated the pressure Mignolet was constantly under.



    If Rodgers ever returns to that useless 'tiki taka' system of his which has not worked ever since he became manager the FSG need to pull the trigger.


    Hopefully Rodgers has woken up and has learned from his mistakes. Fingers crossed otherwise we will sit in the same situation again should he stay on for next season.

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  18. Exactly... our style of play was putting undue pressure on Migs and the defense.


    And for all the flack that Moreno has taken over lack of offense as a wing back, he provides the flexibility to move to four at the back if needed.


    Our formation works because we can adjust on the fly, plus Joe Allen & Lucas have both been rock solid as DM.

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  19. And we also do not have two CB's splitting and a CM becoming the 3rd CB which saw us constantly being overrun in the middle of the park.


    Will Rodgers stick to this current system for next season is the million dollar question. It was not broken last season yet he decided he had to 'fix' it at the start of the season. We could have been challenging for the league again this season if it was not for his stubbornness and ego...

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  20. I think there was always going to be a breaking-in period for the new signings. My problem with Rodgers at the beginning of the season (through December) is that he was putting our new signings in positions and strategies that didn't suit their strengths. Granted what he tries isn't going to work out, but there are some basic fundamental things that even you or I could see that he wasn't adjusting.


    As it relates to next season, it's too early to know either way. A lot will depend on what the roster looks like, and it will also give managers more time to figure out how to deal with the formation.


    What's shocking to me is that I think Besiktas and Southampton showed how to beat LFC, which is to sustain pressure for the entire game. Granted, that's much easier said than done. But I was shocked at how Man City was seemingly holding back as opposed to taking it to us.

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  21. IMO De Gea is currently the best keeper in the world. Courtois is also a top keeper but De Gea is in a different league for me and that is including Neuer. As much as Mignolet has improved over the last few months he needs to carry on like this for the next few years before he can seriously claim to rival any of the aforementioned keepers.

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  22. Harry Kane cannot possible be player of the year, if he is I give up with football. If I'm honest there aren't many stand out nominees for player of the year but if I was forced to pick one it would have to be one of the following... De Gea, Hazard or Cesc.

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  23. The new signings had no issues playing in a pressing system. Lalllana, Lovren and Lambert came from Southampton which also use the pressing system. Moreno, Markovic and Can have limitless amounts of energy so the excuse of bedding in the new players does not do it for me.


    The formation is not the real issue. It is the system of play and I hope and pray we do not see another repeat of what happened at the start of this season which was a mirror image of Rodgers debut first half season.


    We shall see if Rodgers has figured out that tiki taka does not work at LFC.

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  24. De Gea is a good shout for player of the year with Harry Kane being the other contender.
    I got a feeling that sunday will be the day when Daniel Sturridge will mark his mark as the main man for Liverpool

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  25. Each to their own. Kane has been really good this season. Give him the opportunity and he will put the ball away every time.

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  26. Kane has scored 16 PL goals hardly the stuff of a genius. When he scores 20+ PL goals over the course of a few seasons I may agree but I would happily wager this season will be one of the best of his career. Purple patch springs to mind.

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  27. In hindsight, I think Rodgers reverted back to 'tiki taka' simply because he thought it would improve our defence. Maybe he saw last season's system as some kind of makeshift production that wasn't going to work for the long term because we now don't have the extra firepower of Suarez to cancel out the goals we conceded through a leaky defence that was kind of an inherent flaw of that style we played, and came to love. My thinking is that Rodgers originally envisioned this season to have a patient, steady team who could keep the ball, and by keeping the ball would give the opponents less opportunity to score. That, as well all know, did not work out. No one could adjust to it. He wanted to give it every possible chance to work, but Palace seemed to be a nail in the coffin.

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  28. But Tiki Taka is his preferred system. It is the system he sold to FSG. If he goes back to it again then he needs to be sacked. Did not work in the first half of his debut season. We saw a bit of it in the first half of last season when Suarez was out and it has been a mess again first half of this season.


    It is a plain and simple fact that Tika Taka needs to be scrapped and never be tried again.

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  29. I'm sure he's also had FSG sold with this better system. Perhaps he will finally see the light

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