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"I'd be going with Romero" | Pat Nevin on Man Utd goalkeeping crisis

Pat Nevin joined The Football Show on Off The Ball on Monday where the subject of David De Gea's ...



Soccer

"I'd be going with Romero" | Pat Nevin on Man Utd goalkeeping crisis

Pat Nevin joined The Football Show on Off The Ball on Monday where the subject of David De Gea's loss of form was on the agenda.

Nevin is in no doubt about what he would do were he in the Manchester United dugout.

"I'd be going with Romero," says Nevin, "and I wouldn't even be considering it too much, I'd be going with him. He's not done particularly badly any time I've watched him play."

"There are big parts of his game which are important to Manchester United where he is stronger. It was the shot-stopping that set [De Gea] apart and if that's not working in the same way, and it isn't, then he [Solskjaer] has to make that decision."

Goalkeepers' confidence

There is a danger where dropping goalkeepers can lead to a crisis of confidence according to Nevin, who recalled a situation at the club from the early 1990s.

"The other side of it and we go all the way back to another Manchester United goalkeeper, remember Jim Leighton?

"He was dropped for a Cup final replay and it destroyed Jim. It destroyed the relationship with his manager, the fallout was absolutely enormous.

"Do they [goalkeepers] lose confidence? Yes, 100%, maybe more than anyone else in any other position.

"Even really good ones, we remember that period with Petr Cech, there was a period where every ball that came into the box, it was ok, I started looking away. I just knew he was going to come and collect it. He's going to catch  it.

"There's not even a thought, he had utter belief, utter confidence, everything. Then a couple of injuries happen, one very bad injury happens.

"When he came back after that, lots of things were as good, but he was never as good at that again. There was an edginess, he started punching stuff that he would always have caught before.

"That wasn't a technical change, that was a part of confidence loss, something had gone. I have seen with a good number of keepers over the years, it's quite often after an injury [when confidence goes] but it's also likely to be after they have made a number of mistakes.

"They might in their own heads think 'this defence in front of me isn't great.' I'll go back to one of the stats here, I'm really wary of stats and goalkeepers.

"Dùbravka had more mistakes than De Gea, but I think Dùbravka had a brilliant season. The reason being he has had to do so much more and there is more stress on errors.

"You can look at Kepa and look at his numbers just now and his mistakes will be limited probably, but the percentage of goals versus the percentage of shots looks awful for him.

"So you can manipulate those stats whatever way you want, but the one guy I'm actually backing up here is Dùbravka"


Read more about

Blunders David DeGea Goalkeeper Manchester United Martin Dubravka Ole Gunnar Solskjaer Sergio Romero