Man Utd should sign Sommer as De Gea replacement, not understudy
Stuart Telford
- 17 Aug 2022 14:28 BST
- 4 min read
Manchester United have been linked with a move for Yann Sommer to act as David de Gea's understudy. The Borussia Monchengladbach goalkeeper should be first choice if he rocks up at Old Trafford.
De Gea deserves credit for the job he has done at Man Utd since arriving from Atletico Madrid in a €22 million deal in 2011, the shot-stopping supremo probably the best goalkeeper in the Premier League for a bulk of his time with the Red Devils.
But the saves have started to dry up. Last Saturday's 4-0 humbling at Brentford saw De Gea spill an early Jay Dasilva strike into his net, and he never looked like stopping Mathias Jensen's second after he had played his defence into trouble with a risky pass.
This is very self-critical from David de Gea...#BBCFootball #BREMUN pic.twitter.com/i1HAdl8WkM
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 13, 2022
That particular failure to pass the eye test may be anecdotal, but De Gea's underlying stats from last season are alarming to say the least. He only saved 68 per cent of shots on his goal. Fully 56 per cent of goalkeepers in the Premier League did better.
In De Gea's defence, he volunteered to face the press himself after the Brentford game, saying "I want to take responsibility, I think I cost my team three points. It was a poor performance from me. I think so. That can happen in football."
The problem for De Gea and Man Utd is that he no longer shows the same leadership on the field of play.
Sommer available
United are known to be in the market for a goalkeeper to provide competition for De Gea, especially with Dean Henderson having been allowed to leave for Nottingham Forest on loan, and Sommer has been attracting interest from around Europe with his contract at Borussia Monchengladbach expiring at the end of the season.
The Switzerland No.1 has been with the Foals since 2014 and has a contract offer in place to extend his deal until 2025. In contrast to De Gea, his level has never dipped, even if he does have two years on the Spaniard.
Cynics will point to the fact the Bundesliga is a more generous league than the English top-flight, ranked three places and 31.428 points below the Premier League in the latest UEFA coefficients, but even if we apply a 17 per cent "Bundesliga tax" on Sommer's output, his stats leave De Gea's rooted to the spot.
De Ge only averaged 26 touches per game last season as the ball whizzed past him 57 times in the Premier League. Gladbach may have conceded four more goals, but Sommer averaged 47 touches, putting him in the upper 95th percentile of all goalkeepers Bundesliga-wide.
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A 17 per cent tax would still give him 39 touches - and that contentious measure is meant to account for attacking players' drop-off on arriving in England anyway, not goalkeeper performance, meaning Sommer should see more action in the Bundesliga, not less.
De Gea kept 10 clean sheets in 46 games last season. Sommer only managed three less despite playing 10 fewer games.
The Gladbach man is better with and without the ball than De Gea, and with Sommer arriving at Old Trafford, the sun should be setting on the Spaniard's career.
