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How will this Manchester United man justify his £18m pricetag?

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Manchester United’s search for a new number 1 has officially ended with the confirmed signing of David De Gea. The highly rated goalkeeper has signed a five year contract and joins the English Champions from Atletico Madrid in a deal worth a reported £18m. The Spanish Under-21 Championship winner now faces the unenviable task of replacing the imperial Dutch legend Edwin Van Der Sar between the sticks at Old Trafford.

United had been searching for their replacement for Van Der Sar for a few months, following the announcement that he (Van Der Sar) would be hanging up his gloves when the season had finished. Sir Alex Ferguson identified the Spain Under-21 star as his priority target a few months ago and Sir Alex must have clearly seen something special in the 20-year-old to give the green light for the £18m capture of the young stopper.

The much touted move by Manchester Untied for De Gea could be seen as a huge risk, considering the keeper has only been playing regular first team football for only two seasons. But during his first seasons as a professional, De Gea helped his club to UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup success added to his recent success at international level with the Spanish under 21’s victory in Denmark last week.

This would suggest that De Gea has gained the necessary experience needed when dealing with the pressures that will ultimately come with being number 1 for one of Europe’s elite teams. Having only watched De Gea a handful of times for his former club last season, I took the opportunity that presented itself in the form of the recent Under 21 tournament to try and gain an insight into how De Gea operates and what his strengths and weakness are.

Over the course of the tournament Spain dominated possession against the teams they faced, which in turn seen De Gea rarely troubled and conceded only two goals. Over the whole competition it was hard to make a full judgement on his abilities but from the little I have seen his handling of the ball is good, he appears to be very vocal although I’m not sure how his English is but that is something he can work on if he hasn’t already started. One thing that really stands out is his calm demeanour when under pressure, which will lead to a direct comparison to Van Der Sar and the aura he emitted when in goal for Manchester United.

Truthfully it was always going to be impossible to measure the abilities of De Gea over one tournament but from what I’ve witnessed he is a fantastic prospect with the talent and ability to succeed at Manchester United, but he will be subjected to intense pressure and will be forced to make the adjustment from La Liga to the Premier League and into a new country almost immediately and without the aid of a full pre-season.

Developing an understanding with Ferdinand and Vidic will be crucial; therefore communication, distribution, how he commands his area and concentration will be vital if he is to fill the void left by the departing Van Der Sar. His concentration levels will have to be superb and he will have to develop this into his main attribute. Every goalie in the world can make a good save every now and again, it’s doing it when it matters and at Manchester United, De Gea might only be called into action once or twice a match, making crucial saves at important times, is what separates the good keepers from the greats.

We’ve seen it happen numerous times over the last decade, a world class keeper retiring and the replacement not been able to match the success of their predecessor. Just look at the problems that Manchester United faced the last time a world class keeper retired. Sir Alex Ferguson openly admitted that he got it wrong in picking a successor to Peter Schmeichel. Mark Bosnich, Fabien Barthez, Roy Carroll, Tim Howard and many more all tried and failed to live with the expectations at Old Trafford and in it wasn’t until the arrival of Edwin Van Der Sar in 2005 did Sir Alex find the goalkeeper that was capable of commanding his area with the same authority that the great Danish keeper had achieved throughout the nineties.

This time Sir Alex is convinced that he has got the right man in David De Gea who possesses the same qualities and attributes of a Van Der Sar and Schmeichel to make the grade as a world class Manchester United goalkeeper.

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