*insert obligatory johno/goalkeeper/highest level joke here DDG has gotten better, btw. He played through a stretch at the beginning of this season where he was acting as a GK and half of the back 4, as shit as some people were playing. And his shot stopping and instinctive keeping are top 5 in the world right now. Some of his instinct saves are mind boggling. And as far as flapping at crosses, he has improved that part of his game in the last 2 years. And he takes the physicality now.
Assumption being I watched a sufficient amount of DDG at Atletico Madrid. I watch United matches that aren't too early for me to get up, El Classico and Champions League. That's about it.
Howard is overrated. DDG is still underrated based on first impressions from the English press and lazy reputations based on same. Joe Hart has made more, worse mistakes and while most of DDG's were based on adapting to a different style of football, Hart has made flat out gaffes. If Hart had been a new signing at a big club and made such mistakes, he'd be perpetually labelled as error-prone.
I think DDG's performances have got better after a string of howlers, I don't think his base level has improved much though. He's currently playing at potential for shot stopping, below potential with the ball at his feet and a couple other areas and slightly above where he was when he came in terms of dealing with crosses. Thanks for proving my point. You don't watch enough football to talk about top keepers globally. I've watched football at the highest levels...
GIF: I knew De Gea has worked on being tougher after joining Man Utd, but this is a bit too much, don't you think...?
Looking at this season as a whole, DDG has been my favorite player. If he had been playing as lax as some of the squad, or as shit as our managing, we would be shipping goals left and right. But he has not let his own standard fall at all. He is playing like he actually cares, as opposed to a lot of the shit I've seen from this squad. A top keeper, and one of the few of the current 25 we can actually be proud of.
Has the form really been that different? Yes, we have progressed but it's not like we have always covered ourselves in glory. We have had some very good results in the CL - the Leverkusen matches and the Olympiakos home leg particularly, but there have been plenty that have been bad to awful. The other two away matches in the group stage were drab draws where we were mostly outplayed by opposition we should usually boss, and the 0-2 with Olympiakos was an embarrassing defeat to a midlevel team. That all sounds right in line with our league form. Mostly just looks like a random spike here and there to me, no real substantive difference.
The next step of improvement is communication with the back line - elemental things such as putting the ball out for a throw-in rather than a corner, and the like.