Long Watch

[URZZ]

He's always chewing gum is Shane, the addiction must be worse than Fergie's.

[Victor Meldrew]

I'll say this now so it can bite me on the arse in 6 months time.

De Gea will be the flop of the season. Come January I bet Utd are trying to sign Schwarzer or someone like that.

I'll take you on AP-from what I have seen of him in La Liga I think he will do well.
Remember Reina took a while to settle.
Maybe the Gayer needs to find some kit that fits him first rather than the baggy stuff that he has been wearing.

[Alan Partridge]

I'll say this now so it can bite me on the arse in 6 months time.

De Gea will be the flop of the season. Come January I bet Utd are trying to sign Schwarzer or someone like that.

I'll take you on AP-from what I have seen of him in La Liga I think he will do well.
Remember Reina took a while to settle.
Maybe the Gayer needs to find some kit that fits him first rather than the baggy stuff that he has been wearing.

I mentioned this on facers before Redknapp said it, he looks like a boy. His wiki says his 6'4 but he looks tiny and needs to fill out a bit. Can't w8 to see him rock up at Stoke, good luck young man.

[leww_rfc]

Well Done Shlong!

[Friday's Legacy]

good on him. shane is a confidence player and that will do him the world of good. did i hear tyler right when he said that shane hadn't had much of a pre-season and wasn't fit yet, and had odemwingie been fit that long wouldn't have started today? he even made reference to shane looking tired around the 60th minute. shane had a full pre-season and is one of the fittest players around, so i was a little puzzled by tyler's uneducated comments.

[Elmer Park]

good on him. shane is a confidence player and that will do him the world of good. did i hear tyler right when he said that shane hadn't had much of a pre-season and wasn't fit yet, and had odemwingie been fit that long wouldn't have started today. he even made reference to shane looking tired around the 60th minute. shane had a full pre-season and is one of the fittest players around, so i was a little puzzled by tyler's uneducated comments.

Me too especially as Tyler is usually pretty well informed. Also kept commenting on how he wouldn't know his new team mates names as if he had joined them this morning.

Overall not a bad debut for Shane considering it was against the Champions.

[Mr Angry]

Only watched the game to see Long play; excellent debut. Put himself about, caused the United defence problems, and though his shot obviously should have been saved, they all count!

[Wycombe Royal]

Also kept commenting on how he wouldn't know his new team mates names as if he had joined them this morning.

I'm guessing he only met them for the first time on Friday, because before that he was on international duty and on Thursday he popped in to Hogwood....

[RoyalX]

I'll say this now so it can bite me on the arse in 6 months time.

De Gea will be the flop of the season. Come January I bet Utd are trying to sign Schwarzer or someone like that.

I'll take you on AP-from what I have seen of him in La Liga I think he will do well.
Remember Reina took a while to settle.
Maybe the Gayer needs to find some kit that fits him first rather than the baggy stuff that he has been wearing.

I mentioned this on facers before Redknapp said it, he looks like a boy. His wiki says his 6'4 but he looks tiny and needs to fill out a bit. Can't w8 to see him rock up at Stoke, good luck young man.

I agree with you AP, I've been saying this since before the community shield and everything I've seen since then has just enforced my view. Before you even contemplate how good he is technically as a keeper, there's major issues.

It's so much harder to excel as a keeper at a club like Man Utd because a) your concentration has to be absolutely spot on - you have 89 minutes with nothing to do and then have to make a world class save out of nowhere and b) there's so much more pressure on you playing for a top club. Many a good keeper (Howard, Bosnich, etc.) has just not been up to this role. Then take into account that he's replacing one of the two great keepers at the club of the last two decades. All this would be a mindfuck for anyone, let alone a 20-year-old with no experience playing in England or a top club. One that suffered a dip in form last year because of the rumours linking him with moves away - if he hasn't got the mental strength to deal with that, how will he deal with all the pressure on him now?

It's so different from playing for Atletico, where you can afford to make a few mistakes because if you're talented enough you will make enough saves to alleviate responsibility somewhat. I've watched him in La Liga last season, and whilst he made some outstanding saves there were many times that he was sloppy, or made errors. I'd heard a lot about him and I wasn't that impressed for how highly rated he was.

He also can't speak English. You can debate how much importance that holds in the modern game; but (for me) if I want my defenders to push up, or mark someone tighter, I want to be comfortable in the language that I'm doing that in. Communication is so important for a keeper.

He's not ready to be No.1 at United yet. He may well be in the future.

Feel free to quote me on this next May when he's had an amazing season, just won the Golden Glove and the quadruple

[Alan Partridge]

Man Utd + young goalkeepers just ends in disaster. To quote Ben Foster 'winning 2-1 at Man Utd isn't good enough'. There's an online interview with Foster where he said he didn't enjoy playing for Man Utd at all, everything you do is under the microscope and compared to Schmeichel or now Van Der Sar. If you do make a mistake it's highlighted for ages and ages and you have to be a certain type of character to live with that. It's why many young keepers (Howard, Carroll, Foster, Kuczsczak) havent' had much success at Man Utd when they've been given that number 1 shirt and chucked in at the deep end, and why Van Der Sar was so good was he's played at top clubs, world cups and got that experience and calmness as well as a presence about him to cope with those expectations. For a while Barthez did as well before he seemed to lose his marbles in his last season.

De Gea just doesn't look like a keeper, he looks scrawny, maybe tall but no actual mass to him he needs to get in the gym and fill out because in the Premiership more so than any league it's football played by units and he will get less protection from refs (even though 1 or 2 were fouls yesterday).

The language thing is a barrier but you don't have to shout too many diferent things. Away, Keepers, telling someone if they've a man on, time that sort of thing. It's only really 5 or 6 commands he needs I'm sure he's learnt them.

Just thought at the time VDS went, if Man Utd wanted the next level (because they'll still win the league regardless) then they needed to go for Buffon or Reina. Someone like that whose been at the top level for a while and played at big clubs with expectation. Whether Liverpool would have sold Reina to them I don't know, but with the state of Italian football I'm sure Man Utd could have done something with Juventus for Buffon.

It will be interesting to see how De Gea adapts, I've seen him play two games and I really don't see anything much in him yet but it's early days.

[M-U-R-T-Y]

Well, there's what we miss.

[leww_rfc]

Premier League top scorers 2011/12

Aguero - 2
Long - 2
Suarez - 2

[Double T]

Goals against Man Utd and Chelsea now

[FiNeRaIn]

I mentioned this on facers before Redknapp said it, he looks like a boy. His wiki says his 6'4 but he looks tiny and needs to fill out a bit. Can't w8 to see him rock up at Stoke, good luck young man.

Yeah, you haven't made it in English football until you've played well at stoke on a cold tuesday night in january.

Got to love the English mentality.

De gea will be fine, love how people are judging him already based on one game, its almost embarrass.

[Franchise FC]

I mentioned this on facers before Redknapp said it, he looks like a boy. His wiki says his 6'4 but he looks tiny and needs to fill out a bit. Can't w8 to see him rock up at Stoke, good luck young man.

Yeah, you haven't made it in English football until you've played well at stoke on a cold tuesday night in january.

Got to love the English mentality.

De gea will be fine, love how people are judging him already based on one game, its almost embarrass.

It's based on two games - he's been embarrasing in both

[paultheroyal]

I mentioned this on facers before Redknapp said it, he looks like a boy. His wiki says his 6'4 but he looks tiny and needs to fill out a bit. Can't w8 to see him rock up at Stoke, good luck young man.

Yeah, you haven't made it in English football until you've played well at stoke on a cold tuesday night in january.

Got to love the English mentality.

De gea will be fine, love how people are judging him already based on one game, its almost embarrass.

Doubling up on Franchise, it's 2 and hope it's 3 tomorrow!

[FiNeRaIn]

He let a soft goal in against WBA, not great but hardly a clanger. Time will tell, writing someone off when they've played two competitive games after moving from spain shows a massive lack of understanding for football.

[TBM]

Goals against Man Utd and Chelsea now

[RFCUK]

Watching his secon dgoal on MOTD, it's just such mixed emotions. Glad he's been able to move on and 'flourish' where he should rightfully be, but man I'm going to miss watching him play. Worth more than £6m.. Priceless in our hearts though

[TBM]

Watching his secon dgoal on MOTD, it's just such mixed emotions. Glad he's been able to move on and 'flourish' where he should rightfully be, but man I'm going to miss watching him play. Worth more than £6m.. Priceless in our hearts though

Its how i felt when Doyle left and i still miss him