[Analysis] /r/reddevils' Best XI of the Season - Day 11
PLAYER OF THE DAY: DAVID DE GEA (GOALKEEPER)
AVERAGE RATING: 7.81 - TOP PERFORMANCE: 9.89
RIVAL: LIVERPOOL, DECEMBER 14 2015. OLD TRAFFORD.
- A brief introduction (2): Unfortunately, I think there is only so much 'analysis' I can attempt with the modest knowledge I have and for the position of goalkeeper, especially when the performance was rated so highly because of the amount and quality of his saves. So this post will essentially have just one big topic, as I genuinely lack the knowledge that others may have and that could offer more insight into de Gea's performance.
- Distribution: That's the name of this game. Aside from his saves and organizing the defense, David de Gea is the first building block of our attack, and his distribution is essential. It isn't the same just kicking the ball randomly towards midfield (as it still happens in some professional leagues) than having a specific plan that is followed to the letter... and guess what option is the one we are using. So let's have a look at some images to see what happened in this match. Here, we can see to whom de Gea passed the ball throughout the match. Evans (who played left center-back) received 7 passes, as we tried building up from the back and on the side of Coutinho, who isn't renown for his pressing; Fellaini (who played mostly as a right center-midfielder) received 2; and Jones (right center-back) received 3. Interestingly, Carrick (who played center-back) only received the ball twice from our goalkeeper. Do you see one very interesting thing on that list of receivers of the ball? Valencia and Young (who played as wing-backs) are nowhere to be seen, which cannot be a coincidence. And do you see the other very interesting thing? The only midfielder who received more than 1 pass from De Gea was Fellaini, which is a more obvious non-coincidence.
- De Gea to Fellaini: Just like Valencia was de Gea's target for at least a big portion of last season, Fellaini was the obvious target for de Gea's long balls throughout 2014-2015. And while it was particularly obvious when Fellaini started playing as a left inside-forward "target man", closer to the end of the season (for instance, against Tottenham, City, Liverpool and Chelsea,) in this match against Liverpool we saw de Gea aiming consistently towards the right side of our midfield, where I would think Valencia would be. However, I imagine there was an instruction that Valencia shouldn't be receiving the ball directly, because if he failed to receive it properly we'd be unprotected on the right side of our defense. Instead, we saw stuff like this. De Gea aimed clearly towards Fellaini and gave him a well directed long ball (as a side note, remember this other well directed long ball towards Fellaini?); in turn, Fellaini chested the ball down and gave it to Valencia instead. Considering that on the left side we had Young as wing-back, Rooney as center-midfield, and Mata as number 10, it makes sense LvG decided to aim towards a less risky flank, one that had more possibilities of actually receiving these high balls. And David de Gea was very disciplined and stuck to the plan. Furthermore, in this heat map of Fellaini for this match, we can see how the green area in the bottom right matches exactly with this image of the passes he received from de Gea: the heat map essentially tells us of the two very specific areas where Fellaini was expected to participate in the buildup, one of which was the right side of midfield receiving passes from de Gea, the other one being the right defensive midfield zone, distributing the ball.
- Further reading: We've talked about David de Gea in previous installments of this series, which I'd like to leave here in case you want to check them out. We talked about how he refused to rush out, an area that he's improving but that still needs more work; we also speculated that LvG felt comfortable playing a high defensive line because of David's skills in one-on-ones; and we mentioned his distribution in our analysis of Carrick and -obviously- Fellaini.
I really wish I could say more about De Gea's tactical roles, but unfortunately I can't. I know he'd be responsible for making sure our defensive line is high, but I'm not sure about the other roles he may have. In terms of talent and skills, everything is obvious. He is the best young goalkeeper in the world and is at least in the top three best keepers in all age groups. In the last 3 seasons we've seen him improve his physique, his dealing with high balls, shot-stopping, defensive organization, footwork, kicking, and probably many other things that aren't so obvious. And although in Valdés we will have an experienced talent who already knows the theoretical ins and outs of the system, if/when David leaves the team will suffer a massive loss, one that hopefully we can recover from. For a statistical recap of his season, you can check out his profile at WhoScored.com or you may want to listen to a song that's completely unrelated to any of this.
Well, this is it. [This is the Best XI that was chosen by r/reddevils](http://i.imgur.com/7Z37jrO.png), whose movements on the pitch look a little bit like this. I'd like to congratulate those who completed the polls, because you definitely got it right. This was the starting XI that LvG used when things finally clicked against Tottenham, and that got us victories against City and Liverpool. How different will next year's Best XI be?
I would like to thank u/welbzy, who made time out of thin air so that he could provide you the team images that I think make everything so much easier on the eyes. I really appreciate his commitment.
I'd also like to thank u/Pimp-My-Alpaca, u/welbzy (again), u/tammodi, u/zaran10, u/DatGuyRich and u/okunenju, who worked collecting the ratings from the polls and/or providing us infographics with various different stats. These people volunteered their time so that we could discuss things with at least some sort of statistical basis, which is always greatly appreciated.
A big thank you to the mods as well, who make sure there is always space for original content in the sub. They are all doing a great job in here.
And finally, I'd like to thank all of you who read or commented in these threads. It was really great knowing that there were some people who enjoyed these posts, and I hope to see you around the sub in the future. If I may, I'd like to suggest reading the Months of Legends series, which sounds really cool. Here is the first fantastic post, on Sir Bobby Charlton (cheers to u/Pedantic_Pat), and today we should see a post on Paul Scholes. And just in case you haven't heard about it yet, I can suggest checking out r/soccernerd, a good little repository for football-related articles that are very insightful and informative.
It's been an absolute pleasure. See you around, stay well :)
<<< Day 10 - Ander Herrera | Day 11 - David de Gea |
Posted Jun 2, 2015, 1:06 PM UTC · edited