David de Gea and Harry Maguire are surely on the way out, their dismal displays in a Europa League defeat again showing their inescapable faults
David de Gea has served Manchester United well, and Harry Maguire cannot be accused of lacking effort, but they simply cannot continue at the club beyond this season. If that wasn’t clear already, then their utterly atrocious performances in a shocking 3-0 defeat (5-2 on aggregate) against Sevilla on Thursday offered sufficient proof.
De Gea is United’s longest-serving player and holds the record for keeping more clean sheets than any other Red Devils’ goalkeeper. But his nightmarish display in the quarter-final second leg, in which he deserved blame in all three goals, was a devastating confirmation of what many have been thinking but have been afraid to say because of everything he has done for United over the last decade. He is simply not equipped for the demands of modern football. He does not have the ball skills a top goalkeeper needs in 2023.
Maguire is also not good enough on the ball for a central defender at an elite club and even though he only got in the team due to injuries, a top club needs to be able to rely on its squad players and he looks increasingly like a liability.
But the goalkeeper and captain were not the only ones to blame in one of United’s worst performances of the season, and there have been plenty of those.
This was an utterly dreadful performance from Erik ten Hag’s side and the hardest thing to digest is the fact that they were so impressive in the first leg at Old Trafford before they crumbled late on.
They exit the Europa League in the worst way possible, with potentially more injuries to contend with after Anthony Martial was forced off.
They will now have to lift themselves up from the floor for Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final against the in-form and dynamic Brighton.
GOAL breaks down the winners & losers from the Estadio Sanchez Pizjuan…
LOSER: David de Gea
It was likely the worst performance of his Manchester United career.
Ten Hag may have insisted the day before that the Spaniard was a “complete” goalkeeper but he was a disaster in every aspect, from his much-maligned footwork to his shot-stopping.
Even before Sevilla’s first goal, his kicking was suspect. He blasted the ball into the stands early on when put under pressure.
He committed a big error for the opening goal by passing to Maguire even though he could see the defender was being harried by Erik Lamela and En-Nesyri.
He then failed to communicate properly with Maguire later in the first half when he strayed far from his goal, prompting the captain to urge him to do better.
The Spaniard only had himself to blame for the last two goals. He got his positioning all wrong for Loic Bade’s goal and could not stop the ball dropping over his head and into into the net even though it had come off the Frenchman’s shoulders.
The third goal was the perfect illustration of his troubles with the ball at his feet, controlling a long ball downfield terribly and sending it straight to a grateful En-Nesyri, who only needed one touch to score.
De Gea has only two months left on his United contract and has reportedly rejected their first offer of a renewal. That gives the club the chance to make a hard but necessary decision and thank him for his service but bid him farewell. He is just not capable of using his feet in an era where any self-respecting goalkeeper at the highest level can do so.
LOSER: Harry Maguire
Maguire scored an own goal in the first leg and looked very nervous during the win at Nottingham Forest.
He was an accident waiting to happen and Sevilla put him under a lot pressure. He failed to deal with it.
With the opening goal he did no scanning before asking for the ball and had no awareness of his surroundings and that he had two opponents on his back.
If he had actually had the confidence to turn and look forward then he could have beaten the press. Instead he was caught like a rabbit in headlights and tried a soft pass to Aaron Wan-Bissaka which was scooped up by Erik Lamela. En-Nesyri took full advantage, finishing past De Gea to get the romp underway.
The goalkeeper seemed angry with Maguiree for the error and from then on his team-mates did not seem to trust him.
He also failed to properly organise the defence for the corner from which Bade scored Sevilla’s second.
Opposition fans revel in Maguire’s mishaps, as Forest did last week and Sevilla did tonight.
Maguire’s United career has not been all bad, even though he was woefully overpriced.
But if the Red Devils want to compete at the very top again they cannot afford to have a player who always seems to have an error in him.
Source: goal.com
