Thread by @Jhdharrison1

THREAD:

Over the past year has Dean #Henderson staked a realistic claim to be #ManchesterUnited’s number 1 #Goalkeeper ahead of David #DeGea?

I will mainly investigate an area of GKing that receives little statistical analysis:

Cross Claiming & Sweeping

#MUFC #GKUnion

Firstly before that, I think it is well known that #Henderson had an outstanding shot stopping season while #DeGea didn’t.

Here are the numbers:

#Henderson Save%-ExSave +5.88%
#DeGea Save%-ExSave% +0.78%

2 important conclusions should be drawn from these numbers...

#MUFC

1. #DeGea did not have a below avg season, yes he make shot stopping mistakes but he made enough worldy saves to out weigh the mistakes.

2. #DeGea has only once (17/18) had a better shot stopping season in his career (according to PSExG) than #Henderson had this year.

#MUFC

So how do the GKs compare when it comes to cross claiming?

Both #DeGea & #Henderson have a similar claim success rate however #Henderson is far more active claiming 0.6 pressurised crosses more per 90 which over a season corresponds to preventing an additional ~4 goals!

#MUFC

With regards to sweeping both GKs are relatively conservative but they do both boast 100% success records.

Again #Henderson is a far more active sweeper & sweeps 0.3 pressurised throughballs more per 90.

Over a season this would correspond to preventing an additional ~2 goals!

Conclusion:

#Henderson comfortably outperformed #DeGea in shotstopping, cross claiming, & sweeping making his claim to be number 1 strong.

However, it must be noted that #Henderson has only performed at this level for one season so his ability to repeat such form is unknown.

As always if you have any questions fire away!

My personal opinion is that #MUFC should loan #Henderson out to see if he can do it for another year before ousting #DeGea.

I can also elaborate on any of the metrics & data quoted in this thread if people are interested.