Has David de Gea Met The Challenge Of Anders Lindegaard?

After watching Anders Lindegaard produce a man of the match performance in Manchester United’s draw against Benfica last week, David de Gea knew he had to at least equal that display against Chelsea.

de Gea looks down at Torres following his miss

To his credit, the young Spaniard did just that as he was called on numerous times, making a total of seven saves, including two unbelievable ones from point-blank range, to keep the Red Devils unbeaten run to the season intact.

This sort of performance will do absolutely do no harm to de Gea’s growing reputation and make up for the one mistake he has made during his young career.

Both goalkeepers are worthy of a place in the starting line-up, but there’s a reason why Sir Alex Ferguson has de Gea rated slightly ahead of Lindegaard.

It comes down to one thing – and one thing only: distribution.

The goalkeeper is not only last line of defense, but also serves as the first line of attack – and de Gea does that a little bit better than his friendly competition.

The thing that is rarely factored in when rating a goalkeeper is his ability to distribute the ball efficiently and effectively. The luxury that we had with Edwin van der Sar was that he was able to start the attack, and de Gea has that Spanish mentality, NathanThomas8, a die-hard United fan pointed out on twitter.

He said, “Absolutely, although he’s a goalkeeper he has got that Spanis ethos of attack from the back. He always tries to start an attack by feeding one of his defenders. Very rarely do you see him take a long punt and when he does, it’s pinpoint.”

Sir Alex Ferguson has the best possible scenario at the moment, because he doesn’t have just one, but two top-class goalkeepers, David de Gea and Anders Lindegaard, who are going to be fighting tooth-and-nail to be considered for the next game.