What If Mignolet & De Gea Swapped Teams?

[Ashez]

What If Mignolet & De Gea Swapped Teams?

One issue surrounding Manchester United and Liverpool FC in recent years has been their goalkeepers. With Mignolet you have a keeper most fans are unhappy with while with De Gea you have Real Madrid's failed transfer saga of the summer. Many football fans have uttered the sentence "Manchester United would be nothing without David De Gea" as he saves them match after match and almost single handedly got them into the Champions League last season. De Gea maybe pushing United on to better things but Mignolet on the other hand is a constant source of frustration for Liverpool fans as he just isn't a top level keeper as he can't command his box or deal with balls in the air. 

After yesterdays theft of three points at Anfield where Mignolet failed to protect the net in Liverpool's one moment of need (granted i don't feel he was at fault for Rooney's goal) and with De Gea keeping United in the match with a string of wonderful saves i decided it would be fun to swap them around and see how each team gets on. 

For this test all i did was swap the goalkeepers around and touch nothing else, unfortunately i don't have any of the editors so @Risheek kindly produced and holidayed the save for me and they're his images i shall be talking about, thanks once again Risheek. 

Now Let's find out if the difference between the two Premier League giants is in fact the goalkeeper. 

Their New Teams

Mignolet At United

Man United's new Belgium shot stopper looks fairly average as his real life issues transfer into his in game form, his ability in the air is average with only his shot stopping stats like reflexes and agility standing out. 

De Gea At Liverpool

Then you have Liverpool's new goalkeeper in the Spaniard David De Gea and comparing the two is almost embarrassing. For my money De Gea is the best keeper on FMM and his stats speak for themselves as with no training he almost has a full set of 20's. 

Transfers

Spoiler

 

As this was a holidayed save the AI decided to bring in some new faces at both clubs so in the interest of fairness let's take a look at who the AI brought in. 

United's Transfers

LVG decided to bring two creative midfielders into his ranks. 

Liverpool's Transfers

Rodgers' on the other hand decided a defensive midfielder and another attacker were what the Anfield club needed. 

 

How Did Each Club Get On?

The Domestic Cups

Capital One Cup

Manchester United: Third Round
Liverpool: Fourth Round

United were the first of these two giants to exit the competition as they lost 5-3 to Tottenham in the third round. Liverpool however managed to get to the fourth round but their journey ended there as they fell to a 3-4 defeat to Arsenal after extra time. 

FA Cup

Manchester United: Fifth Round
Liverpool: Fifth Round

The FA Cup followed the same pattern as the Capital One Cup as Liverpool lost to Arsenal (4-1) while Tottenham also achieved the cup double over United (1-0).

The European Competitions

Liverpool and Manchester United were both involved in Europe in this test save as United were in the Champions League while Liverpool were in the Europa League.

United In The Champions League

United progressed from their group but were soundly defeated by the French Champions Paris Saint Germain 2-0. The first leg in Paris finished 0-0 but at Old Trafford the might of Cavani and company was enough to eliminate United. 

Liverpool In The Europa League

While United were failing in Europe David De Gea was inspiring Liverpool to victory after victory as they managed to lift the trophy! The final was an all English one as Liverpool met United's domestic cup conquerors Tottenham! The match was a six goal thriller which could have gone either way but Liverpool managed to come out on top scoring four of the six goals. 

That image of Gigg's makes this even better in my opinion.

The League

While every fan enjoys the thrills of Europe and the magic of the domestic cups it's the league what really matters! Both of these sides used to be the dominating power in English football but both have lost their way in recent years. The question is however will United do as well with Mignolet in thier squad or will Liverpool thrive having De Gea between the sticks?

Liverpool come out on top as they finish second in the league finishing 12 points behind leaders Chelsea. Man United on the other hand had a fairly average season as they just scraped fourth finishing three points above Newcastle United, their City rivals and the blue side of Liverpool Everton. 

The conceded goals were similar as United conceded 35 while Liverpool conceded 31, however there is a massive difference between the match results as Liverpool managed to win 22 matches compared to United's 17. A good goalkeeper can easily be the difference between winning a match and getting a loss or a defeat and it seems as though Liverpool managed to make those extra goals and less goals conceded count while United failed to.    

How Did Each Keeper Do?

Simon Mignolet

Yes that is the correct image and it's a damning one at that. Mignolet wasn't seen as good enough to be United's keeper as he was swiftly replaced by United's reserve keeper Victor Valdes. Granted this might mean this test was a waste and i can see why you may have that opinion but it's worth considering that the AI decided that Liverpool's first team keeper wasn't good enough for the side. If you dropped in Cech, Lloris or Hart instead of Mignolet would Valdes still get a game? Valdes was a decent keeper but i've never personally held him in the highest of regard but he managed to make the number one spot his own by battling off Belgium's number two and Argentina's number one. The fact remains that a keeper Liverpool see as number one isn't good enough to even make a dent in United's season. 

David De Gea

De Gea on the other hand instantly brushed Bogdan aside and made the number one spot his own. During his time in Liverpool the shot stopper managed 59 appearances conceding 61 goals. The Spaniard seemed to struggle in the cups as he conceded a fair few in those games but in the league he was a force as he only conceded 31 goals during the competition. 

It's clear to see a world class keeper can make all the difference and it's a position i always ensure i am happy with in game before i do anything else. One top class save can earn you a point or even three so having a keeper who can do that every match will make a massive difference to your side. 

Unfortunately it's impossible to simulate the exact same season but with the keepers at their original clubs but this was just for fun so i hope you enjoyed the read. 

As always thank you for viewing and please remember to leave a comment. 

[Ashez]

It turned out i had some time to kill, i thought it was my turn to update Pele/Rivaldo but i was wrong so i decided to do this instead lol. Anyway thanks for the comment  

[Brenty92]

That's a nice idea pal, in a lot of my saves United win the league first year whereas Liverpool just scrape Europe so it proves the massive gulf in quality between a world class keeper and a distinctly average one, Keep up the good work bud! ??

[Ashez]

55 minutes ago, Brenty92 said:

That's a nice idea pal, in a lot of my saves United win the league first year whereas Liverpool just scrape Europe so it proves the massive gulf in quality between a world class keeper and a distinctly average one, Keep up the good work bud! ??

That's good to know, I haven't even loaded England yet never mind played there so I had no idea :). 

Thanks for the comment and input  

[Dec]

Nice work. Many game conclusions can be drawn from this too.

[PriZe]

What If Mignolet & De Gea Swapped Teams?

Then LVG would be fired haha   nice work m8

[Ashez]

Thanks lads