Not always true though. De Gea at Manure has often had a shit defence in front of him and he has been fantastic overall especially against Spurs. There are many things wrong with Hugo’s keeping now. Yes he is still capable of good performances and outstanding saves but the negatives now outweigh the positives. His distribution has always been poor. He now seems to stay on his line so he doesn’t narrow down the angles down for the opposition forwards. He often goes to ground early when a forward is about to shoot making the attacker’s mind up where to place the ball. He often palms the ball out back into the danger area and is regularly beaten at the near post as he was on Tuesday. He certainly doesn’t command the 6 yard box.
I rewatched the Man City v Spurs QF highlights yesterday to relive some better times and he could have done better with maybe 3 of the goals. He has been a great servant to us but is definitely on the decline
ALL 'keepers average positions have moved back towards the goal-line. This is a trend that has only been recognised in the last couple of years, in fact, more or less since Lloris joined us. We are not talking about sweeping here, we are talking about when teams are defending when the oppo has pressure in our box.
It is said that reason for this has been driven by data, so now XG data is used heavily it has been reapplied as to assist 'keepers on where the biggest chances are being scored form, to combat this there is a trend across ALL 'keepers to drop back towards their line as a counter-measure to defend the "big chances".
Regarding Lloris on this, his numbers (save %) has gone up, NOT down!! He is saving more shots than at any time in his career!!!
De Gea meanwhile his numbers have regressed to a middle of the road 'keeper, nothing special nothing bad. His positioning BTW has always been one of the furthest back, further back than Lloris when he joined Spurs. De Gear a couple of years ago was posting numbers never seen before, it was thought they were freak numbers, that they couldn't be sustained over time and so that has proved to be.
Other stuff you mention about "commanding the 6yrd box" is complete and total nonsense, the ONLY voice you can hear on the pitch is his, repeatedly in EVERY game.
Every 'keeper has their weaknesses, I've never rated his distribution, but here again, the issue is more nuanced than it appears, his ball distribution is one of the best in Europe! Now a lot of this has to do with the style of play as dictated from the manager, so under Poch, we played out from the back, therefore he was on the ball more because of this. One of the reasons to playout from the back is to draw the oppo onto you, so spaces are opened up in the middle of the pitch, this will lead the oppo (should they decide) to press the receiving defenders or even the 'keeper, the law of averages says that they will nick the ball once in a while, or force the 'keeper into an error when he misplaces a pass under that pressure or worse (BTW more teams concede goals as a result of a keeper kicking long than short, but us Englanders just shout "get rid", proper football)
He's not in decline, he's never posted better numbers in his entire career. What's in decline is our defence, the more the oppo shoot the more they will score. Stop the shots, you stop the goals.