Is David De Gea Really The Best Premier League’s Most Foot-Friendly Shot-Stopper?

David de Gea’s praises have been widely sung since he kept Tottenham at bay to help Manchester United secure a crucial 1-0 victory at Wembley.

Harry Kane would have had a hat-trick on another day, but the Spaniard’s superb second-half display kept United’s clean sheet intact.

De Gea made more saves against Spurs (11) than any goalkeeper has in a single Premier League game this season – three fewer than his 2017/18 record of 14 away to Arsenal.

The 28-year-old clearly has a penchant for making saves with his feet – making multiple stops with his second pair of hands – but is he top dog when it comes to the unorthodox save style?

Well, we have crunched the numbers to bring you the Premier League’s top 10 goalkeepers ranked by total saves with their feet from the start of the 2017/18 season.*

To give you a sense of how often these goalkeepers use their feet to make a stop, we’ve also included the % of their total saves made with them.

David de Gea
Total saves: 194

% with feet: 11.8

Only Hart (12) has made more saves with his feet than De Gea (11) this term.

The Spaniard is in fine form but is far from the only goalkeeper who is comfortable using ‘unorthodox’ body parts to keep efforts out of his goal.

In fact, of all goalkeepers to make at least 10 saves since the start of last season, De Gea’s 11.8% is the 11th-largest proportion of total saves made with the feet – not as high as his reputation would suggest.

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