Pundits have finally found a stick to beat David De Gea with

After years of mind-blowing performances, David De Gea never gave anything to critics to hold over his head. But the time has finally come. The 2018 Fifa World Cup was a horror show by the Spaniard.

After De Gea's dubious mistake against Portugal, many started to question his mentality and quality at the highest level. Even though De Gea has proven himself over the years at one of the biggest clubs in world football, the question remained: "Is he good enough?"

Last season, in Europe's top 5 leagues there has been only one team that has not conceded more than two goals in a match and that was Manchester United. One might argue that De Gea had a good defence in front of him, doing most of the work. However, statistics by OptaJoe shows that De Gea had conceded 23 goals for United, and based on their data for how many shots he has faced on target, the average goalkeeper should have conceded 37.

Furthermore, OptaJoe also states that De Gea had kept more clean sheets than any other goalkeeper in Europe's top 5 leagues. This is an amazing feat considering United's chopping and changing of their defence during the season. It is no surprise that Spanish giants Real Madrid find themselves chasing him every summer.

Then came the match which pits Spain against Russia at this summer's World Cup. The match was largely dominated by Spain resulting in them going 1-0 up during the opening 20 minutes, however, it was not long before Russia drew equal from the penalty spot. The match eventually stayed on level terms until the penalties.

The Spanish had high hopes for Russia 2018, having one of the best squads at the tournament. This resulted in many fans and pundits tipping them for glory this summer, however, not all went to plan as Spain had 2 of their penalties saved and Russia went on to score all of theirs.

Compounding De Gea's problems was the fact that earlier in the group stages he botched what seemed like an easy catch from Portuguese talisman Ronaldo, resulting in a goal. De Gea did not do himself any favours as he recorded the lowest amount of saves in the tournament.

It is possible that De Gea's nightmare match against Portugal knocked his confidence, however, this still prompted a series of harsh backlash. De Gea was accused of not being able to perform at the highest level, with some even accusing him of being a bad goalkeeper and costing Spain their World Cup chances.

It seems De Gea has become the victim of something that has been happening far too often in football lately. De Gea has become the scapegoat for Spains below-par performances at the World Cup. Football isn't a one-man sport, De Gea had a defence in front of him that at best looked shaky. Compounding this was their apparent lack of flare to break teams down, something which oozed through previous Spanish teams.

We are all human, De Gea included, and we all go through patches of good and bad no matter what career we are in. This does not define how good or bad we are at our job, all it shows is that we bleed red like everyone else, no pun intended.

In football, the world's best players always get criticized the most but as long as De Gea keeps putting in stellar performances for club and country, pundits and fans alike will no choice but to recognize him as one of the best keepers of our generation.