Manchester United’s David de Gea must start vs Liverpool
Manchester United and David de Gea have just agreed to a four year deal, temporarily putting an end to the transfer saga between the goalkeeper and Madrid.
There’s a multitude of ways to view the new contract. First, de Gea could finally be pledging his allegiance to Manchester United. Second, he may be signing the contract after pressure from his agent Jorge Mendes to get a deal done. Finally, the Spaniard may be concerned that limited playing time with his club side would impact his chances of starting for Spain in Euro 2016, as manager Vicente del Bosque has already alluded to.
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But regardless of what the new contract means in the long term for Manchester United’s keeper, the short term is obvious: he must be the number one option in net for Louis van Gaal. David de Gea is arguably the best keeper in the world and unarguably United’s best player in recent memory, as former Red Devils Denis Irwin and Kevin Pilkington have noted.
Irwin, talking with MUTV, commented on de Gea’s mental capacity after a tough few months:
"“He’s a fantastic keeper and Player of the Year for the last two years. Mentally, he seems a fairly strong guy to me. A lot of people were questioning him in the first year-and-a-half after he arrived here and he came through that.”“It’s down to the manager and we’ll see how that pans out. We do know he is a fantastic player and, hopefully, we will see him playing.”"
As the former Manchester United full-back points out, the 25 year old has been the team’s best player for the past two seasons. He’s rescued his squad from dire situations with acrobatic saves on countless occasions, salvaging valuable points in the process.
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Pilkington offered a firmer stance on the situation:
"“He is one of the best in the world and I think you’ve got to play him. For me, he’s in the top three in the world. You’ve got Gianluigi Buffon and Manuel Neuer and he’s right up there with them as well. In my opinion, you’ve got to pick your best players.”“I can understand definitely [why he wasn’t playing] with all the talk about Madrid but he’s back at United, a massive club, and hopefully he gets back in the team and does what he is good at.”"
I have to agree with Pilkington on all fronts; if Louis van Gaal doesn’t start David de Gea for the Liverpool match and beyond, then he’s needlessly hurting the team. Sergio Romero was brilliant in his first match at the club, keeping a clean-sheet against Tottenham and earning United the win.
But his flaws have largely been masked by good defensive play from the back four, specifically Chris Smalling. Against Swansea in the most recent match, the defense made a couple of mistakes that unfortunately led to weak goals. Romero conceded a goal that he might have been able to save and a goal that he should have been able to save.
Enter David de Gea. The Spain no. 1 has proven time and time again that he can atone for defensive lapses – just watch the highlights from the Liverpool match last year as an example. He saved three great opportunities from Sterling and Balotelli to keep the clean sheet and the convincing win.
It’s not unlikely that his talents could be of use this time around, with Christian Benteke lurking in the box. While Liverpool’s attack might be hindered by the absence of Phillipe Coutinho, United’s forward line has been far from stellar recently in the Premier League. The match could come down to one half chance for either side, and I for one would like to see de Gea in net holding the line.
Ultimately, Manchester United have taken a step in the right direction by managing to hang on to their prized keeper, but they’ll only be taking two steps backwards if he’s left on the bench.