David De Gea reflects on Manchester United’s 2015

Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea has spoken about a turbulent 2015 year which saw the Red Devils experience a lot under manager Louis van Gaal.

The Dutchman who joined the club in the summer of 2014 has been involved in a lot since his arrival, with big players coming and going and the daunting task of returning to the Champions League.

The latter was achieved last year when Van Gaal guided United into fourth place. However, the excitement of being in Europe was short lived as they were dumped out of the competition in the group stages with PSV Eindhoven and Wolfsburg going through. Now the Reds are in the Europa League and they will look to progress deep into a competition that seems to be getting harder every year.

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Nonetheless, United have begun 2016 on a positive note with a win against Swansea City on Saturday courtesy of a strong performance which saw young star Anthony Martial again stand out.

It has made slight amends to the opening half of the season where the Reds have had injuries and seen top players leave. And De Gea, who is the most valuable player to the side with Real Madrid still keeping a close eye on his situation, has spoken out about the year United have had in an interview with MUTV.

"Commenting on the injuries Van Gaal has has to deal with, He said, as reported by manutd.com: Whenever you are missing key players and are suffering from the amount of injuries that we have been, it always makes it tougher to win games. But that’s football and these things happen at this level of competition. You just have to keep on going. The younger lads have come into the side and played very well while the injured players recover but it’s a lot to ask for them to replace such experienced players in the Premier League.”"

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A big positive for United is their ability to keep clean sheets and the defence has been solid so far this year. Chris Smalling has improved massively while Matteo Darmian has come in and done a good job. This is along with the current players who signed the season before and De Gea admitted that it’s a good base to have.

"“I believe we are defending better than we did last season, and I think that’s vital for a team: to not concede many goals and to have a strong defence. We know we have some top quality players up front and that we will score goals. The most important thing for a good side is to have a solid base at the back,” he continued."

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As mentioned above, United are now out of Europe’s biggest club competition and that would have hurt a lot of players in the dressing room especially with the other English teams progressing.

But De Gea has already won the Europa League with Atletico Madrid and he is hoping to do the same with United.

"“It’s an enjoyable competition to play in. Naturally I have great memories of when I won in the final [with Atletico Madrid in 2010]. But this is Manchester United and while we’ve been knocked out of the Champions League, we are now in another competition and we will be trying to win it in just the same way.”He added: “It’s a long competition and a bit different to what we are used to playing in, with the games on a Thursday instead of a Tuesday or a Wednesday, and that can change your regime a little bit. But I think we are prepared and we will be having a real go at winning it. We’ve got a tricky tie [against Midtjylland] but then any opponent at this stage of this competition is going to be a difficult one. Obviously, we want to win both legs and hopefully that’s what we’ll do.”"