Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer still believes his starting goalkeeper David De Gea is “the best in the world.”
While that was arguably true for awhile, and fairly recently as well, his errors that lead directly to goals keep piling up.
United had to settle for a 1-1 draw at Goodison Park today as De Gea had a howler of a botched clearance that netted the Toffees only goal. Have a look below:
De Gea is mistake today vs Everton ?? pic.twitter.com/ZyoKfMKzZ1
— Sheh?ad (@zubaddd) March 1, 2020
Dominic Calvert-Lewin booted it in. The Spaniard has now made seven errors that directly led to a goal since the start of last season. That’s tied for the most with Martin Dubravka, Jordan Pickford and Bernd Leno. De Gea has to be feeling the heat now with No. 2 Sergio Romero impressing when called upon and Dean Henderson, out on loan at Sheffield United consistently displaying fine form.
OGS stands by his No. 1 however.
“David has shown here his reaction, the way he made amends and saved Sigurdsson’s shot at the end,” Solskjaer said.
“David is, for me, the best goalkeeper in the world. He went through a difficult patch last season but he has been very, very good this season.”
“I can’t remember any goals this season apart from the Watford one. I trust David 100%.” In fairness to De Gea, and of course to Solskjaer for defending him so aggressively, you got to remember how many bad United teams that De Gea lifted up in recent years. During the Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho eras, there were plenty of brutal performances were De Gea was one of few bright spots.
For the sake of United and their fans, hopefully he can someday return to that form again.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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