Lindegaard's Big Chance

Eric Steele has thrown down the gauntlet to Anders Lindegaard and urged the Dane to press home his claims for a first-team spot during pre-season.

With David De Gea on Olympic duty with Spain, the Scandinavian shot-stopper impressed in South Africa and China and will have further opportunities to shine in the remaining games on the DHL tour.

Lindegaard made one outstanding save in the win against Shanghai Shenhua and has clearly returned in good shape after the disappointment of suffering an injury last season and failing to make an appearance for his country at Euro 2012.

In the second and concluding part of his exclusive interview with MUTV, Steele admits he expects the former Aalesunds keeper to push De Gea all the way for the gloves.

"The manager has got a lovely decision with Anders back, albeit with a totally disjointed pre-season, and he's got David coming back off the Olympics at whatever stage, and there is healthy competition which is what every manager wants," stated Steele.

"I think Anders has got every chance to do so [start the season as first choice]. We brought him back early, as David did on 28 June when he did two days' physical and sports conditioning and then a full week with me before he joined up with the Spanish squad. We made sure he went into there with some form of base.

"David missed pre-season last year, misses it this year and will miss it next year because it's the European Under-21 Championship again. With the value of pre-season, he's missed two and that does throw the gauntlet down to Anders.

"Of course it does and, due to the disjointed nature of pre-season, Anders has got a chance. At the Swedish, Norwegian and German games, Ben Amos will be gone by then, so we've got to travel with Anders and Sam Johnstone and that gives him a chance to say: 'Okay, I'll stake a claim'."

When asked if there is a competitive relationship between the pair for a place in the team, Steele replied: "Of course. If Anders didn't [have that], I'd kick his backside because that is what we brought him in to do. We brought him in initially for the first four or five months to spend time with the master and he worked alongside Edwin [van der Sar]. He had a problem with his knee but at least he was there to see what was expected of him.

"It did him the world of good. Don't forget he's a late developer whose only had about 80-90 games but he's 28 and has still got a great career ahead of him.

"He knows this is his chance. Whoever wears the jersey, it doesn't matter if we're playing a friendly because there's no such thing as a friendly as these are high-profile games. I make the point to Anders not to under-estimate pre-season games in terms of forming an image and impression in the manager's mind. What they should all be thinking about is, when the first XI is decided to go to Goodison, you want to be in that."

Steele feels all four first-team keepers - De Gea, Lindegaard, Amos (who is joining Hull on loan) and Johnstone - realise they have to keep working and striving to become the regular starter at United.

"They are all at the stage where they should not be the finished article like Edwin and Peter Schmeichel," he reasoned. "They know that well so there are still areas for all four of them to improve. So that's what my job is. They've got to be best prepared if that call comes and that's my job.

"I think [the first-team spot] it is up for grabs and the competitive element is what the manager wants. It's why he's looking to improve the squad - he wants to have competition at all levels. So if you're No1, stay with it, or if you're No2, make sure you do everything to take your chance and retain it.

"At the moment, Anders is here and David's at the Olympics and he's got to prepare himself to hand it over to the manager to say: 'Right, what's your decision?'"