Schmeichel's Watching Brief

Peter Schmeichel is looking forward to seeing how the battle for the goalkeeping gloves at United unfolds.

The Great Dane believes it will be a big season for both his fellow countryman Anders Lindegaard and David De Gea with the keepers pressing home their claims for regular action.

Lindegaard has looked impressive in pre-season and kept another clean sheet against Valerenga with De Gea on the bench after returning from Olympic duty with Spain.

The Reds' new No13 has been urged to push the No1 all the way by goalkeeping coach Eric Steele and the contest should bring the best out in both stoppers.

"With me, it was a different time as people would say, yeah put him in goal and he stays in goal for every game of the season," club ambassador Schmeichel told MUTV.

"For the time I was there, I played nearly every game and, when Edwin [van der Sar] came, it was the same again. He was the obvious choice but now there's a lot of doubt about the keepers and, last year, it took up a lot of news coverage.

"It was a bit of a shame as I don't think the lad De Gea could have done anything better than what he did. It wasn't his fault, I just think it was the media's opportunity to have a little dig about something which is working well. The manager has been there 25 years so there's not a lot you can say that is bad about him. But they took the opportunity and I felt really sorry for David because I watched him play for Spain Under-21s in Denmark and he was awesome.

"I was really looking forward to him coming to Old Trafford and the point where he excelled again was when Anders, unfortunately, got injured so there was no doubt about who was playing in the games. It gave him confidence knowing whatever happens in this game, he will play in the next game. I think that's what we saw with him in the second part of the season.

"In a great many ways, the way we caught up with Manchester City was down to him. He made some incredible saves, including the one against Chelsea, and he won people over. Even the press stopped writing about him. So it's a big season for him coming up, his second season, if he can keep the level that he ended last season."

Lindegaard signed a new contract with the club last Friday and clearly has the ambition and drive to show he is not content with playing second fiddle to De Gea.

"Anders obviously got injured and he was very, very disappointed at not being picked as No1 for Denmark [at Euro 2012]," stated Schmeichel. "I was reading about it basically every single day.

"He's taking that disappointment, anger and aggression into the season. I wasn't in South Africa [on the DHL tour] but I believe he played really well and, with David playing at the Olympics, it's another opportunity for him to show the manager what he is capable of. At some point, the manager has to make a decision again and we're all waiting to see what decision he makes."