Vidic Endorses De Gea

Manchester United captain Nemanja Vidic is backing David De Gea to build on his Man of the Match performance in last weekend's "massive" win over Fulham.

De Gea kept a vital clean sheet as the Reds prised all three points from the trip to Craven Cottage with a late winning goal from Wayne Rooney. The Spanish goalkeeper's display may have confounded his critics in the media but it did not surprise his skipper, Vidic, who believes his young team-mate is rising to a difficult challenge.

"I think it's hard for David because Edwin van der Sar was here for many years and set a high standard," Vidic told MUTV. "Edwin was an experienced goalkeeper and it's hard to replace him.

"David is a young goalkeeper, he's 21. He's maybe made one or two mistakes but that's normal, everyone does that. I think people should have more understanding for that.

"David's had some great games and I'm sure the more games he plays, the better he will become, no doubt."

The next task for De Gea and co is to keep out an Everton side that scored four times at Old Trafford last season and inflicted the Reds' first defeat of the current campaign. Vidic insists the visit of David Moyes' side has been the only focus for him while doing some "good work" at Carrington this week, even if knock-out ties against Real Madrid and Reading in the Champions League and FA Cup are also on the horizon.

"I think at this stage of the season we cannot think about what will happen in two or three weeks, you have to think about the next game," stressed Vidic.

"This is the standard we try to set for ourselves and the new players coming in have to follow that. It's vital. Everton is a really, really important game for us. It's like a final, definitely."

Vidic hopes all the players can pick up from where they left off at Craven Cottage last Saturday.

"It was a big win, a massive win," he acknowledged. "If you look at the results over the last few weeks, they've been going well for us. We knew how important it was to keep that going at Fulham.

"The players gave everything in that game because it's not easy to play against Fulham. At home, they are a really dangerous team, a tough team to play against. It was vital for us to get three points at this stage of the season and good for the confidence."