De Gea Grasps First-choice Role
David De Gea is set to make his 18th consecutive start for United on Monday with his boss declaring him the club's undisputed first-choice goalkeeper.
The Spaniard is three games away from his longest unbroken run between the posts, having been top of the Reds' teamsheet for every competitive fixture since mid-January's FA Cup replay win over West Ham, when Anders Lindegaard returned to the line-up for one night only. And De Gea hasn't missed a league game since 1 December when his Danish colleague played in the dramatic 4-3 victory at Reading.
When asked if De Gea is now confirmed as his first-choice goalkeeper, Sir Alex replied: "Yeah, definitely. And I thank Steeley (Eric Steele) for that as he’s the one who works with David every day. I’ve had a couple of chats with him but nothing serious.
"Steeley kept reminding David he would be top. The improvement is the physical part as he’s put on nearly a stone now in terms of muscle. He’s much stronger and dealing with the physical part [of the game] much, much better.
"As I said a few weeks ago, he’s developed into a really top keeper. He’s quick, he's got good composure and his use of the ball is good. He’s got no problems now."
De Gea has proved his strength, not to mention his powers of recovery, in at least two recent away games. At Sunderland, for example, he bravely played on after accidentally clashing heads with his own captain Nemanja Vidic. Against West Ham, the keeper was controversially clattered by Andy Carroll in what Sir Alex referred to as a football "war zone."
"He took a real buffeting at West Ham and it didn’t affect him at all," said Sir Alex. "He was composed in everything he did and had no chances [of saving] the goals. Actually, he was very unlucky with the second goal – Kevin Nolan did a fantastic job of shielding the defender out of the road and if you see the video from behind the net, David had no chance."
Sir Alex says De Gea was fully briefed about the rigours of English football prior to his arrival - and the warning immediately rang true when he made his league debut in August of last year.
"If you remember he played his first game away from home at West Brom and got a battering," recalled Sir Alex. "At the time I said referees will think he’s a young Spanish goalkeeper and he’s not tough and he didn’t get any protection at all.
"When we agreed to sign David, I had him at my house with Steeley and I got Eric in to explain how we played and what the game was like in England. He must’ve expected it to be different in that respect but I’m sure he was still surprised.
"Having to deal with it as a young goalkeeper was different. In the early days, it was a concern whether he was going to mature enough to handle that kind of play. But with the maturity we're seeing in him now, it doesn't bother him in the same way. He’s handling it. We don’t have any concerns about that.
"I don’t think you can prepare for it in training. Steeley does a lot of crossing with the three keepers but you can’t prepare for the real thing. We don’t want players crashing into one another in training!"
Sir Alex revealed he encouraged De Gea by pointing to how arguably United's greatest ever goalkeeper, Peter Schmeichel, had to adapt when he first came to England from his native Denmark.
"Yes, I spoke to David about Schmeichel and pointed out to him that in his first game at Wimbledon away from home he was screaming for protection from the referee.
"That mob [Wimbledon's players] were focusing right on him and battering into big Pete and he was screaming like a dying pig but he handled it.
"It was something different for him but Peter was more mature in fairness – he was 27 and a big strong lad. He soon got used to what it’s like in England and never had any bother after that."
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