De Gea Team-mates: Why David Is So Special

When you’ve got a good goalkeeper behind you, it can make a world of difference to a team. Thankfully, United’s outfield players are blessed in the presence of David De Gea. We asked some of his Reds team-mates what makes him such a special talent…

Luke Shaw: “David is one of the best goalkeepers in the world at the moment. You’ve seen from his performances recently that he’s got everything. I don’t think he has any weaknesses from what I’ve seen so far. He’s comfortable on the ball, always looks to find a pass when it’s played back to him, he’s a great shot-stopper… everything about his game is strong.

"He’s saved us in games, especially me in the Everton match with the penalty! The other saves he made in that game were unbelievable too. Some of the saves seemed impossible to make and it was probably one of the best goalkeeping performances I’ve ever seen. He’s a world-class keeper, he’s only young and he’s only going to keep on improving. I truly believe if he keeps progressing the way he is now then he can become the best keeper in the world.”

Michael Carrick: “He’s grown as a player. When he first came here, it was easy to forget how young he was. To be no.1 here at such a young age, he dealt with it unbelievably well. He had a tough first year but, in some ways, that probably helped him even more in coming through that. He’s just grown in stature – you can see in his demeanour and presence that he’s matured and just turned into one of the best goalkeepers around.”

James Wilson: “He stops a lot of goals. Against Everton in particular, he pulled off a lot of good saves to keep us in the game. One of them was from the free-kick I gave away. I actually thanked him after that and I heard Luke Shaw praising him as well after he saved the penalty.

"In training, you can have a shot and think it’s going in, then he pulls off the save. He’s such a good shot-stopper. If he saves it, you have to just take your hat off to him and then do what you can to score past him when the next chance comes along. But you know it’s never going to be easy because he’s such a good goalkeeper.”