Jose: De Gea's Run Must End

Jose Mourinho has heaped praise on David De Gea - but the Manchester United manager does not want his goalkeeper to win the club’s Player of the Year award for a fourth successive season.

The Spaniard took home the gong from the club’s annual prize night in 2014, 2015 and 2016, becoming only the second player in Reds history alongside Cristiano Ronaldo to win it thrice and the first to do so in three consecutive campaigns.

De Gea’s form has been just as good this season, but the spotlight on his contribution has dimmed somewhat with United’s attacking players creating more chances and scoring more goals. Mourinho admits he is pleased with that, because it means the club is ultimately heading in the right direction.

"I think when a goalkeeper is the player of the season it's because something is wrong," Jose told reporters at the Aon Training Complex.

"Hopefully, David is not our Player of the Year again this season, but hopefully he keeps making important saves for us like he did in the last match."

Mourinho singled out De Gea's match-influencing intervention that prevented West Ham's Michail Antonio from breaking the deadlock at the London Stadium on Monday, when the Reds later secured a sixth consecutive Premier League win via goals from Juan Mata and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

"I hugged David at the end of the game because I think without the save against Antonio there would not have been three points," the manager said. "If Antonio had scored with 25 minutes remaining, the way they were organised and defending, it would have been very difficult to win."

Jose has no qualms if keepers in general receive awards, but he'd prefer De Gea's run of Old Trafford accolades to cease if it means United are performing well at the other end of the pitch.

"Of course, I would love goalkeepers to be recognised," Mourinho added. "I'd like them to win the Golden Ball and I’d like them to be the player of the season in the Premier League because goalkeepers are these lonely guys with a different shirt to everyone else. When they play phenomenally, people forget, and when they make a mistake, everyone remembers.

"But the reality is that when season after season the goalkeeper is player of the season, it means that something is wrong."

In a recent interview with United Review, De Gea himself admitted that he does not wish to retain the Player of the Year trophy, stating a desire for his team-mates to prevail. When asked if winning the award for a fourth successive time interests him, the goalkeeper laughed: "Erm… no!

"I would prefer a striker or someone else to win it – someone who means that the team as a whole is playing well and scoring goals, because it is much better for the team that way."