WHAT DOES VAN DER GOUW THINK OF OUR KEEPERS?

Raimond van der Gouw believes Manchester United have an extremely high calibre of goalkeeper at the moment.

With David De Gea, Sergio Romero and Lee Grant all getting game time under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer this season, and the on-loan Dean Henderson impressing at Sheffield United, the Reds really are spoilt for choice between the sticks.

The former keeper knows a thing or two about being a dependable presence, having worked alongside the likes of Peter Schmeichel, Fabien Barthez and David James during his career.

“Well, United have very good goalkeepers,” Raimond said of our current crop, during his appearance on the latest MUTV Group Chat.

“De Gea is fantastic – he has shown that he is one of the best goalkeepers in England. Not only for one year, but for the last couple of years.

“Last season he made a couple of mistakes, but that’s normal. He’s a human being, and if I look back at when I was at Manchester United, when I first saw Peter Schmeichel I thought he would never make a mistake.

“But then during the Treble season he had a bad spell and you wonder how that is possible. De Gea is fantastic, but he can make mistakes. So do all top players! Fantastic players are always looking over their shoulders and if they make a mistake people say they’re not as good anymore.

“This is ridiculous because they are human beings. For a goalkeeper, you have to be stable and if you make a mistake, make sure next time you are in the right place so you can stop the ball.”

For the for first three seasons of Raimond’s time at Old Trafford, the Dutchman mainly played back-up to Schmeichel. However, when Peter left the Reds at the end of the Treble campaign, the now Vitesse Arnhem goalkeeping coach played a key role in our title-winning seasons of 1999/00 and 2000/01.

“You have to deal with the competition. In my situation that was with Mark Bosnich,” van der Gouw said of those two campaigns.

“There was a new goalkeeper, but I thought this could be my chance. Peter was the no.1, but Mark was going to have to show it.

“I gave myself a chance and I was lucky because Mark Bosnich wasn’t really fit, he had a lot of injuries and I took my chance. When I look back, I played a lot of matches and I think that season [1999/00] I was probably no.1.”