Man United were beaten by Villarreal in the Europa League final in midweek and it was David De Gea who has been in the spotlight ever since.
The shot-stopper got the nod to start ahead of Dean Henderson in goal and for most of the game, the keeper did not put a foot wrong. After a scoreline of 1-1 through extra-time, the match went down to penalties and it was David De Gea who missed the only spot kick, thereby allowing Villarreal to win the shootout 11-10.
After the match, many pundits have questioned if Ole Gunnar Solskjaer should have taken the bold call of bringing in Dean Henderson as the game was approaching a shootout since David De Gea is not renowned for his shot-stopping abilities. And this is why Henderson would have been a much more sensible choice to keep make things click in the shootout.
Henderson has done really well in front of goal in the past couple of months and now Ole even admitted that he had considered using the academy graduate in the side in place of David De Gea.
“You go through every scenario, of course, and it has crossed my mind in the build-up to the game,” Solskjaer said when asked about the decision to keep David De Gea in goal for the shootout.
“But we were confident in David and we’d prepared. But penalties, anything can happen in those. I stuck with the keeper who played all the game.
“Well, we felt the players out there, you got Mason (Greenwood), Marcus (Rashford) who are match-winners in their own right. Bruno (Fernandes), Edi, of course they can create anything.
🤯 David De Gea has conceded the last 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙧𝙩𝙮-𝙨𝙞𝙭 penalties he has faced
📅 He hasn't saved one since April 23rd 2016… pic.twitter.com/QSxoeGVlt3
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) May 26, 2021
“Scott (McTominay) I thought was the best player on the pitch and Paul (Pogba), so it’s difficult to make that change, especially when Fred’s been injured for a week. He came on and he did well, the boy. We just couldn’t create enough chances to win the game.
“When they’ve got (Pau) Torres and (Raul) Albiol in there with crosses it’s always going to be difficult. We needed to play our way into the box quicker.”
Solskjaer cannot seem to make those tough calls and while it would have been harsh to take off David De Gea but that substitution could have helped Manchester United pick up the Europa League title.
The Spaniard has fallen down the pecking order during the second half of the season and there’s a big chance that he might be sold off in the summer. And if that happens then David De Gea has cost Manchester United the Europa League title with his final kick for the club.
