Who Should Manchester United’s First-Choice Goalkeeper Be Next Season?

There was much more to Manchester United’s damaging Europa League quarter-final defeat to Sevilla than David de Gea’s mistakes, but the Spanish goalkeeper certainly contributed to a calamitous performance. From it, fresh questions have been asked about de Gea’s future at the Old Trafford club.

De Gea has been loyal and reliable servant to Manchester United over the last decade. He was part of the United team that last won the Premier
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League title back in 2013 and has earned himself a reputation as one of the best goalkeepers in the world over the years. At this moment in time, though, he doesn’t give Erik Ten Hag want he wants and needs.

Ten Hag has achieved success in his first season as Manchester United manager, but the Dutchman has been forced to make some compromises. He doesn’t yet have the personnel to control matches through possession in the way he would like and so United have favoured a more transition-heavy style.

Initially, it seemed Ten Hag wanted de Gea to play out from the back, but the 32-year-old has never been particularly comfortable on the ball and this resulted in a number of early mistakes – see the 4-0 demolition at the hands of Brentford and the role de Gea played in that embarrassing defeat.

After this, Ten Hag instructed de Gea to generally play the ball long or pass possession to Lisandro Martinez who is excellent at progressing possession out from the back. With Martinez out through injury, though, de Gea’s limitations with the ball at his feet have once again surfaced in recent weeks.

“He’s the one with the most clean sheets in the Premier League, that shows he’s a very capable goalkeeper,” Ten Hag replied when asked for his thoughts on de Gea’s future with the Spaniard reportedly in talks over a contract extension at Old Trafford. Ten Hag’s comments didn’t give away much on his true thoughts.

United have been linked with a number of goalkeepers recently. Diogo Costa, for example, is believed to be on the club’s transfer market radar having impressed in the Champions League for Porto this season. Valencia’s Giorgi Mamardashvili has also been linked while David Raya will enter the final year of his Brentford contract this summer.

In pure goalkeeping terms, Costa, Mamardashvili and Raya might not match up to de Gea’s level, but they offer more in terms of their distribution and that could help Manchester United become a stronger team as a whole. Ten Hag faces a difficult decision on who his number one should be from next season.