THE HEND IS NIGH
Dean new No.1 as De Gea pays penalty for nightmare You blew it, Ole
DEAN HENDERSON will start next season as No.1 at Manchester United following David De Gea’s Europa League shocker.
De Gea was the fall guy as United lost the final on penalties to Villarreal in Gdansk.
The Spaniard failed to save any of the 11 spot-kicks he faced, then missed the decisive one himself.
The 30-year-old came in for even more criticism when it emerged he ignored advice to stay central on Moi Gomez’s first sudden-death penalty.
De Gea dived to his left instead as Gomez went down the middle for what would have been a simple save, subsequently setting up Fred to win it with the next kick.
Although boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer kept faith with De Gea in Poland, 24-year-old Henderson is set to start next season as United’s
first-choice keeper. That could herald De Gea’s departure after a decade at Old Trafford, although United could find it hard to shift the player, who is on £350,000 a week and has two years left on his contract, with the option for an extra 12 months.
England cap Henderson largely became United’s first-choice Premier League keeper in March, when De Gea returned to Spain for the birth of his child.
De Gea kept goal in the Europa League thereafter, but Solskjaer’s decision to keep faith with him for the final backfired.
The Spaniard has conceded the last 40 penalties he has faced in competitive matches.
But he may have been right to ignore the advice on the coaching staff’s crib sheet, as seven of the 10 Villarreal outfield players did not go where the advice said they would.
Solskjaer said: “In a penalty shoot-out, anything can happen.”