We’ve got the best goalkeeper in the world,
OLE Gunnar Solskjaer lauded David de Gea after a breathtaking display at Tottenham that underlined to the Manchester United caretaker manager that he has the “best goalkeeper in the world”.
Yesterday’s encounter between the two bookmakers’ favourites to permanently succeed Jose Mourinho as Red Devils boss lived up to the billing at Wembley, where Marcus Rashford’s sublime strike sealed a 1-0 win against Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs.
It extended Solskjaer’s winning start to a club record sixth successive match in all competitions, but the main subject of conversation afterwards was De Gea.
After a quiet opening period, the United goalkeeper pulled off 11 saves in an exceptional second half display. TOTTENHAM: Lloris, Trippier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davies, Winks (Llorente 81), Sissoko (Lamela 43), Eriksen, Alli, Kane, Son.
Subs not used: Rose, Sanchez, Foyth, Gazzaniga, Skipp.
MANUTD: De Gea, Young, Lindelöf,
Solskjaer definitely deserves credit for that, and will only encourage talk he deserves the job, even if a lot of luck — and a lot of De Gea brilliance — helped it along.
The key is that Solskjaer (below) displayed a proper gameplan in his first game where that was truly required, and thereby passed what he himself described as his “first proper test”.
The great test for Pochettino, and something that actually complicates the great present questions of whether he should leave Spurs and whether United should appoint him, is that he has to manage this squad so hard. Operating on lesser resources than all of the rest of the top six, he has to push every element to its absolute limit, try and stretch everything to ensure every gap is closed and covered.
That will only ever go so far,
“Obviously it’s a tough venue to come to,” Solskjaer said after the win. “Spurs are flying at the moment — they score goals, they’ve got some fantastic players and we defended really well.
“We had a fantastic goalkeeper, obviously.
Second half, we made hard work of it. Maybe because of ourselves they created many, many chances but first half I thought it was spot on.
“Team spirit, we can defend — Jonah [Phil Jones], Victor (Lindelof ) fantastic with Luke (Shaw) and Ash (Young) next to them.
“We’ve got the best goalkeeper in the world — I’ve said that many times — and we’ve got blistering pace up front and the goal was fantastic by Rash.
“It’s a hard skill, you know, to score from that angle with a right foot and an instep. I thought he Jones, Shaw, Matic, Herrera, Pogba, Lingard, Rashford, Martial (Lukaku 73). Subs not used: Mata, Pereira, Fred, Dalot, Romero, McTominay.
Man of the match: De Gea
Match rating: 7/10
Referee: Mike Dean
and something will eventually give,
So it was with United’s opening goal. Already struggling with how advanced United’s wide players were, Spurs were given an extra problem to try and solve shortly before half-time when Sissoko — of late one of their few fit midfielders, and all the more influential because of that — had to go off injured. United had been enjoying so much space in that area before that, but now had an excess of it to really express themselves.
And that’s what they were always going to do, in this kind of mood. If Spurs are now being physically pushed to the limit, United have been mentally released, as best exemplified by the two players responsible for the goal.
Jesse Lingard impressively got things moving with a clever flick, before Pogba — admittedly granted so many yards of was going to go near post, but it was a well-struck finish.”
Asked if this was the best he had seen from De Gea, Solskjaer said: “Well, he had one against Arsenal a couple of years ago — but he should have held a few of them!
“But there’s maybe one or two fantastic saves and the rest was just about concentration and being in the right position.
“We’ve had some great keepers at this club and I think he’s challenging both Edwin (Van Der Sar) and Peter (Schmeichel) for the number one spot historically.”
Talk over De Gea’s United future is sure to intensify in the coming days after Sunday’s heroics, with his deal is due to expire next summer — after the activation of a one-year extension clause.
It is understood talks are ongoing and the 28-year-old certainly seems happy at the club under caretaker boss Solskjaer.
“He brings happiness, the players are playing very well,” De Gea said.
“The team is strong now, very strong. “We know how to control the games, how to keep the ball, how to create chances, and that’s very good for us. This is the real Manchester United.”
Sir Alex Ferguson looked like a proud father as the goalkeeper he signed in 2011 flourished at Wembley under the guidance of a player who sealed the treble for his side in 1999.
The former United manager is also understood to be a big fan of Tottenham boss Pochettino, who would not be drawn into talk over the head-to-head with Solskjaer.