It is a question that has been asked regularly over the past 12 months but is it time for Manchester United to ditch David De Gea?
In the FA Cup semi-final on Sunday against Chelsea, The Spanish international goalkeeper should have saved the opening goal for Chelsea, which was scored at a crucial time of the match. Then, just after half time when Manchester United were looking to get a foothold in the game, De Gea made a costly error which led to the second goal for Chelsea.
It was a bad day at the office for De Gea and was made worse by the fact he usually steps aside for Sergio Romero in cup matches. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will probably wish he stuck to that rotation policy for the cup games but does the Manchester United manager have a bigger decision to make in the summer?
Yes, De Gea is still capable of making great saves, especially using his legs but the number of mistakes being made is increasing all the time. At 29 years of age, De Gea is now in his prime but seems to have regressed. He has time on his side to turn things around and get back to his best but can a club like Manchester United afford to wait for that to happen?
Looking back at fixtures this season and there have been mistakes against Watford, Everton, Tottenham and Bournemouth. Meanwhile, Romero has 9 clean sheets in his past 12 games and while many of those have come against weaker opposition in the cup competitions the Argentine has remained a solid option for the Red Devils.
Speaking after the FA Cup semi-final defeat Solskjaer said, “I can't speak for David De Gea's confidence, but he is mentally very strong,” before continuing, “He knows he should save that one 100 times out of 100, but that's football for you. I made the decision to play him, and mentally, he was ready for it.”
If it were a one off error, it would be easy to sweep under the carpet and continue into the next game knowing it will not happen again. However, due to the regularity of the mistakes, that is not possible and big questions are being asked regarding the goalkeeping position at Old Trafford. There is no doubt De Gea will continue in goal for the remainder of this season but there is one major alternative for next season and he will not cost the club a penny.
Dean Henderson has been in superb form for Sheffield United throughout the 2019/20 campaign. The 23-year-old is on loan at Bramall Lane from Manchester United but his contract is running down at Old Trafford. There is surely no way Henderson is going to sign a new deal at Old Trafford without knowing he is going to be given a good chance in the first team.
That leaves Solskjaer with a huge decision to make in a short space of time between this season and next season. Will he be prepared to stick with De Gea and allow Henderson to join a rival team or is now the time to make a change in goal at Manchester United?