Manchester United number one goalkeeper has managed to keep his first-team spot intact according to Darren Fletcher.
Manchester United goalkeeper improved his performance in the new season of the Premier League. Subsequently, according to Darren Fletcher, this is the result of pressure received from Dean Henderson.
Evidently, Henderson displayed his class at the loan club Sheffield United in the season 2019-20. Now, he returns back to United as a competition for De Gea who suffered from numerous mistakes last season.
Though, it appeared that Henderson would start ahead of the Spaniard for the Red Devils. But, as of now, De Gea played all the games for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side.
Furthermore, the 29-year-old yet again saved United in the Champions League clash vs Paris Saint-Germain. He stopped the French side from scoring several times in a 2-1 win at Parc des Princes.
As a result, Henderson only started two games for United in the Carabao Cup.
Peer-pressure.
Fletcher played at Old Trafford between 2003 and 2015. Additionally, he believes that the Spanish stopper is feeling the pressure coming from Henderson’s presence.
“People wonder why Henderson was kept around, and it was to push David,” Fletcher said after the PSG match on BT Sport. “[Sergio] Romero was always happy to be No 2. [De Gea’s] performance tonight was fantastic. Dean Henderson is a threat but he has a lot to learn.”
In addition, another former United man Rio Ferdinand also talked about De Gea-Henderson situation.
“[De Gea] had a period where he was making mistakes, it wasn’t just one game. But Ole backed him, so Ole deserves credit too,” Ferdinand added.
On the other hand, Henderson revealed that he wants to be on the field as much as possible.
“The aim is for me to play football next season and I don’t want to be not playing after last season. Coming off a good season with momentum, it wouldn’t be clever for me to sit around and not play football. I don’t think that would help any parties at all,” the 23-year-old said.
“David de Gea has obviously been a great goalkeeper first and foremost for many years and he’s been phenomenal. That’s something I aspire to be, to have a career like him at the club so I’ll be going back in first day of the pre-season working my socks off to get in that starting line-up.”
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