David de Gea is backing himself to keep the No.1 shirt at Manchester United despite a string of high profile mistakes this season.
Pressure has been mounting on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to drop the Spaniard after errors which ended up costing United, and after his mistakes against Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final there have been numerous calls for Dean Henderson, who spent the last season on loan at Sheffield United, to be brought back as first choice.
Henderson only wants to return to Old Trafford if he is guaranteed to be starting, and with interest from Chelsea in the young goalkeeper, Solskjaer has a dilemma over what to do.
The competition doesn’t faze De Gea, who has won the club’s player of the year award four times, and he is backing himself to keep his place.
“I trust in myself,” he said. “I showed my qualities all the years, so I just keep available for the manager. I’m always ready to play and try to help the team as always, as I did always.”
The Spaniard was given the nod ahead of regular Europa League choice Sergio Romero for United’s defeat to Sevilla and despite the disappointment of losing a third semi-final of the season he is pleased with the progress the side have made.
“I think we improved already this season. We were 14 points behind the third position in the Premier League. We finished third at the end,” De Gea explained.
“We play very good I think many games. We deserved to be in the final, if we are honest; maybe we need a bit of experience, more experience on the team – but we have to score the chances. Let’s keep improving, let’s keep fighting for this club and let’s try to win trophies next season.”