Liverpool legend Alan Hansen: David de Gea has lost the trust of his Manchester United teammates

Former Reds star believes the young Spaniard’s mistakes have unsettled his defenders and that only by eradicating the mistakes can he regain the trust of his team 

Liverpool legend Alan Hansen believes David de Gea has already lost the trust of his Manchester United teammates.

The young keeper was widely considered to be at fault for allowing Shane Long’s tame shot to creep under him in United’s clash with West Brom on Sunday, although his blushes were ultimately spared by a Steven Reid own goal which clinched victory for Sir Alex Ferguson’s men.

This latest error followed hot on the heels of the Spaniard’s shaky debut against Manchester City in the Community Shield, and Hansen says the uncertainty surrounding United’s keeper will provide a significant morale boost for its title rivals.

“After making two mistakes in two weeks, United now find themselves bereft of confidence in their goalkeeper when their opponents will start to believe they have found a chink in the champions’ 

armour,” he wrote in his column for the Daily Telegraph.
Hansen also believes De Gea’s vulnerability has come at the worst possible time for United, who will likely have to face Arsenal and Tottenham in its next two matches without first choice centre-backs Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, who are both injured.

“[The injuries] may leave Ferguson with little option but to go into two crucial games against top six rivals with a defence of De Gea, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Jonny Evans and Fabio,” he added. “It is too simple to say you will win nothing with a kid in goal, but it is a monumental challenge to ask a defence with an average age of 22 to go into games with the likes of Arsenal and Spurs. De Gea would need four, five or six weeks to get used to the English game anyway. His adaptation would be much easier if Vidic and Ferdinand were there to help.”

Hansen feels De Gea now faces a real challenge to regain the trust of his teammates, and insists the only way he can do it is by cutting the errors out of his game.

“De Gea is in trouble now, not simply because of the scrutiny that will come in the newspapers and on the television — to players, that does not really matter — but because he does not have the trust of his team-mates,” he wrote. “The only way he can earn that is by going out and eradicating the mistakes.

The former Liverpool man think that De Gea needs to go on a long run of mistake-free football to get himself in order.

“He needs a run of eight, 10 or more games without any sort of error, because as soon as he makes another one, people will automatically remember the two that have marred his first two games in England. Here we go again. He may never escape that stigma.”