Romero’s impressive debut for United meant that De Gea was not missed as much. PHOTO: AFP
With David de Gea’s mooted move to Real Madrid locked in an impasse over the Spanish club’s refusal to meet United’s valuation for the player or include centre-back Sergio Ramos as part of the deal, British media reports suggest that United now expect the Spaniard to remain at the club this season.
De Gea, 24, sat in the stands during United’s 1-0 win at home to Tottenham Hotspur last weekend after van Gaal said the link to Madrid had affected his “focus”.
Apart from some wayward passes, De Gea’s deputy Sergio Romero performed well enough against Spurs and with Victor Valdes and Anders Lindegaard frozen out, if De Gea is not deemed to be in the right frame of mind to play, the Argentina international will continue between the posts at Villa Park.
While United’s fans will be heartened by the prospect of De Gea staying, after voting him their Player of the Year last season, the club’s former goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel has been critical of the way the situation has been handled.
“If the player is not happy, his agent, himself and the club that want him should have sorted this a long time ago,” the Dane told talkSPORT radio this week. “It’s sad that it’s dragged into the season.”
Putting the goalkeeper issue aside, United have traditionally had little to fear from visits to Villa Park, where they have not lost in the league in 20 years.
However, with United having had to wait until November 22 last season before recording their first away win, they will hope that it does not take quite so long to pick up points on the road this term.
Van Gaal will expect to see signs of greater attacking cohesion than in the narrow win over Tottenham, when United prevailed courtesy of an own goal and mustered just a single shot on target.
Villa began the campaign with a 1-0 win at promoted Bournemouth and despite narrowly avoiding relegation last season, new signings have raised expectations for manager Tim Sherwood’s first full campaign.
Rudy Gestede, the Benin international striker signed from Blackburn Rovers for £6 million, came off the bench to head in the winner at Bournemouth and will hope to get a run at United’s new-look centre-back pairing of Chris Smalling and Daley Blind.
Villa centre-back Ciaran Clark was also excited about the prospect of facing United. “It’s Man United. It’s the first home game of the season. We’re back at Villa Park. It’s a sell-out under the lights. I’m not sure it can get much better than that,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 14th, 2015.
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