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Men's Football Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to stand by David de Gea

OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER has given his support to David de Gea despite the goalkeeper’s latest error which left Manchester United hopes of a top-four finish in the league shattered.

With United a goal up at home against Chelsea in the race for a Champions League place thanks to Juan Mata, De Gea spilled a 30-yard strike from Antonio Rudiger which was tapped home by Marcos Alonso.

The Spaniard has now made three errors in his last four games in all competitions which has seen United crash out of the Champions League at the hands of Barcelona and slip out of the Premier League top four following defeats away to Everton and home to rivals Manchester City.

But despite De Gea’s dip in form, Solskjaer is standing by his goalkeeper for next weekend’s penultimate game of the season against Huddersfield.

“When you’re a goalkeeper or a striker you’re always in the spotlight and any time you miss a chance or score you get good or bad headlines,” said the United manager.

“It’s the same with David, he’s been in the spotlight for [the] right reasons for so long and now he’s going through a period where he feels he could have done better.

“I don’t have any worries about him, because he’s a strong character. There’s many different ways of getting back to your best performances and, of course I’ll sit down and speak to David, as I’ve done when he’s played well, and he’s not the reason we’re sixth.”

There had been suggestions that De Gea’s head had been turned with speculation surrounding a move away from Old Trafford in the summer with French side Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Real Madrid all showing interest in the 28-year-old.

But Solskjaer insisted that he has no concerns over his keeper’s attitude. He said: “You cannot say there’s any complacency. David is not the type to be complacent, he’s a competitor, he wants to be the best and, for whatever reason, whenever I didn’t score a goal my confidence dropped if I missed some chances. 

“David knows he could have done better with the goal, there’s no reason hiding but there’s no chance any of us will point fingers because he’s saved us so many times.”

And Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri, who has had his own goalkeeping problems to deal with the season following a disagreement with Kepa Arrizabalaga during this season’s League Cup final, also heaped praise on De Gea,

“He is a great goalkeeper, he is unlucky in the last period. A mistake of the goalkeeper can happen,” said the Italian.

"If I have to speak to De Gea in general [he] is a very good goalkeeper, no doubt. Sometimes you have a striker who is not able to score for two months and sometimes you have a goalkeeper in difficulty for three and four matches. This is the job of the goalkeeper I think. 

“It is impossible to stay at a very high level for 12 months with consistency. But he is a great goalkeeper, in my opinion.”

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