Manchester United: David de Gea's Future Will Be Written over the Next Few Weeks

Since David de Gea joined Manchester United this past summer, the young Spanish goalkeeper has been a lightning rod for criticism.

Despite showing some great moments and having some solid wins, de Gea has found himself as the second-choice keeper at United due to inconsistent play. Despite having five clean sheets and 56 saves this season, bad performances have harmed de Gea.

Anders Lindegaard has become the first-choice keeper at United over the past several weeks due to de Gea's inconsistencies and has put together some inspiring performances to get United into a tie on top of the table.

Lindegaard has only conceded four goals in eight Premier League appearances. This includes a five-match run of clean sheets to start off his Premier League career.

Lindegaard had already defeated Manchester City in the FA Cup and beat Arsenal less than two weeks ago. Yet Lindegaard has been ruled out for the next several weeks due to an ankle injury.

This injury gives de Gea a new chance to star for Manchester United. After losing his top spot, de Gea will get another chance to start for United after losing at Anfield in the FA Cup last weekend.

Losing to a rival club is never an easy task and can be a massive letdown for many goalkeepers. Yet this loss might easily be rock bottom for a shaken de Gea.

Throughout the last several months, de Gea has been emotionally hurt from conceding weak goals and losing matches. Yet de Gea has no time to recover from this last loss to Liverpool.

This has been true for de Gea after several of his prior performances this season, especially against Man City.

Despite missing Tuesday night's match against Stoke City, de Gea will probably start on Sunday at Chelsea. There is little-to-no chance that either Ben Amos or Tomasz Kuszczak will be in the starting 11 come Sunday.

Now de Gea can take some confidence from his win over Chelsea at Old Trafford at the beginning of the season, which is a nice building block to build from emotionally going into this match.

But the facts are that de Gea will have the odds against him in this fixture and will need to put together a great performance against Chelsea in order to erase part of his past.

Even though de Gea will probably also start against Liverpool and Ajax over the next month, a strong match here can help to move de Gea away from his poor play during the past several months.

If de Gea cannot put together a strong performance against Chelsea, his entire rest of the season will be put into question as will his Manchester United future.

Nearly all star footballers have a stretch where they find themselves having to play a massive match after having some bad performances.

For these players, it really is a make-or-break moment; their moment to prove that they will be ready to become stars or if they will become afterthoughts. 

David de Gea probably will not be an afterthought anytime soon. Yet these performances this February will tell us a lot about him.

Can de Gea star at goalkeeper and keep Manchester United in the title race? Or will de Gea cost United the title race?

Only de Gea can tell us. After all, he is the person that we are watching to see if he will either pass or fail.

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