Manchester United: Why Sir Alex Ferguson Will Stick by David De Gea

Over the past couple of days, I have been reading article after article that calls for Sir Alex Ferguson to either buy a new keeper in January, or drop David De Gea from the first team. I personally strongly disagree with the latter.

I was going to link the articles in question, but I don't think that they're necessarily worth your reading. For now, let's play a game.

The game is called "Spot the clue in the question." Admittedly not a fun or exciting game, but let's have a go. The question is: Why don't you replace a £18 million goalkeeper after six months?

I can't speak for every United fan, but I'm sure that I'm not the only one who trusts SAF's decision to spend £18 million on a 20-year-old goalkeeper. Admittedly, De Gea is almost definitely a player who has been signed with the future in mind, but Fergie obviously thinks that he has enough talent about him now in order to hold down a first team place at Man United.

De Gea's place in the Manchester United first team has come under a lot of scrutiny this season, with both the media and fans questioning whether he should be turning out between the sticks week in week out.

Let's first take a look at how the media have put a negative spin on De Gea's career at United so far. You see it all the time on the back pages, and it's not just De Gea.

Hart, Cech, Szczesny—the only time you hear about these guys is if they've made a monumental mistake. Outside of the top six mistakes, a lot less are reported. In fact, it's quite the opposite; mistakes are barely reported—it's more the "moments of magic" that we hear about.

So how does the media affect a player's performance? While most would expect a player to try harder to prove everyone wrong, instead it must pile on an immense amount of pressure which can lead to further poor performance and mistakes.

Let me try a little analogy for you. We all know the pressure of simply having your boss watching over what you are doing at work, how you feel that everything that you do while they are watching has to be right. Now imagine on top of this that you've got all of your customers watching you, not thousands, but millions of customers, and each and every one of them is expecting perfection from your every action. It wouldn't be easy, right?

So how can we expect De Gea to develop quickly if the media are continually tearing strips off of him? I read an article on B/R a few weeks back that called the media "witch hunters" in their pursuit of De Gea, and this is probably a pretty appropriate term to use.

Back in September, ESPN Soccernet reported that SAF thought that the media were out to "destroy" De Gea and said the following: "There is obviously an agenda on De Gea...It seems to me people are desperate for the boy to fail. That's the impression I get and I don't understand it."

I'm with Sir Alex on this one. Add to this the fact that De Gea is in a new country and his English isn't great, and you can start to understand the pressure he's under.

There's my rant about the media. Let's move on.

Since DDG's move from Atletico in the summer, you can't say that he's had the best of luck when it comes to the players around them.

Man United are amidst one of their worst defensive injury crises in years, which has meant that DDG has not had the comfort of the partnership of Vidic and Ferdinand in front of him in every game. Instead, he has often had a combination of Smalling, Jones or Evans.

I'm not going to set off on a tangent ranting about Evans, so I'll leave him aside for the moment.

Jones and Smalling, while good defenders, are young and inexperienced themselves. It isn't uncommon in a game to see Jones and/or Smalling go on a mad run up front from centre half, leaving gaps at the back and essentially exposing De Gea.

As well as dealing with the media and injury issues within the squad, De Gea is still adapting to the EPL. Speaking to Inside United magazine, DDG said:

"

I think it’s fair to say La Liga and Premier League are the two best leagues in the world and in that sense they’re very similar, but it’s well known that the style of play here is rather more physical and as a goalkeeper you’ve got to be right on it, you’ve got to be attentive all through the match.

"

While even David himself can recognise that his concentration has let him down so far in the EPL, he has still made some great saves that have shown him to be a great shot stopper. Looking at the stats, he's notched five clean sheets from 14 appearances in the EPL—admittedly not a sparkling record, but it's still five clean sheets.

While it's plainly obvious that De Gea will one day be a fantastic keeper, part of his development lies in being a key member of the United first team now. Most have suggested that he should go out on loan for a couple of seasons, but how will this help him develop as a United player? How can he fully adapt to the EPL if he's back playing in Spain?

The other benefit of him playing in the first team now is that he can build relationships with the players who will take the club forward with him. Building a good relationship with Jones and Smalling will be a fantastic advantage in the future, as these two are obviously going to be a massive part of the United team in the future.

Command of his area is currently one of his weaknesses, so building these relationships within the squad will only add to his development.

Every player has weaknesses, but De Gea is still young and has a long time to fine tune his stats, which will happen a lot quicker through exposure to EPL first team football.

What it is important to realise is that De Gea is going to be an important fixture at United for the next 10 years if not more, and there's no way that his place in the first team should come under as much scrutiny as it does. SAF is willing to stick by the young Spaniard, and the fans should be behind him every step of the way.

To finish, I'll leave you with a quote from DDG himself: "Let’s face it, all goalkeepers make mistakes once in a while, and none of us like it when we do...Errors happen but I’ve gone on to be more confident in myself."