Manchester United Relying on David De Gea to Guide Them Through Transition

David De Gea did very little against Stoke at Old Trafford on Tuesday. Most of his evening was taken up with finding different ways to stay warm on a freezing December night.

But just as he was starting to look forward to the hot showers in the dressing room, Mame Diouf arrived at the back post to head in what should have been Stoke's equaliser. 

But that was until De Gea adjusted his feet and palmed it away. He needed Ashley Young to clear another Diouf effort off the line to ensure United won the game. But that's not to take anything away from De Gea's save, which would have been his best of the season had he not made so many others.

Louis van Gaal doesn't like talking about individual performances after games. But he could hardly ignore De Gea's contribution against Stoke, however brief it was.

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It was a great save from David De Gea and we had a little bit of luck from Ashley Young when he cleared it off the line. You have to see the whole match and say there is one team that deserved it and that is Manchester United.

De Gea is a goalkeeper so he has to stop them. I think he has two or three shots on his goal and that is it.

It is very difficult for a goalkeeper to keep the concentration and the focus but he improves every week so I am happy with him.

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Van Gaal has every reason to be happy with him. The 24-year-old is steadily becoming his most important player. He was fantastic against Everton in October, a game United would have lost if he hadn't stopped Leighton Baines' penalty and made a string of other saves in the final few minutes.

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He kept United in the game against Chelsea, before Robin van Persie scored a late equaliser, and during Arsenal's early pressure at the Emirates. It's sometimes said that you only notice goalkeepers when they're making mistakes. But De Gea has been too good this season to go under the radar.

After every impressive display, the debate starts about when De Gea might become the best in the world. But if his form continues for much longer, we'll have to anoint him sooner rather than later.

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Van Gaal will hope, one day, that he won't need to rely on his goalkeeper so much. It's likely next summer he'll open the cheque book to buy at least one new centre-back as he tries to build a defence as strong as his attack.

But until then, Van Gaal will have to work with what he's got. And De Gea will keep being called into action. It's lucky, then, that the Dutchman has found his goalkeeper in such good form this season. 

Except, for De Gea, there's nothing lucky about it. If fortune was involved he wouldn't be able to do it again and again. He's just that good.