David De Gea is the stark image of Manchester United’s defeat in the Europa League final: he did not stop any of the penalty shoot-outs and, on the last shot, he missed his own. In what many have already pointed out as his last contribution as a Red Devils footballer, De Gea got a cross. The Spanish goalkeeper faces a summer where he does not know if he will continue at Old Trafford when he returns from the European Championship because Dean Henderson has won the title in the Premier League, while the former Atlético has played the rest of the Europa League, including the final against Villarreal.
In the penalty shootout, the questions were in the performance of De Gea, who had not stopped any of the previous 25 that had been shot. After Villarreal won 11-10, the Spaniard now has a record of no stops in the last 40 maximum penalties he has tried to stop, including United and Spain. In other words, they haven’t saved any penalties in the last five years, with the last one dating back to 2016 against Everton in the FA Cup.
Solskjaer was aware of this data and, at the press conference, he acknowledged that it crossed his mind to change it before the tanda: “You imagine every scenario, of course, and it crossed my mind in the run-up to the match, but we were very confident that David was ready.. Anything can happen in a penalty shoot-out and I stayed with the goalkeeper who had played the whole game. Admittedly, the shots were of a high quality, but we didn’t do enough during 120 minutes to score more goals. “
However, it was not the only target of criticism. The Guardian also pointed to Solskjaer’s inaction from the bench: “If De Gea had saved a penalty, would it have served as evidence of the club’s winning mentality? Of course not.”writes journalist Jonathan Liew.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/solskjaer-on-changing-de-gea-before-the-shootout-it-crossed-my-mind/
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