David de Gea was minutes away from signing for Real Madrid in the summer but thankfully the deal collapsed. It’s worrying to think what state Manchester United would be in if we didn’t have De Gea playing in goal.

Following his man of the match performance against Liverpool, Morgan Schneiderlin has sung his praises.

David is a very important player in our squad. We are very happy to have him and happy that he didn’t go last summer. He is fully committed to this football club. When you have a player like this in goal, it’s good for us because we know we are not going to concede many goals and he is going to make some saves. Well done to him.

Chris Smalling has also had kind words to say about our goalkeeper, revealing how happy the players were when they found out De Gea was staying at United.

When we knew he was lining up for us for the whole season, it was a great feeling because he is one of the best,” said Chris. “He pulled off great saves and his distribution, especially with those balls to Wazza and Jesse further forward, was terrific. That set us up on the attack. He is a good shot-stopper and a good organiser too. He is a very calm guy but on the pitch, he is very much talking to us as a unit and we know his game inside out. It’s good to know that if we are beaten as a defence, we still have a great chance to keep the ball out.