David de Gea has claimed that he reckons he can be as big a legend for this club as Edwin Van der Sar, despite his early mistakes for the club.

“Hopefully, I will equal or even surpass the performance and ­contribution he made to the club,” said de Gea. “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 and I think things are going well now. I think it is fair to say La Liga and the Premier League are the two best leagues in the world and in that sense they’re very similar, they’re at a ­similar level. But it is 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. The players coming at you can shoot from any ­angle and they can shoot from distance – you need to be aware that you might get a shot from distance at any time. Having said that, there’s also a lot of crosses from the sides, a lot of high balls and aerial play. You’ve got to be able to get in there and block, ­interfere and stop shots ­being taken. I knew when I was coming to United that this was the style of play I was coming into, so I was pretty much ready and I was already ­confident when I came. I knew I’d need to train a lot, which I do, I concentrate a lot on blocking shots. As a goalkeeper I try to improve in all areas of my game. It’s varied and I want to do my best.”