Honourable mentions for Paul Pogba who emerged from the pressure of being the most expensive player in the world to score in the Europa League final and dominate the games he was available for the first half of the 2017-18 season. Also for Antonio Valencia who has been a great example as captain and proven to be a solid right-back.
But the winner is David de Gea.
His performance against Arsenal got people talking and Jose Mourinho called him the best goalkeeper in the world after the final whistle. Yet Mourinho only said what United fans had known for some time.
De Gea usually makes at least one exceptional save per game. He does his job, stopping the shots he should, but the amount of points he’s saved United this year is huge.
Having won the Sir Matt Busby player of the year three seasons in a row, finally United had other players worthy of the award last season.
Yet as 2017 has gone on, De Gea has proven his worth once more and, according to reports from Spain, has no interest in taking up any future offers from Real Madrid to leave us. Thank fuck for that.
When his United career ends, we may well be able to put to bed the debate over who our best goalkeeper is. Some already argue that De Gea is better than Peter Schmeichel and Edwin Van der Sar.
This year, he has been a rock for us, and while so many things on and off the pitch are unpredictable for United, we can always depend on De Gea.
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