Young saves De Gea blushes
De Gea may take time to recover from the dent to his ego, brought about by the manner in which he allowed Shane Long to mark his West Bromwich Albion debut with a goal, but Rio Ferdinand suffered a far more physically painful hamstring tear and will be out of action for “six weeks”, according to Ferguson.
Also, Nemanja Vidic will have to await the results of medical tests on a calf injury and Brazilian defender Rafael will be out for 10 weeks after dislocating his shoulder in training last Friday.
“Rio will be six weeks and Rafael will be out for 10 weeks,” confirmed Ferguson. “He needs an operation on the shoulder he injured in training. We will have to wait and see on Vidic. It looks as if it is a nerve problem and we will let the doctors have a look.”
The physical pain suffered by his teammates will be nothing compared to the mental anguish facing De Gea, the €20.8 million signing from Atletico Madrid had a monumental task filling the shoes of Edwin van der Saar. He will have to do so under even more scrutiny after his painful introduction to the Premier League and his part in Long’s goal.
Few have argued with the physical attributes of the Spanish international, or the levels of skill and potential he possesses. The only question marks raised against him is tender age and whether he can handle the sheer weight of pressure which comes with playing for the 19-times champions of England.
De Gea’s high profile error came in the 37th minute. The Spanish international had spent virtually the entire time as a spectator and seconds earlier punched away Paul Scharner’s powerful shot when a lapse in concentration, or poor technique, saw him gift allow Republic of Ireland striker Long’s low shot evade his dive.
Chris Smalling allowed Long inside him in the area and while the resulting shot was accurate, it lacked sufficient power, yet still De Gea dived over the effort, allowing the ball to find the far corner of the net.
“I said welcome to English football to him at half time. We lost a goal that David should have done better on. Maybe it was a lack of concentration,” said Ferguson.
“He took a bit of a battering in the second half and he should have been protected better by the referee, but he was not. It was good experience for him and if my recollection serves me correctly, coming from European football is a learning process for a goalkeeper.”
When Rooney made the most of Young’s poor pass and shot between Gabriel Tamas’ legs and beyond Ben Foster it was the culmination of an opening 13 minutes of relentless pressure and United looked capable of winning at will.
The Spaniard was spared total embarrassment nine minutes from time when Young prodded a cross into the six-yard box and Steven Reid provided the crucial deflection to take the ball beyond Foster.
MANCHESTER UNITED: De Gea (5); Smalling (6), Ferdinand (7), Vidic (7), Fabio (6); Nani (6), Anderson (6), Cleverley (7), Young (8); Welbeck (6), Rooney (8).
Subs: Jones (6) for Ferdinand (75), Berbatov (5) for Welbeck (65), Evans (6) for Vidic (52).
WBA: Foster (6); Olsen (6), Shorey (6), Tamas (6), Reid (6); Brunt (5), Scharner (6), Mulumbu (7), Morrison (6); Tchoyi (7), Long (7).
Subs: Jara for Reid (85), Cox for Long (87).
Referee: M Jones (Chester).
