David de Gea appeared in front of the camera on Saturday evening just after the painful beating against Brentford (4-0) Sky Sports. Normally this happens at the request of the British television channel, but the Manchester United goalkeeper wanted to appear in front of the camera himself. “Yes, I want to take my responsibility. I want to say that I cost three points for the team,” said the guilty De Gea.
Manchester United already looked at the 4-0 score at halftime on a visit to Brentford. De Gea takes the blame for at least the first two goals against. Brentford’s Josh Dasilva scored from eighteen in the tenth minute and took advantage of a huge fumble from De Gea, who let the very tenable ball slip between his hands: 1-0. Eight minutes later, the Spanish goalie replaced heavily pressured Christian Eriksen, who lost the ball to goalscorer Mathias Jensen.
“It was a bad performance on my part,” reflects De Gea. “After my two mistakes, it was very difficult for us. It was a terrible day. A mistake like mine can happen in professional football. We should respond better to that, but we are in a difficult phase as a team, and right now we have to I can stop such a ball.”
The keeper does not want to blame the tactical orders of Erik ten Hag that De Gea decided to play in Eriksen under enormous pressure. “It depends on how the game goes. Maybe I should read the game better and give a long ball and not play short to Christian. We want to build up, but they put one-on-one pressure on us all over the field, so I should have read it better today.”
United are in the corner where the blows fall, emphasizes De Gea. “You also have teams that concede a goal and still win 5-1 or 6-1, but that’s not us at the moment. That’s why I cost three points today: it was a easy save and at a 1-0 score I already felt it was going downhill. Of course you don’t play for anything in the preseason, you have to be there when it matters. Then you need a proper player and in this case I wasn’t today.”