Primera Liga in focus: Man United’s De Gea, unflappable amid uncertain future, is Spain’s best

Andy Mitten breaks down the week in Spanish football, where David de Gea has made it clear he is the best the country has to offer, even if he won't be playing there.

David de Gea has just seven senior Spain caps. Denis Doyle / Getty Images
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David de Gea’s Manchester United teammates joke that nothing fazes their goalkeeper. They tease him that his natural, laid-back demeanour helps him deal with the pressure of incessant speculation regarding his future and also of being a first choice for club and, now, probably, country.

De Gea is the best goalkeeper in the world at present. Selected for his seventh Spain appearance in Ukraine on Monday, the stopper, who turns 25 next month, had his best international game to date.

"Sensational is too little a word for his achievement, we won because of him," said his teammate, Thiago Alcantara. De Gea stopped 28 shots, many with his feet, as the desperate hosts pushed for Euro 2016 qualification.

"It was as if he was a handball player!" said Spanish daily El Mundo. "His performance transmitted a sense of stability and security in goal," wrote ABC. "How can it be that the Manchester United goalkeeper is behind the Porto stopper in the pecking order?"

De Gea has been patient while Iker Casillas has been Spain’s No 1 with Pepe Reina his No 2.

United’s goalkeeper has played for Spain at every age level, including 27 times for the all-conquering Under 21 side. He finally made his full senior Spain debut last year after being an unused member of the squad at last year’s World Cup in Brazil.

Casillas, with a record 164 Spain appearances, is not finished at this level. The 34-year-old goalkeeper is performing well for FC Porto and has played more times than De Gea in Spain’s recent run which has seen them keep eight clean sheets. He has said that De Gea will become Spain’s No 1 and was the first to praise him after his heroics in Kiev.

“Casillas was quick to congratulate me,” De Gea said. “He’s been at the top for so long and always tries to help me out.”

Shifting Casillas from a spot he has been rooted to for the past 13 years remains difficult. Casillas is hugely popular in Spain, especially among Real Madrid fans who were angered by the manner of his unedifying departure from the Bernabeu in July. Yet De Gea is now the better keeper and the time is right to make him No 1 as Spain's team shifts towards younger, new players who played alongside De Gea for the U21s such as Nolito and Alcantara.

Asked if he would be disappointed not to be Spain’s first choice at Euro 2016, De Gea said: “I want to be at the top of my game to make the decision as difficult as possible” for the coach. “I just want to maintain the form I had last season as I felt I was playing well. It’s tricky maintaining a great run of form but I need to keep improving and growing.”

That is a decision for Vicente del Bosque.

At United, he is the undisputed No 1. The English club expected him to leave for Madrid in August and there are conflicting accounts of what happened on transfer deadline day after United had accepted a €40 million (Dh168.1m) bid for De Gea with Keylor Navas set to move to Old Trafford. United believe that Madrid did not push for the deal to go through in time. Officials at Old Trafford point to a poll in Marca highlighting the popularity of Navas was influential enough to unnerve Madrid. With the Costa Rican also in excellent form this season, the clamour for Madrid to sign a new goalkeeper does not exist, though De Gea's brilliance would only compound any errors by Navas, a player United tried to sign in 2014 when he as at Levante.

United knew De Gea, who was born in Madrid, was hurt by the deal falling through and would take some time to reflect before re-establishing himself as the club’s No 1. He did. United didn’t think De Gea would sign another contract at Old Trafford, but he did. In Ander Herrera, Juan Mata and the sadly ostracised Victor Valdes, De Gea has close friends in Manchester, where he has now played 182 games. United fans hope it will be many more, but, like his fight for Spain’s No 1 jersey, nothing is certain. Not that such uncertainty will trouble him.

No longer ‘Super Depor’ but pretty good will work

Deportivo La Coruna only stayed up last season thanks to a 2-2 draw at champions Barcelona on the final day of the season. Their struggle was no surprise. They had spent the previous season in the second division. They had yo-yoed between Spain’s top two leagues since 2011. One season up, one season down.

The days of “Super Depor”, a reference to their great team at the turn of the century, are long gone. So too their €90 million (Dh378.2m) annual budgets. But the influence is still clear. New coach Victor Sanchez, 39, was a midfielder who played alongside Juan Valeron, Roy Makaay, Diego Tristan and the other former Depor heroes.

Sanchez also played for Real Madrid and has got his team well organised and effective on the counter attack, but he is working on a low, mid-table-level budget and if Depor’s recent history is to follow the same pattern, they will go down this season.

That looked more probable as the Galician club was entwined in all too familiar sporting and off-field uncertainty at the start of the season, but Sanchez’s side have started well.

Seven games in, Depor are sixth and have been beaten only once. No team have picked up more points on the road where Depor are unbeaten after overcoming Real Betis and Rayo Vallecano, and holding Valencia and Granada.

It is at home where the fans are again showing faith in numbers; Sunday’s game against Athletic Bilbao is expected to be a 33,000 sell-out.

Marshalled by captain Laure, Depor use a 4-4-2 formation and are defensively strong. They can also call on veteran Manuel Pablo, now 39 and in his 18th season with the first team. They have other veterans including former Villarreal midfielder Cani, 34, and Fernando Navarro, 33, who arrived from Sevilla in the summer. Argentine Jonas Gutierrez, 32, joined after being released by Newcastle United at the end of last season. Two recruits arrived from relegated Elche – central midfielder Pedro Mosquera and fleet-heeled French-Moroccan winger Faycal Fajr.

Both have started every game in a team with pace on the wings. Depor’s star player, though, has been Lucas Perez, 27, a locally born forward who played at several clubs in Europe but never in La Coruna until he joined the club on loan in 2014. Depor’s four-goal top scorer has attracted bigger suitors with his performances, but claims he is happy staying at home after a career on the road, happy when people he barely knows come up to him in the street and shake his hand.

“Recognition from your hometown is also beautiful,” Perez said. “I want to stay here and I’ll be happy if I don’t need to leave. If possible, I want to finish here.”

If Depor continue to impress he will have little reason to.

Player of the week

Nolito’s having a fine season for his club and continued it with an impressive performance for his country in Ukraine. The 28-year-old Celta Vigo striker was a late developer and was in Barcelona’s B team until he was 24. He moved to Benfica in 2011, but he has excelled since joining Celta, then managed by Luis Enrique, in 2013.

Four Spain caps have followed, and as a result Spain’s bigger fish want to sign him, including his former club Barcelona. They saw what he could do when he starred in Celta’s recent 4-1 victory against them.

***

New York Cosmos’s star striker Raul, 38, has told his club that he wants to retire next month when the NASL, the second tier in the United States, season finishes. The Real Madrid legend has enjoyed living in New York and may stay to help coach youngsters, though he is also said to want to be closer to his family in Madrid. Whatever he does, it will draw to a close a magnificent career.

Games of the week

Villarreal v Celta Vigo makes for an unlikely first v third clash on Sunday. Celta are unbeaten away and Villarreal have won every home game. Real Madrid and Barcelona should have no problem with their home games; Levante visit the Bernabeu and Rayo Vallecano travel to Camp Nou. David Moyes’s Real Sociedad go in search of a first home win. They play Atletico Madrid, a side they beat 4-1 at Anoeta Stadium last term.

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