David James (50) believes that Paul Pogba may have “messed up” the Manchester United goalkeeper in the final match.
Spanish David De Gea became the scapegoat in many ways when Manchester United lost the Europa League final to Villarreal recently. The goalkeeper missed his penalty, while he failed to save any of the eleven penalties he received against him.
The goalkeeper has become a second choice for United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær this season, but he still chose to give the profile a chance in the final match.
Exactly that choice has been criticized by the Norwegian in retrospect and many have pointed out that De Gea’s statistics on penalties in recent years are thin soup.
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James: – He’s not confident
One who immediately realized that something was up when it came to penalties in Gdansk, was former national team goalkeeper for England, David James. The 50-year-old says in a radio interview with Talksport that he could see in the Spaniard that he lacked self-confidence.
– As soon as the match went to penalties, I followed De Gea where he he stood in the mill of United players. I said to myself, “He lacks confidence.” He did not look confident.
James has good experience from big fights himself. As a goalkeeper, he played for Liverpool, Aston Villa, West Ham and Manchester City, among others. He won 53 international matches for England and guarded the cage of the three lions in several championships.
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Among other things, he guarded the cage for England during the European Championships in Portugal in 2004. Like the Europa League final, the quarter-final between England and Portugal in that championship was also decided from the chalk. The home nation won and went on.
Brings out EC memory
David Beckham and Darius Vassell missed for the English. James feels he experienced something similar to De Gea, in that penalty shootout.
– During the European Championships in 2004, I prepared for the penalties and Gary Neville followed me everywhere. «You can do it! You can do it! You can save. You’re the best, ‘he said.
– I tried to keep my head cool, but looked at Darius Vassell and said: “Neville rotates with my head”, says James in the interview about the championship in 2004.
He believes that Paul Pogba did something similar with De Gea against Villarreal.
– Pogba did the same with De Gea. And I thought to myself, please do not do the same as Neville did to me, says the 50-year-old and refers to the fact that Pogba was several times away talking to the Spaniard before the penalty was to be shot.
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Neville responded with emoji
James did not save a single penalty in the 2004 match. Portugal’s only miss came when Rui Costa put the ball over goal. As in the Europa League final, it was a goalkeeper who set the decisive penalty. Ricardo scored the goal that sent the hosts on.
The aforementioned Gary Neville, who at the time played for Manchester United and is now an expert for Sky Sports, has obviously been interviewed by James.
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On the online community Twitter, he shared a link to the interview on Talksport. He chose not to comment further, but slang for a so-called wonder emoji.
Sunshine: – Considered change
Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær said after the final loss that he considered replacing De Gea with Dean Henderson in the extra innings.
– You go through all the scenarios, of course and De Gea’s statistics on penalties were something I thought about towards the match, but we had faith in David and were well prepared.
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– Anything can happen in a penalty shootout. I bet on the goalkeeper who had played the whole match. Penalties were of high quality, but we did not do enough during the 120 minutes to score more goals and that disappoints me the most, said Solskjær.
De Gea has been linked with a move away from United after the Spaniard lost the first-place finish to Henderson. The 30-year-old joined United in 2011 from Atletico Madrid and was for a number of years regarded as one of the world’s very best goalkeepers.
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