Filed under: Manchester United, West Brom, Premier League, Football, Match Reports
David De Gea was spared the ignominy of costing Manchester United victory - but will have to demonstrate immense mental strength to bounce back from his horrendous error in their victory at West Brom.The £18.3m signing from Atletico Madrid marred his debut with a dreadful mistake, diving over Shane Long's equaliser for WBA, after Wayne Rooney had opened the scoring to kick-start United's search for a 20th top flight title.
De Gea was spared some of his embarrassment nine minutes from time when Steven Reid was the unlucky Albion defender to deflect the ball into his own net, following Ashley Young's cross.
THE GOALS:
13mins: Sublime from United. Fabio, Rooney and Young combine and the England striker shoots through the legs of Gabriel Tamas. (0-1)
37mins: Long cuts inside Chris Smalling and skims a weak, low shot across goal. De Gea dives over it to gift Albion their equaliser. (1-1).
81mins: Reid is the unlucky defender who deflects Young's cross into his own net to give United the lead. (1-2)
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:
22mins: Rooney and Danny Welbeck set up Nani, but the Portuguese shot over from eight yards.
29mins: Nani wasted another opportunity firing over the bar from close range after a corner.
35mins: De Gea's first real action is a strong hand to keep out Paul Scharner's shot.
52mins: Nemanja Vidic succumbs to calf injury he suffered in the first half and leaves the action.
53mins: Rooney headed Young's free-kick narrowly wide of the far post.
74mins: Rio Ferdinand limps off injured to add more woes for Ferguson.
76mins: De Gea struggles under another high ball - but looks as if he was fould as he continues to struggle.
WHAT IT MEANS:
Question marks over whether De Gea had the mental strength to cope with the demands of being Edwin van der Saar's replacement are not likely to disappear as a result of this uncertain start to his United career. The test of character is one he has to pass. Albion will be encouraged, but they will know a more ruthless United could have killed the game before De Gea's howler.
REACTION:
Ferguson was quick to jump to the defence of De Gea, despite his error:
"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."
On De Gea's first experience of the Premier League:
"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."
On the need for patience with the 'keeper:
"Peter Schmeichel's first game was on a wet Wednesday night against Wimbledon and went on to give a bad goal away against Leeds the following weekend.
"He went on to be arguably one of the greatest goalkeepers in the world in my opinion. De Gea is only 20-years old and he is very much a work in progress."
On the performance in general:
"For the first 25 minutes I though was superb moving the ball well and our interchanging and speed was superb.
"Then somehow we seemed to slow the build-up and lost the moment. That was disappointing, but we had a lot of chances."
On the performance of Young:
"He showed good composure on the ball and showed a good understanding and interchange with Wayne. He had a few crosses blocked, but when he decided to get to the byline it had a good effect and brought about the winning goal."
On the performance of Rooney:
"If wayne was off for five or six weeks he could put on a few extra pounds, but I thought he was excellent and he was all over the place."
On the loss of Ferdinand and Vidic to injury:
"Rio could be out for six weeks with his hamstring and Nemanja could be two weeks. We think he has a nerve problem and will have that looked at.
"When your two most experienced players have to come off in the second half its not easy, but it is a godsend to have players like Smalling, Jones and Evans.
"We have had a torrid two or three days. Young Rafael has done his shoulder in training and needs an operation that will put him out for ten weeks."
Hodgson was hugely disappointed not to be able to hang on to a share of the points:
"It is hard to swallow my frustration. They started like a house of fire and you are very concened with the quality of players they have.
"But had the game finished 1-1 I dont think we would have had to make any apologies. We grew into the game after our goal."
On the goals conceded:
"The first went through the legs of Tamas and then we get an awful deflection for their winning goal, which is cruel.
"Let's hope the sporting gogds are on our side, because we feel there weren't on this occasion."
On the proposed signing of Owen Hargreaves:
"There's nothing. He is communicating with Dan Ashworth and we are waiting."
On Wigan's interest in Peter Odemwingie:
"Peter is not for sale and if you had seen the size of the bid you would be laghing all the way here.
"I don't know know what provokes teams to put in a bid which is so ludicrously lower. I could put in a bid for Wayne Rooney."
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