An interesting battle to unfold at Old Trafford?
Rooney isn’t looking to start this season as slowly as he did last, Ashley Young’s delivery can be deadly and he will get a fair few assists this season and Anders Lindegaard isn’t at Old Trafford to mess around.
Earlier this morning in his 45 minute cameo against the MLS Allstars, the Danish goalkeeper impressed all with his display. He met the challenges of long range efforts from David Beckham and Brad Davis with a strong will as well as a strong hand to keep United’s goal intact. It wasn’t his first good display on this tour either and surely this will now give Sir Alex as well as the newly arrived David De Gea something to think about.
Lindegaard has always said he didn’t come to United to ‘pick his nose’ and he has never given us reason to think otherwise. He put in solid displays last term in the two cup appearances he made but for some reason he was always seen as ‘a backup keeper’ and even after we signed him it was always expected we would sign another big name keeper.
Some may see his statements of intent as the usual spiel heard from players fighting for their positions having already made assertions on the capacity in which he will be used but having seen more of him and what he is capable of even Tiresias can see there is more than a little something about him.
Of course this may be slightly premature, Lindegaard played a full game against New England and two halves against Seattle and the MLS Allstars but I’d wager that he showed enough in these displays to Sir Alex to make him seriously think about the selection of his number one.
This isn’t a Lindegaard love in though, De Gea’s debut performance against Chicago was very promising. We are more than aware of what he is capable of and with his age it appears he can follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, Edwin van der Sar, and have a long and fruitful career hopefully here at Old Trafford.
He has got the nod from Sir Alex and it is expected that he will indeed be our number 1 when the season starts despite questions being raised over his inability to speak English as well as his physique in the more physically Premier League. Yet there is hope for Lindegaard too as Sir Alex also stated that he expects the Dane to challenge and as seen with Hernandez last season, if you take your chances when they are presented you can expect to subvert the supposed natural order of things.
Common sense demands that it is the keeper we just splashed nearly £18m on that gets the nod between the two but the Anders is asking some real questions and if De Gea isn’t up to the task of answering them he can rest assured that Lindegaard will be more than willing to step in and do so.