By Pete Jenson for MailOnline
Published: 12:39 BST, 25 April 2019 | Updated: 12:44 BST, 25 April 2019
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If David de Gea still read the Spanish sports press, a fan poll on Real Madrid goalkeepers might have caught his eye on Thursday.
Asked, in Diario AS, which goalkeeper they preferred 50.8 per cent of Real Madrid supporters voted for Thibaut Courtois and 49.2 per cent for Keylor Navas. Four years on from Iker Casillas' departure there is still no long-term undisputed heir – that was meant to be De Gea's destiny: following Casillas not just as Spain's No 1 but also as Real Madrid's.
It was 2015 when his move to Real Madrid fell at the final hour. Four years on he is neither goalkeeper at the Bernabeu nor Spain's ever-present No 1. He has been criticised by supporters of the national team who have been puzzled by his status as savior, season after season, at Old Trafford, and his deteriorating form on the international stage.
David de Gea's destiny was to be the heir to Iker Casillas but recently his form has been poor
Now the Spanish sports pages record less than perfect performances for United as well. Diario AS's match report on Thursday said: 'Sane scored from Sterling's brilliant run and pass, with a shot that De Gea would definitely have had more chance of stopping had he tried to stop the ball with his hands and not with his feet.'
De Gea's playground style-ability to stop shots with his feet used to be considered a virtue now it's seen as his vice. When he uses his hands instead of his feet, things don't always go any better for him.
When he let Lionel Messi's tame shot squirm under his body at the Nou Camp in the Champions League quarter-final second leg last week the critics rounded on him for not being able to save well with his hands.
His recent woes were compounded on Wednesday after failing to keep out Leroy Sane's strike
The Spaniard also made a clanger in the Champions League against Lionel Messi's Barcelona
That Nou Camp mistake may haunt him for the rest of his career – the wrong place, the wrong time and the wrong rival to drop your biggest Champions League clanger – but for many in Spain it was merely a case of De Gea transforming country form to club.
De Gea endured a tough World Cup. The statistics did not read well. Spain were eliminated by Russia in the first knockout round and De Gea had made just one save from 12