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Mourinho explains why De Gea will start final

by
Joe Ganley
Friday 18 May 2018 22:30

Jose Mourinho has clarified that David De Gea will start in goal for Manchester United in Saturday’s Emirates FA Cup final against Chelsea at Wembley, despite Sergio Romero’s excellent form in the competition.

Romero, Argentina’s first-choice goalkeeper, was selected for each of the club's first seven domestic cup encounters this season, before he picked up an injury in his country's friendly defeat to Spain on 27 March. The knee problem ruled him out of the Reds' 2-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in last month’s FA Cup semi-final.

United’s no.20 returned to first-team action in last Sunday’s 1-0 Premier League victory over Watford at Old Trafford, and made a superb save to deny a goalbound header from Hornets forward Richarlison in the first half as he kept another clean sheet.

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When we beat Watford last season

A visionary Michael Carrick pass led to Marcus Rashford's winner against Watford at Old Trafford last season...

But when asked which man would be preferred for this weekend’s high-stakes cup final, Mourinho admitted: "Yeah, De Gea plays.
 
"He [Romero] was injured for a long, long time – around two-and-something months," continued the boss. "He didn’t play some matches that normally would be his matches, the semi-final against Tottenham, a couple more matches before the final. He trained only one week before the Watford match, and a little bit more before.
"And that’s the reason,” stated the Portuguese coach. "It’s not about trust, it’s not about my confidence in him, because you could have felt [my trust and confidence] last season when the Europa League final was a much, more important match than this one because it gave us the possibility to play in the Champions League.

"The first objective of any top-six club is to finish [in the] top four and because we didn’t do that last season, we had to win the Europa League.

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“And I played the Europa League final with Sergio, so it’s not about confidence or no confidence, it’s about the process of the last couple of months since he had an important injury against Spain.”

Romero began all of United’s knockout matches on the road to the Europa League final in Stockholm in 2016/17, and kept a clean sheet as the Reds beat Ajax 2-0 to claim the trophy for the first time in the club’s history.
Romero performed superbly as United beat Ajax 2-0 to win the 2016/17 Europa League in Stockholm.
But, despite his excellent comeback against Watford, and six clean sheets in his last seven FA Cup appearances, the Argentinian giant looks set to be on the bench this weekend behind our Player of the Year.

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