David Moyes grateful to Sir Alex Ferguson for boldly blooding David de Gea for Manchester United

Manager believes he is reaping the rewards of his illustrious predecessor's decision to buy the young Spanish goalkeeper and throw him straight into first-team action

Number one: David de Gea celebrates Manchester United's 5-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen Photo:  

David Moyes believes that Manchester United are now reaping the full benefits of former manager Sir Alex Ferguson’s “brave” move to bring in David de  Gea as a youngster.

Ferguson earmarked De Gea as the successor for Edwin van der Sar when the veteran Dutchman retired in 2011 and paid Atlético Madrid £17.8 million for the 20-year-old Spaniard.

De Gea endured a difficult start in English football with a host of teams making the most of his lack of physicality and aggression by bombarding the United defence.

Ferguson always defended the youngster publicly, although he did rotate De Gea with Anders Lindegaard on several occasions.

The last major outbreak of doubt about De Gea’s suitability for the role as United’s first choice came when his poor punch led to Tottenham – their opponents on Sunday – scoring a late equaliser to draw 1-1 at White Hart Lane in January. That was followed by stinging criticism from the former United player Gary Neville but De  Gea went on to play a key role in United winning the league last season and his form was enough to earn him a place in the Premier League team of the year.

Now in his third season at Old Trafford, De Gea has started all 12 league games since Moyes took over and the manager feels that the 23-year-old has benefited from his brutal introduction to English football.

“Sir Alex put in a young keeper at Manchester United and there were some times when he made mistakes,” Moyes said. “It was incredibly brave of the manager. He stuck with him, he brought him in and out and when he felt it was the right time and necessary to do so. They’ve managed him great.
“He is going to get better and better because at his young age he has come through a lot of things.

Overall he has grown in his stature. He’s got bigger, he’s confident and he has played really well. He has able to handle the rough stuff. He copes with situations much better than he did but that comes from age as well. He is maturing and hopefully the best years are still to come for David as well.”

On Wednesday Moyes comes up against Everton for the first time since swapping Goodison Park for Old Trafford in a summer during which he battled with his former employers in his attempts to sign both Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines.
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The United manager thinks he still owes a debt to Everton but has no worries about the occasion getting to him. “I’m not that big an emotional person. I’ll put it in the right place. I realise my job and the people who I worked with were fantastic, the supporters were fantastic and the players were great. But I’ve got a new job now and, the way I am, I move on quite quickly and I’m concentrating on United now.”