Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has confirmed that he wants to see David de Gea sign a new contract despite his costly error in Sunday's defeat to West Ham United.
Three days on from falling to a 1-0 loss to Brighton & Hove Albion, the Red Devils' Champions League aspirations suffered another setback in an identical defeat at the London Stadium.
With 27 minutes on the clock, Said Benrahma let fly from outside the area, and his goal-bound effort was seemingly meat and drink for a diving De Gea.
However, despite sticking out a hand, De Gea inexplicably let Benrahma's effort squirm past him and into the back of the net, gifting David Moyes's relegation battlers a priceless 1-0 victory.
De Gea's howler on Sunday was the fourth time that the Spaniard had made an error leading to a goal in any competition this season - only Hugo Lloris has also made as many fatal mistakes out of all Premier League goalkeepers.
On the flip side, De Gea is leading the race for the Premier League Golden Glove with 15 top-flight clean sheets this term, two more than closest challengers Alisson Becker, Nick Pope and Aaron Ramsdale.
The 32-year-old also started and completed the full 90 in February's 2-0 EFL Cup final win over Newcastle United, but his future has been called into question for a couple of years now.
As things stand, De Gea will be able to walk out of Old Trafford for free when his contract expires in June, as the Red Devils have not activated his 12-month extension option, although he has announced his intention to stay on.
Rather than trigger that 12-month renewal and keep De Gea on his £375,000-a-week pay packet, Man United are insisting that the former Atletico Madrid stopper must agree to a fresh deal with a salary cut to stay at the club.
An agreement is yet to be reached with De Gea's camp, but Ten Hag defended his number one after Sunday's game and publicly gave the green light for him to sign a new contract.
"We want him to stay and we want him to extend his contract. He has the most clean sheets in the Premier League. We would not be here in this position without him," Ten Hag told reporters.
"I believe there are no concerns. It happens. As a team, you have to deal with it, show character, be resilient, bounce back and that's what this team will do.
"We started well, we dictated the game, we created chances, we didn't take them, and then one mistake. In three days, twice individual mistakes makes us lose games."
De Gea has kept a club-high 188 clean sheets in 540 games for Man United since his arrival in 2011, breaking Peter Schmeichel's previous record of 180 in the EFL Cup final three months ago.
With just one win from their last four Premier League games, Man United now only hold a one-point lead over fifth-placed Liverpool in the table, although the Reds have played a game more. body check tags ::
