David de Gea believes someone has put a "curse" on Manchester United as the goalkeeper says he does not fully understand why the club have had so many things go wrong in recent years.
United hasn't won a trophy since 2017, with the club lagging behind the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea at the top of English football in recent years.
Currently, the club is sixth in the Premier League table and lagging in the fight for a Champions League place. De Gea has been spectacular all season, but the rest of the squad has let him down.
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De Gea has been at the club since 2011, having played under Sir Alex Ferguson during the manager's final two years, and the goalkeeper says he can't quite put his finger on what's gone wrong since the legendary manager's departure.
De Gea says United is "cursed"
"I think someone has put a curse on us or something," De Gea told Spanish publication El Pais. "The truth is I don't know what's going on, I really don't.
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"People always ask me and we talk about it as team-mates and we just say 'we don't know what's happening'. We should have competed for more trophies, bigger titles, but I just don't know why this team doesn't function."
United is on its seventh manager since Ferguson's departure, including interim managers Ryan Giggs, Michael Carrick and Ralf Rangnick. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was fired in November after three nearly years in charge.
Too many saves?
Heading into the weekend, De Gea leads the Premier League with 83 saves, 13 more than Leeds' Illan Meslier.
22 - No goalkeeper made more saves than David De Gea during January in the big five European leagues, while according to Opta's xG On Target metric, he prevented more goals than any Premier League goalkeeper in this period (2.6). Inspired. pic.twitter.com/fwcbkFJbkX
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 4, 2022
But De Gea says that statistic is not necessarily one a goalkeeper wants to lead the league in as United still concede far too many chances to the opposition.
"I don't know if that's a good thing," he said. "Teams create a lot of chances against us. But that's what I'm here for: trying to stop goals, help the team however I can and this year things are going well in that regard.
"Ralf Rangnick wants us to be intense, to always press and be on the front foot."
