Home Football After Erik ten Hag’s defeat to Newcastle, David de Gea sends a strange tweet

After Erik ten Hag’s defeat to Newcastle, David de Gea sends a strange tweet

Football — 12/03/2023

Former Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea took to social media and posted a cryptic message following yet another defeat for his old side.

Erik ten Hag got rid of David de Gea in July

De Gea, 33, was controversially axed by United manager Erik ten Hag in July, having failed to agree a new contract on significantly reduced terms. The Red Devils boss then went and signed Andre Onana from Inter Milan for £47million, a transfer which has arguably been Ten Hag’s biggest mistake since arriving at Old Trafford.

But Onana didn’t shoulder the blame for United’s latest loss, a pathetic 1-0 defeat away to rivals Newcastle on Saturday. As the post-mortem ensued, De Gea appeared to give a brutal reaction by posting a cold face emoji on social media shortly after full-time.

Within nine hours, the Spaniard’s post has gained more than 87,000 likes. De Gea remains unemployed, with reports of a January move to Real Betis cooling in recent weeks after the 33-year-old chose to turn down lucrative offers from clubs in Saudi Arabia over the summer.

As for Ten Hag, there are suggestions that he, too, could be out of work soon enough, with his team having lost six of their opening 14 Premier League games. The Red Devils are also out of the Carabao Cup – again after losing to Newcastle – and need a huge slice of luck to reach the Champions League knockout phase.

The Dutchman, however, believes that he’ll get the results required to keep his job. “We have to put this right,” Ten Hag affirmed post-match. “I know we are resilient. We can do that. Several weeks ago, we lost to [Manchester] City and then we had a good run [in the Premier League], so we have to get back to a good run.”

Harry Maguire, who was arguably the only player in Saturday’s defeat to come away with any credit, urged his team-mates to show more fight. “The tempo wasn’t there, the intensity wasn’t there,” Maguire told TNT Sports. “They were a lot better than us. We grew into the game, but we didn’t have enough in the end.”

United don’t have long to put things right, hosting Chelsea at Old Trafford on Wednesday before another home game against Bournemouth. Then comes a must-win Champions League clash with Bayern Munich before the looming threat of a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool.