David de Gea could have secured Europa League glory for Manchester United had he stuck to the penalty notes he was given in Wednesday’s shootout defeat against Villarreal.
Gerard Moreno put Villarreal ahead before Edinson Cavani equalised in the second half, though neither team could find a winner as the encounter went to extra-time and then a penalty shootout.
De Gea, who has failed to save any penalty since 2016, was unable to stop all 11 spot-kicks and then he missed from 12 yards as Villarreal emerged victorious.
But things could have been different had De Gea stuck to the notes, with the 30-year-old goalkeeper following them to the letter up until the sixth penalty.
While the first two penalty takers, Moreno and Dani Raba, both went in opposite corners to what De Gea and the Red devils’ goalkeeping staff predicted, the notes correctly identified three of the next four spotkicks.
According to his instructions, De Gea went the right way for both Paco Alcacer and Alberto Moreno’s penalties but managed to save none – though he came close to saving the striker’s effort.
Dani Parejo then mixed it up, but Moi Gomez did exactly what had been predicted in the note and went straight down the middle.
Ferran Torres explains why Chelsea are always a ‘pain in the neck’ ahead of CL final
Scholes criticises De Gea after Man Utd’s Europa League final defeat
Man City vs Chelsea: Wesley Sneijder predicts team to win the Champions League
The problem for United was that De Gea deviated from his instructions and dived to his left; had he stood tall, it would have been an easy one for the keeper.
De Gea’s notes were incorrect for the four outfield players left after Gomez and he seemed to trust his gut more, and he twice picked a different side to what was written on his note.
Speaking about his decision to back De Gea for the shootout and not bring on penalty specialist Dean Henderson instead, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said after the game: ‘You go through every scenario, of course.
‘It had crossed my mind in the build-up to the game but we were confident in David and we’d prepared. ‘But anything can happen in a penalty shootout, so I stuck with the keeper who had played all of the game.’
