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Since the retirement of Edwin van der Sar at the end of the 2010/11 season, Manchester United have not had a clear No.1. Not much was made of Anders Lindegaard's £3.5m arrival in January of 2011 from Norwegian side Aalesund but much was made of David de Gea's £17m summer arrival from Atletico Madrid later in that same year. The legendary Peter Schmeichel even indicated that he didn't really rate his fellow Dane while the then 20-year-old Spaniard had already been a Europa Cup and a UEFA Super Cup winner. From that very simple context, it's understandable why nearly everyone assumed de Gea would be the new No.1 at Old Trafford. It hasn't been that simple since though.
As everyone is aware by now, de Gea has struggled at times in commanding his box -- although his struggles in this regard have been blown completely out of proportion by the mainstream media. Sir Alex Ferguson has rotated his 'keepers and this has certainly made it difficult for either de Gea or Lindegaard to establish themselves as the clear No.1. Lindegaard commands his box better but he's an inferior shot-stopper in comparison to de Gea. The only time when either one of them has gotten a long run of games was when Lindegaard got injured in the latter half of last season. During that time, de Gea excelled and he was arguably as good as any 'keeper in Europe from January through May of this year. His world-class potential was clearly evident.
Rotation has resumed this season. As of late though, Lindegaard has gotten a run of games and presumably, this is because of de Gea having his wisdom teeth extracted in recent weeks. The Spaniard featured for the first time yesterday against Cluj since his November 10 appearance versus Aston Villa. The Dane has been mostly fine during this time but his supposed advantage over de Gea -- command of his box -- was not evident last weekend at Reading as he clearly struggled gauging the continual crosses that were being sent his way. de Gea wasn't tested much versus Cluj so it's difficult to assess his sharpness at the moment.
United obviously have the massive derby at the weekend versus Manchester City. The simple poll question is, which United goalkeeper do you want between the posts at the Etihad. Feel free to express why in the comments section.