Henderson helps Man Utd Champions League hopes more than De Gea can

FT Desk

• 22 Oct 2022 08:47 CDT
• 4 min read

Dean Henderson put in a sterling performance as Nottingham Forest beat Liverpool 1-0 on Saturday. He has done his parent club Manchester United more favours than current No.1 David de Gea can hope to these days.

Henderson joined Forest on loan from Man Utd in the summer transfer window, with his path to first-team football at Old Trafford blocked by De Gea, who, for a long time, was one of the Premier League's best goalkeepers.

While the modern game looks to have evolved past De Gea's skill-set, Henderson is flourishing at Forest.

Henderson star-turn

Liverpool may have got off to their worst ever Premier League start under Jurgen Klopp this season, meanwhile, but they still travelled to City Ground on Saturday as overwhelming favourites against Steve Cooper's side.

Taiwo Awoniyi got winner in a 1-0 win for the hosts - a bit of personal poetic justice for him having never been given his chance at Anfield - but the star of the show was Henderson, who made seven saves, the best of them from a late Virgil Van Dijk header from a corner.

Henderson has now made a league-high 49 stops this season, while De Gea only has a 15th-best 26 to his name. Never the best of the ball-playing goalkeepers, even the Spaniard's previous strength is on the decline.

The three points for Forest lift them provisionally off the foot of the table, but more importantly, the result leaves Liverpool two places and three points behind fifth-placed Man Utd, who have played a game less.

The race for European places could hardly be fiercer this season, and another three points dropped for Liverpool could make all the difference for Man Utd.

"The conversation I had coming out of the Euros squad was 'you're coming back here to be the No.1,' Henderson previously recalled of his time at Old Trafford.

"I got COVID, came back, so I should have still been the No.1, but then unfortunately nobody followed through with what they had told me.

Henderson: 'I was fuming'

"To sit there and waste 12 months, it is criminal really, at my age, I was fuming."

Henderson is now showing Man Utd what they are missing in no uncertain terms. Fortunately for the Red Devils, his contract with them still has another two years to run.

They should get him back and install him as first choice at the soonest opportunity.