LvG confident of De Gea stay

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal believes goalkeeper David de Gea may yet play for the club again despite being dropped for their opening-day Premier League victory over Tottenham Hotspur.

Van Gaal instead put his faith in Sergio Romero, who joined United on a free transfer in the close season after his release from Sampdoria, and he made a number of vital saves on his debut as United kept a clean sheet.

However, Van Gaal dismissed suggestions that De Gea had played his last game for the club and revealed that the 24-year-old had agreed that he was not in the right frame of mind to feature against Spurs.

"Can he (De Gea) play for United again? Of course," said the Dutchman. "The position of the goalkeeper is a position especially that you needed the highest concentration and the highest focus during 90 minutes.

"And when you are in circumstances where David de Gea is, it is difficult to cope with that. And we have seen that.

Van Gaal hinted that he may not pick De Gea until the transfer window closes at the start of next month and praised Argentina international Romero for his impressive debut performance.

"Of course when the situation has been cleared after September 1 we will look again," Van Gaal said. "But I'm happy Sergio did well.

It was the adventurous display of Italian full-back Matteo Darmian that drew the most praise from Van Gaal.

"When I have to pick up one player, I think Matteo was the best player," he said. "Because he played in ball possession very good with not too many ball failure passes."