Dean Henderson's recent mistakes could be proof that Manchester United should have persisted with David de Gea 

The last seven days have dealt Manchester United a massive reality check as to where they stand among Europe’s elite clubs. While the Red Devils are on course to finish second in the Premier League and also favourites to win the Europa League, all is not rosy at Old Trafford.

Back-to-back defeats to Leicester City and Liverpool highlighted some concerns within the team that need to be addressed ahead of next season. One of those is squad depth and another, to a lesser extent, is the recent performances of Dean Henderson.

The 24-year-old seems to have usurped David de Gea as Manchester United’s first-choice goalkeeper. However, his performances in the last two games have raised some serious questions about his skills.

🗣"He looks so small in the goal."Roy Keane is not convinced by Dean Henderson as Manchester United's number 1 goalkeeper pic.twitter.com/f2SnGKDsvh

— Football Daily (@footballdaily) May 13, 2021

Dean Henderson’s recent mistakes in focus

It is well known that de Gea has not been at his best in the last couple of years. That was the reason Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was desperate to have Henderson in the squad to serve as backup to the Spaniard.

The competition so far has been good for both keepers. Despite starting the season playing second fiddle to de Gea, Dean Henderson is now Solskjaer’s preferred number one in Premier League matches.

The England international has been in goal consistently, relegating de Gea to Europa League matches. In all fairness, Henderson has done great for himself in this period, but his recent mistakes cannot be ignored. Against Leicester, he was beaten easily by a sweeping shot from Luke Thomas.

Dean Henderson was again culpable for three of the goals Liverpool scored in their 4-2 win at Old Trafford last week. His positioning for Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah’s goals were terrible while a header from Roberto Firmino also beat him at his near post.

This genuinely might be the worst positioning from a goalkeeper that I’ve ever seen. pic.twitter.com/ep0gpNS0D2

— Ste Hoare (@stehoare) May 13, 2021

Solskjaer has a tough call to make for the Europa League

Dean Henderson has a lot of potential and could be Manchester United’s first-choice goalkeeper for many years. However, his recent mistakes indicated that it may have been too early to start him ahead of de Gea.

Now, Solskjaer faces a difficult decision as the Europa League final against Villarreal looms. The Norwegian will either have to stick with an experienced keeper in David de Gea or pick an inexperienced but confident Dean Henderson.

"I think there’s loads of difficult calls to make, the whole squad has contributed so much," Solskjaer told the Manchester Evening News. "It’s probably a different scenario with the keepers than it’s normally been because they’ve shared I don’t know how many games, close to 60."

"Both of them are in and around the 30 mark and both have done really well so it will be a difficult call, of course. But I will have to make two or three other difficult calls as well," Solskjaer added.