Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag reportedly wants to sign Borussia Monchengladbach goalkeeper Yann Sommer to give David De Gea some competition between the sticks.
De Gea's role has come under intense scrutiny after his side's humiliating four-goal loss at Brentford on Saturday evening. Indeed, Ten Hag's post-match analysis ripped into the "naive" actions of the goalkeeper in the embarrassing defeat.
De Gea made errors for each of Brighton's goals the previous week. He failed to cut out a ball across the face of goal for the opener before palming the second into the path of Pascal Gross for a tap-in. But those errors were not on the scale of his showing at Brentford.
The first goal that kick-started United's collapse was him failing to stop a simple shot from outside the box, which could and should have been stopped with both hands. Inexplicably, it went through his gloves and into the net – prompting the collapse.
Minutes later, his pass to Christian Eriksen inside the area was swiftly seized upon by the incoming Brentford forward, resulting in the Bees doubling their lead. De Gea was weak, flapping and ineffective for Brentford's third from a corner.
A report from Swiss outlet Blick has outlined United's interest in landing Switzerland's international goalkeeper Sommer from Gladbach. The 33-year-old's contract at the club expires next summer and he has been linked with a move away as the Bundesliga side look to secure a transfer fee.
It outlines how Sommer would strongly fancy himself to oust De Gea as United's first-choice goalkeeper due to the Spaniard's long-term decline in form and his limitations of featuring in Ten Hag's system, which includes playing out from the back and a willingness to come off his line.
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In an interview published in Marca, Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga discussed how he and De Gea had fallen from prominence in the Spanish international setup under Luis Enrique. The Blues deputy goalkeeper revealed how De Gea had a "private chat" with the Spain boss – seeing him frozen out of the squad with Athletic Bilbao's Unai Simon, David Raya of Brentford and Brighton's Robert Sanchez all preferred.
That approach appears to be the one now finally adapted by Ten Hag, who has performed a U-turn on his initial belief that the Spaniard would be his goalkeeper. The potential arrival of Sommer would act as immediate competition for that starting spot as United's first choice, following Dean Henderson's loan move to Nottingham Forest.
Sommer himself is relaxed and recently told Bild about his future: "I am currently having very open talks with the club. I admit that it took me a lot of time to process the past season and to think about everything that happened. Everyone was dissatisfied, there was a lot of criticism. And now, of course, there a lot of rumours."
