Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper unintentionally piled more pressure on David de Gea as he praised Dean Henderson for his vital display against West Ham.
The on-loan Manchester United goalkeeper played a huge hand in Forest picking up a first win on their return to the Premier League. Henderson saved a penalty as the newly-promoted side beat the Hammers 1-0 in their first home game of the season.
Having seen Taiwo Awoniyi give them the lead in the first half, the 25-year-old was called into action when Scott McKenna handled Tomas Soucek’s shot, giving Declan Rice the chance to bring the visitors level from the spot. Henderson though produced the save low down to his right to keep Forest’s lead intact, with the hosts going on to claim their first three points of the season.
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The England international’s intervention couldn’t have been more timely, with his display coming less than 24 hours after De Gea’s horror show in United’s 4-0 defeat to Brentford. And, though he likely didn’t mean to, Cooper did nothing to lift the pressure on United’s number one as he praised Henderson in his post-match comments.
"At times, you need goalkeepers to have big moments," Cooper told the BBC. "The obvious thing was the penalty save but his distribution was good and his decision-making was good.
"We are a team that want to play with the ball but we had to play with a bit of caution in the second half and Dean handled that really well and he was good with his positioning. He did well, as he did well last week. Now he has to do well next week."
Cooper’s comments on Henderson’s distribution will come as a major warning to De Gea following his display at Brentford. The Spaniard’s ability with the ball at his feet came under close scrutiny after directly contributed to the hosts’ second goal on Saturday with one of his goal-kicks.
United soon abandoned their ploy to play out from the back. The move will no doubt have rankled with Erik ten Hag, who has spent the summer trying to improve De Gea’s distribution following Henderson’s departure on loan.
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