Van der Sar, discover the new jewel of the Manchester United goal

For many it is the most difficult position in English football to be the goalkeeper of Manchester United, one of its legends Gary Neville commented recently, at the beginning of this month. David de Gea has kept goal for over a decade, albeit with a few bumps along the way. He is the last active member of United's current squad to lift the title, as Phil Jones has yet to complete a full training session with Erik ten Hag, as he did in 2013 with Sir Alex Ferguson.

The Spaniard showed his best attribute with even more flashy saves in Sunday's FA Cup quarter-final win over Fulham, without which United might have been three goals down before the comeback. De Gea is expected to sign a new contract before this summer and his current contract will expire at the end of the season. But Ten Hag will be aware of the future.

Times have changed since Sir Alex signed De Gea and managers are looking at different attributes, namely ball control and composure. The Ten Hag system calls for a goalkeeper with both talents, especially the latter. Even the most ardent United fans will admit that Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson and Manchester City's Ederson are elite examples of the modern goalkeeper, having won games not just with their hands, but with their minds and feet as well.

De Gea had a real problem with his composure and distribution in the first leg of United's Europa League win over Real Betis and, had it not been for a few disappointments, the score could have been much closer than the 4 -1. The goalkeeper made only 17 of the 25 passes from him in the game, which for a goalkeeper is very worrying. One player who may be a potential replacement is Brentford star David Raya.

David Raya is the future.

Raya has not signed a new Bees contract with less than 15 months remaining on his current contract and has already turned down at least two contract offers from his employers. It will be interesting to see if Ten Hag opts to bring in a challenger for De Gea next year, should he stay as expected. That could determine whether or not Raya is a United player for next season, but either way, Raya has shown that he has the attributes Ten Hag admires and gets early signs of a potential future United number one.