David de Gea: I hope we’re much better; It was embarrassing at times

is proud of the individual trophies he has won at

, but he hopes never to win another one because it would mean that the Red Devils have failed again.

During his time at

Old Trafford

, Jose Mourinho got angrier and angrier when United goalkeeper David de Gea won the Player of the Year award. In the Portuguese's eyes, this meant that his stars on the field had failed.

Last season, the Spain player may have felt cheated that he didn't win another of these awards. Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored 24 goals in all competitions, beat him for the honor.

In the 2021-22 Premier League season, De Gea made 128 saves, which was the third most in the English top flight. This helped United finish in sixth place and get their fewest points in the league's history.

United's new manager

Erik ten Hag

, has gotten off to a good start. The Red Devils have won three pre-season games, including a 4-0 win over Liverpool in Bangkok. On Saturday, they play

Aston Villa

as the season starts. In recent years, De Gea has been a vocal critic of United's decline, and he has said he doesn't want to win individual awards anymore because that would mean more failure.

"It's good for me, of course, because I love to win trophies, but I agree with what [Mourinho] said," said De Gea, who has won the Player of the Year award at United four times.

"It needs to be a striker or a midfielder to win that award, but this season it will be another player or a striker." Ten Hag has started the enormous job of rebuilding the Premier League team by bringing in Tyrell Malacia, Christian Eriksen, and Lisandro Martinez. Ten Hag has been praised by Jadon Sancho, Luke Shaw, and Bruno Fernandes, and David de Gea hopes the Dutchman will help United bounce back from a terrible season last year.

"It was a hard season for everyone, including me, and sometimes it was embarrassing," De Gea was quoted as saying in several British newspapers. "Some games were a terrible mess. So, we should learn from last season that we can't let something like that happen again because it was hard and painful not to be able to win games and lose by 4-0 or 5-0 scores. It was not right.

"Sometimes, you have to hurt to move forward and keep going." Ten Hag has made it clear in United's early pre-season games that he wants his team to play possession-based football and build from the back.

at

Manchester City

showed that a goalkeeper needs to be confident with the ball at his feet for this to work. De Gea, who is 31 years old, believes in his skills. "I think I've already shown it," he said. "You could see it if you watched my games with the national team or when we first started playing with Sir Alex Ferguson.

"No one needs to see it. I have played for a long time. I'll do what I can. I will keep quiet and show the team that I'm calm. I'm also going to play out from the back. Of course, when you play for a different manager, you have to change the way you play, but I played this way for many years on the national team, so I'm used to it."

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