Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea insists that the team has fallen short during the 2018-19 campaign by failing to challenge for the Premier League.
The Red Devils are currently sitting in sixth place in the English top flight, three points behind Chelsea in fourth and a whopping 16 behind league leaders Liverpool.
A disastrous first half of the season under former boss Jose Mourinho left the team with only the FA Cup and Champions League still to play for, both of which seemed like unrealistic goals to target when the Portuguese departed in December.
However, a month and a half later, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer seems to have sparked a revival, winning all eight of his games in caretaker charge of the team to reignite their hopes of silverware this term.
De Gea hasn’t forgotten United’s troubles at the back end of 2018 though and he is still not satisfied by their position at this stage of the season, despite a recent resurgence.
“It’s clearly a great run of results, but we are still outside of the Champions League places and we’re very far from winning the Premier League,” the Spaniard told Sky Sports.
“We’re happy with the wins, but we aren’t satisfied with the overall situation.
“This is a club that should be fighting for the title, but we are gaining in confidence, and we are going to try to achieve as much as possible from the rest of the season; winning games, hopefully getting into the Champions League places and doing well in the competition.
“It’s impossible to win the Premier League. It was what we wanted before we began the season, this is a club that needs to win trophies.
“We want to get back into the Champions League places, which will be a difficult objective, but we have managed to reduce the points deficit quite a bit. We will fight until the end and if we stay in the form that we’re in, we will win matches.”
Next up for the Red Devils is a home clash in the Premier League against Burnley on Tuesday, which they head into fresh from a superb 3-1 FA Cup win against Arsenal on Friday.
#MUFC ?? ?
Into the hat for the fifth round of the #EmiratesFACup! ? pic.twitter.com/9QL2VDaTk5
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) January 25, 2019
Solskajer has galvanised a squad completely devoid of confidence against all the odds and suddenly United look like a major force to be reckoned with once again.
Unfortunately, the Norwegian still faces an uphill battle to salvage success from the ruins of the 2018-19 campaign and De Gea is right to demand more from himself and his teammates, but at least United are finally heading back in the right direction, with the future looking bright at Old Trafford once again.
