MANCHESTER UNITED legend Paul Scholes has hit out at David De Gea after his penalty heartache.
The Spaniard conceded 11 of Villarreal’s spot-kicks before missing his own as United failed to end their four-year wait for silverware.
De Gea, 30, has now failed to save a penalty for five years with his last coming against Everton in the 2016 FA Cup final.
That record extends to 38 penalties without making a save.
And Scholes was critical of De Gea at the full-time whistle, claiming he never looked confident between the sticks.
Speaking to BT Sport, the former midfielder said: “Once you get to penalties, anything can happen, we know that.
“I always feel a little bit worried, being an Englishman, that we’re going to be on the wrong side of it.
“But I have to say, David – we spoke about his record before it – he didn’t look like saving a penalty.
“They got a little bit lucky with Luke Shaw’s penalty as well.
“It’s a difficult night to take, but give Villarreal credit.”
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The Spaniard has now failed to save his last 38 penalties
His thoughts were echoed by Chris Sutton who cricitised Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for not bringing on Dean Henderson for the shootout.
The Norwegian introduced Juan Mata and Alex Telles to take penalties but Sutton believes Henderson, who saved a kick against Gabriel Jesus last season, would have been a better option.
Writing in his Daily Mail column, Sutton said: “Ole Gunnar Solskjaer missed a trick here. Dean Henderson’s record of saving penalties is ridiculously better than David De Gea’s.
“Louis van Gaal replaced Holland goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen with Tim Krul in the 120th minute of their 2014 World Cup quarter final against Costa Rica. That worked out pretty well.
“Solskjaer could have copied Van Gaal. It might have hurt De Gea’s feelings but it would have been for the good of the team
“Solskjaer will no doubt spend some time wondering whether he could have played this differently, and what might have happened if he had.”
Solskjaer did admit after the contest he considered switching his goalkeepers but opted against the decision.
He said: “You go through every scenario, of course, and it had crossed my mind in the build-up to the game [de Gea’s penalty record] but we were confident in David and prepared.
“Anything can happen in a penalty shootout. I stuck with the ‘keeper who played all of the game.
“I’ve got to say the penalty shootout was high quality, but we didn’t do enough in the 120 minutes to score more goals and that’s the disappointing bit.”
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