Tuesday 8 September 2015 17:06, UK
Keylor Navas deserves a chance at Real Madrid this season after David de Gea farce, according to Sky Sports' Spanish football expert Terry Gibson.
Navas joined Real from Levante last summer, although the 28-year-old spent the majority of the campaign warming the substitutes' bench behind first-choice Iker Casillas.
But following Casillas's departure from the Santiago Bernabeu at the end of last season, Navas has been made Madrid's No. 1, despite the club's attempts to sign Manchester United 'keeper David de Gea during the summer.
However, while sympathising with Navas about the way his employers handled their long-running pursuit of De Gea, Gibson still doubts whether the Costa Rica international is the right 'keeper for Real in the long term.
Casillas would be a better option for Real and yet they let him go and replaced him with Navas.
"I actually feel sorry for the two players involved," Gibson told the La Liga podcast. "De Gea obviously wanted to go to Real and Navas obviously did not know anything about the United deal until the last minute of the transfer window. He had a really good game against Real Betis and saved a penalty.
"We knew he was a good goalkeeper, he had a really good World Cup and we know his strengths: he is a good shot stopper, but is he the best option for Real? Probably not, but he would argue that he deserves to be given a chance.
"And until he gets that chance on a regular basis, it is hard for us to sit here and say: 'Yes' or 'No', when we want to see him have a full season with Champions League football."
Gibson also thinks it would have been a huge risk had United signed Navas in August as part of the deal to take De Gea to the Spanish capital.
"I think United would have been taking a chance and a gamble signing him just because he would have been part of the deal," Gibson said. "They would have been taking a very good goalkeeper, but how much homework had they done on him?"
And the former United forward has also questioned whether Navas is good enough with the ball at his feet to succeed at Madrid, saying the La Liga club would have been better off keeping hold of Casillas.
"Goalkeepers have to be good at everything (at the world's biggest clubs): shot stopping, dealing with crosses, communication with the defence and now, they have to be good footballers, and on that one Navas clearly is not," he said.
"He is a good shot stopper, OK dealing with crosses and I do not know about his communication skills, but he is not one who you can pass the ball back to and expect him to find a player he wants to with the next pass.
"And that is a huge part of being a goalkeeper now. Hopefully he has a really good season with Real, he excels in the Champions League and then at the end of the season we can say he has proved he is worthy of being Madrid's first-choice 'keeper.
"But at the moment, I would still say that Iker Casillas would be a better option for Real and yet they let him go and replaced him with Navas. And so it remains to be seen yet."
