Manchester United’s Players' Player and Fans' Player in 2014, David De Gea, has said he is shocked that boss Louis van Gaal never gave Javier Hernandez a better chance to prove himself.

"In my team he would always play," says De Gea on Hernandez

The Spanish goalkeeper, who nearly left the club himself for Real Madrid on deadline day, only for the deal to fall through in dramatic circumstances, has been a starter ever since and is yet again proving his importance to the team with some standout performances.

De Gea says it is not up to him to decide whether Hernandez should have stayed, having moved to Bayer Leverkusen this summer. “These are decisions for the coach,” he said. 

The goalkeeper told ESPN that “in my team he would always play. He was an undisputed starter before and player of the year at United.”

"He can get you 20, 30 goals a season. I would like a lot to play with him again, hopefully it can happen."

With United somewhat struggling for goals this season, having scored just three in their last seven games, Hernandez could have been useful for the Reds.

Was Louis van Gaal right to sell Hernandez?

While Manchester United were able to replace Hernandez with the young Anthony Martial, who now has five goals for United, goal scoring has not been easy for the team as a whole.

Captain Wayne Rooney is struggling in a poor run of form all season, scoring seven goals in 18 games, with three of those goals coming in one game against a lacklustre Club Brugge.

Hernandez, on the other hand, who scored multiple important goals under Sir Alex Ferguson, has now scored eight goals in his last six games in all competitions. Due to this De Gea believes that his ex-teammate is reaping the rewards of playing football consistently for Bayer Leverkusen.

De Gea said, "He always does something, always scores goals when he gets playing time. He is showing now he is among best goal scorers in the world."

Regardless of how trivial his comments are it will be interesting to see how boss Louis van Gaal responds to what appears to be a question of his decision making by David De Gea.