United’s 1968 European Cup winning No.1 had to tough it out in an era when there was no protection for keepers.
The Reds’ 20-year-old new boy, who was bought in the summer as a replacement for Edwin Van der Sar, was subjected to a physical assault by West Brom on Sunday as they tested the £18.3m recruit.
De Gea was battered by Albion and also allowed a weak shot to go under his body for the Baggies’ equaliser.
That blunder followed on from his mess up in the Community Shield that saw Edin Dzeko score City’s second at Wembley.
It has all added up to a traumatic opening for the former Atletico Madrid keeper and he has faced a mountain of criticism.
But Stepney believes Spain’s Under-21 keeper will come through the ordeal.
“It has been a tough eye opener for him but United have won both the matches so there is no great damage,” Stepney told M.E.N Sport.
“If you are going to make mistakes it is better to make them now when the Reds are winning and there’s plenty of time ahead.
“He can learn from it all early.
“I’d rather he went through it now than half-way through the season.
“He could have started well and think it’s all easy and plain-sailing. Then when an error hits, the wheels can come off.
“Best to get it out of the way now and learn from it.
“He seems a calm and collected young man and will cope with it.”
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson likened De Gea’s physical treatment at the Hawthorns to that dished out by Lee Chapman and John Fashanu when Peter Schmeichel faced Leeds and Wimbledon early in his first season at the Reds.
“The physical nature of the Premier League will have been a shock to him.
“No matter how many times he will have watched English games on the TV you don’t get the real picture until you experience it,” said Stepney.
“It will have been a shock to the system.
“In La Liga he will have been used to protection from
referees because you are not even allowed to touch the goalkeeper in Spain.
“In England officials allow a certain amount of contact to go on.
“But David will have to get used to it. It is all part of his education.
“I had my education as a young goalkeeper playing in the Third and Fourth Division with Millwall!
“Believe me that was hard.
“You had to learn quickly then.
“During the course of my career I had all my teeth knocked out because of the physical nature of the game then.
“But you cannot afford to let it stop you going up for balls in future.
“Once it is in the back of your mind that you might get clattered you are not completely focused on the job in hand. It is a mental thing.
“You have to forget that elbows and bodies will come flying in. He has to be commanding.
“If he sees a ball coming in then he has to say that is mine and blank out anything else.
“He cannot become sidetracked by thinking about the man. He might not be a powerful looking young man but it is all about timing.
“If you can get there first then you can do the clobbering!”
Stepney was goalkeeping coach at City once his playing days had finished but never had to ease a young foreign No.1 into the English game at Maine Road.
“Eike Immel came over from Germany when I was at City but he was in his mid-30s so you cannot really change an older player,” he said.
“But if I’d had a situation like David de Gea’s I wouldn’t have gone over the top in training and get other players to batter into him on crosses.
“I think it is more of a mental thing he has to get over.
“The physical side he will get used to and deal with.
“I am sure of that. He has made a couple of basic errors but he will learn from those as well.
“Eric Steele is a very good experienced goalkeeping coach and I don’t think he will allow David to dwell on it when they work together at Carrington over the next few days.
“He’ll have it sorted. I don’t see it developing into a major problem.”
All eyes will be on whether manager Sir Alex Ferguson now sticks with his young import against Spurs on Monday night at Old Trafford or take him out of the firing line and introduce Danish international Anders Lindegaard.
“David has only been at United five minutes and I wouldn’t expect the manager would be thinking about giving him a break yet,” said Stepney.
“Doing something like that could damage David’s confidence even more.
“I am sure he will have him down for the role against Tottenham on Monday night.”
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David De Garbage
Hope so Alex as the rest of the squad is the best in league and we still find room for our kids
Al lad i respect your take on it mate,But its like groundhog day pal,you said this about Foster Taibi etc etc.......
The nited shirt wearing guy in the chippy said that all of niteds players will come out good,so thats ok then nited dont need to be jealous of City anymore.
The club seem to be rolling out all the old guard to give him support. Lets hope they dont all look silly by the end of the season.
De Gea will come good, afterall he is he best young keeper in the world.
Just wait for sad bitters like little ol' NOT Manc and bitter plastic to appear.
Probably the worst person to comment on your new flapper.
All my family are reds and during the 70's they and all the other reds i knew refered to this plum as 'Dracula'(he was scared of crosses).It beyond belief that this guy can give any one advice on goalkeeping,himself being very bad at it.
And before all you idiots start saying he won a European cup winners medal,remember so did Jerzy Dudek! And before any 1 comments on Englands best,he wasn't at fault for any of the goals in the friendly (1st-Dzeko,2nd-brilliant team goal,3rd-Kompany).
If De Gea's confidence is shot due to the fact he cant handle the pressure and the contact of the Premier League,he's gonna concede a shedload of goals.
Ha remember you 'clanger' Alex against City in the League Cup semi Final 2nd leg at Old Trafford in Dec 1969?
YES when City were awarded an indirect free kick on the edge of the area,Franny Lee stepped up and unleashed a tremendous blockbusting shot where a keeper with a football brain would have just let it fly past him and the goal would have been disallowed but he tried to save it and he parried the shot because it was too hot to handle.The ball went straight to Mike Summerbee and the 'Buzzer' scored the winning goal ---PRICELESS ----
At the time I'm sure I heard Stepney saying "Dohhhhh" to make matters worse for the 'rags' on that great night for City Wilf Mcguiness was seen selling lollipops around the pitch before the game kicked off --FACT!
I like the faith and common sense dispalyed here. Just on another topic I was a fan of "The Special One' after his antics in Spain last night the man is not wanted at United. Pep Guardiola handled the fracas with dignity, maturity and wisdom.
Despite two unfortunate errors, I'm sure that David will come good. In fact, I think silly articles like this only add pressure on the lad and I would rather we forget what happened at Wembley and the Hawthorns and look forward instead. With his height and reflexes, it is obvious we have acquired a first rate keeper who will be a first line of defnence for the next 10 years+.
Give the young boy a chance. He's come up through the utd academy, as did Rooney, Young, Ferdinand, Berbatov, Jones, Nani etc and he'll come good.
Correction - he's the 2nd most expensive keeper in history at £18million+ and goes down like a sack of spuds.
I think this is the translated version of 'We have just spent 25% of the Ronaldo money on a clown to rival Massimo Taibi and Jim Leighton and we need to try and talk him up with a ridiculously optimistic 'Don't Panic' story'.
Two games, two complete and utter bloomers so far. Like Bruce Grobbelaar without the talent. He will cost United at least 7 points this season.
What else is he going to say !!???
Looks like a rabbit in the headlights to me !!
Keep him in !!!
Maybe sometime in the future, but can Yoonited afford to wait that long while all the time De Gea is letting in goals like a cullender! They could have had Shay Given for less than a quarter of that £20.000,000 they paid, a proven international and one of the best in Britain, maybe europe. He would have outlasted Fergie as well!
What a silly assumption if this is what Alex Stepney has said. De Gea has only played a couple of games (and made a hash of things in both, as the press have pointed out). So how can Stepney "assume" that the guy will turn out to be a United great? Just because they've paid an extraordinary figure for a fairly unknown goalkeeper doesn't mean he will come up trumps. Sounds like wishfull thinking from City's favourite ex-keeper Mr.Stepney (we still remember the indirect free kick he saved, which ultimately sent us to Wembley in the old League Cup). Happy days.
A great deal of time has been spent by United scouts, coaches and SAF himself, on scrutinising all the best candidates to take over from EVDS. Having ticked all the right boxes on his c.v., David De Gea is the player that has come out on top to be chosen to wear our number one shirt. I fully concur with their choice.
I agree that our young Spanish goalkeeper has made a rather inauspicious start to his career with us, but I echo the sentiments of the excellent summation that Alex Stepney has described.
I am confident that he will overcome this shaky beginning with us, and go on to be our first choice between the sticks for well over the next decade. I know he has his doubters, and I respect that everyone has their own views, but will those same doubters be brave enough to admit that they were wrong about him when the season ends? Time will tell!
For those of us fortunate to be at the Theatre Of Dreams next Monday, I am sure that I don’t need to remind you to get behind our team one hundred percent during the game! This particular forum could be quite interesting after the match?
United ‘til I die!
Dodgeee keeper ............
leave the keeper alone he be on top very soon