Manchester United goalkeeper coach Eric Steele is happy for Anders Lindegaard and David De Gea to be battling eachother for first-choice status.

The pair are neck-and-neck for the No1 spot at United.

When asked if there is a competitive relationship between the pair for a place in the team, Steele replied to manutd.com: "Of course. If Anders didn't [have that], I'd kick his backside because that is what we brought him in to do. We brought him in initially for the first four or five months to spend time with the master and he worked alongside Edwin [van der Sar]. He had a problem with his knee but at least he was there to see what was expected of him.

"It did him the world of good. Don't forget he's a late developer whose only had about 80-90 games but he's 28 and has still got a great career ahead of him.

"He knows this is his chance. Whoever wears the jersey, it doesn't matter if we're playing a friendly because there's no such thing as a friendly as these are high-profile games. I make the point to Anders not to under-estimate pre-season games in terms of forming an image and impression in the manager's mind. What they should all be thinking about is, when the first XI is decided to go to Goodison, you want to be in that."