Ben Foster has singled out former Manchester United player Dean Henderson after breaking down two key moments from Crystal Palace’s 2-1 defeat on Sunday.
Dean Henderson emerged from the Manchester United youth academy and had been playing second fiddle to David de Gea during his time at the Red Devils.
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Mason Mount in action during the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Manchester United at Selhurst Park in 2025 in London, England.
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Despite breaking into the United first team, Henderson was unable to firmly establish himself as the Red Devils No 1 and eventually left Old Trafford back in 2023.
Crystal Palace came in for the 28-year-old player and the Eagles signed Henderson from United for an initial transfer fee of £15m and a further £5m in add-ons.
Henderson would cross paths with his former side at Selhurst Park on Sunday afternoon, with Palace hosting United for their Premier League clash.
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Former Manchester United player Dean Henderson during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Crystal Palace at the Molineux in 2025 in Wolverhampton, England.
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Ben Foster thinks Dean Henderson should have done better in one Crystal Palace vs Man Utd moment
Crystal Palace were 1-0 up against Manchester United at half-time after Jean-Philippe Mateta beat Senne Lammens from the spot-kick on Sunday.
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However, United hit back in the second half after Bruno Fernandes floated the ball in from a free-kick and Joshua Zirkzee smashed home a strike from a tight angle.
Ben Foster reacted to Dean Henderson’s performance at the weekend and the pundit felt that the Palace shot-stopper was ‘too stiff’ and conceded too easily.
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Speaking on his podcast, he said: “Yeah, so he’s kind of just… Right, so I think sometimes goalkeepers, they get caught in this mode of, ‘I’m just going to stand there and hope it hits me, right?’
“Sometimes you’ve got to be a little bit more flexible than that, right?”
Foster added on his ‘Fozcast’ show: “And I know he’s going to whack it, but it’s from a real tight angle.
“So, I think sometimes you can go, ‘Well, I’m going to have to leave my arms here and be able to just a little bit of movement,’ but I think he’s just sort of stayed a little bit too stiff and a little turn, only a little turn, which makes his body a little bit smaller.
“But it can’t go in so easy [sic] as that.”
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Ben Foster now defends Dean Henderson for what happened in the Crystal Palace defeat to Man Utd
Following Joshua Zirkzee’s second-half equaliser for United inside the opening 10 minutes after the break, the Red Devils would take the lead nine minutes later.
Bruno Fernandes rolled the ball out with a short pass from a dangerous free-kick position and Mason Mount immediately struck the ball with a first-time shot.
Henderson was caught out by the free-kick after trying to sort out his wall and the cap-wearing Palace star was also trying to keep the sun out of his eyes.
Foster has insisted that Henderson should not be blamed for United’s winner and was baffled by what the Palace wall was doing during the free-kick.
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“Yeah, it was a super sloppy ball,” he said.
“And you can’t blame Dean Henderson for that, to be fair, because they’re all jumping sidewards. It’s a horrible thing.
“How would you defend that? How can you defend a free-kick where they knock it about, what, one and a half metres to the right and then bang it? How do you do that?
“Do the wall just have to move across or what?”
United are seventh in the Premier League table and are currently three points behind fourth-place Aston Villa after Sunday’s 2-1 result over Crystal Palace.