There is lots of moaning, annoyance and general frustration about Manchester United’s draw with Brentford. We get it.
It was unforgivable for Manchester United to give up a barely-earned lead taken in the 96th minute, and fail to emerge with all three points. But this is the kind of error-prone performance we have seen from Erik ten Hag‘s Red Devils all season.
Let’s for one moment pay tribute to the performance of one player who did genuinely perform really well for 90 minutes, Andre Onana.
It’s not been an easy season for the goalkeeper, but to his credit, he has been constantly improving and played very well against Brentford. He deserves his praise.
Andre Onana helps Manchester United escape with a point
Andre Onana told MUTV in an interview after the game he was ‘sad’ by the way Manchester United failed to hold onto the lead. Us too.
Onana could do little about Brentford’s close range equaliser, but he did keep Manchester United in the game up until that point.
The Cameroon stopper made five saves, looked to be on course for a clean sheet, until Brentford’s 99th minute goal.
His performance was discussed favourably on MUTV after the draw, with the channel’s analysts all agreeing on his contribution
Ben Thornley told MUTV: “Andre Onana is one of very few players to deserve credit. He made a couple of very good saves, and the one-handed save from behind a group of players was exceptional.”
Wes Brown added: “Brentford hit the woodwork but he made some really good saves, we needed him.”
Onana ‘silenced his critics’
Former Manchester United defender Gary Pallister added: “[It was] good goalkeeping from Onana, he made some good saves.
“He had a difficult start to his career, the focus and spotlight was on Onana, but over the past few months he’s got stronger and stronger, he’s pulling off some important saves.
“He’s silenced quite a few critics over the past few months and he was man of the match tonight.”
Onana has really kicked on since returning from the African Cup of Nations, and his performance at Brentford further underlined his progress.
Last season at Brentford, David de Gea put in a disaster of a performance in a 4-0 defeat. The overall performance was only marginally better this time, but the goalkeeping was a vast improvement.
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