Manchester United star in BBC’s TOTW but Garth Crooks still doesn’t ‘rate’ him

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Manchester United duo Diogo Dalot and Andre Onana have been included in Garth Crooks’ BBC Team of the Week after that 0-0 draw with Premier League rivals Liverpool at Anfield.

As Erik ten Hag revisited the scene of March’s bloody mauling, former Manchester United forward Crooks probably didn’t expect to be drawing up a backline 50 per cent made up of Red Devils on Monday morning.

Andre Onana made eight saves and kept a clean sheet. The first goalkeeper to do so against Liverpool this season. What’s more, he did not concede a single goal despite facing a higher XG than during United’s last trip to Anfield, when David de Gea was beaten no fewer than seven times.

Manchester United goalkeeper silences his critics

“As far as goalkeepers are concerned, I don’t rate the Cameroon international very highly at all,” Crooks told the BBC Sport website before continuing in a far more positive vein.

“However, in a week when Manchester United went out of the Champions League, to go to Liverpool and keep a clean sheet, bearing in mind everything else that is going on at Old Trafford, was quite an achievement.

“It would have been churlish of me not to have included Onana in my team having had such a decent game at Anfield. Every save he made he should have saved. But his double-handed stop from Virgil van Dijk was particularly impressive.

“Let’s hope for Manchester United’s sake he doesn’t return to type next week.”

Crooks is not the first pundit to lambast the former Inter Milan ace since his £47 million move to England over the summer. But Onana is joint-top of the clean sheet table for a reason. His ‘expected goals saved’ tally, meanwhile, ranks behind only Luton Town’s Tomasz Kaminski.

Diogo Dalot sent off in baffling circumstances

Crooks was similarly taken by Diogo Dalot’s display in front of Onana at right-back, the Portugal international excellent defensively before the harshest red cards bestowed upon him by referee Michael Oliver.

“The man who I thought played with his heart and not his head was Diogo Dalot,” Crooks adds.

“The Portugal international had a fine game and was naturally frustrated when the referee didn’t give him the throw-in when the United defender was convinced he deserved it.  

“Why Michael Oliver took the player’s reaction so personally by sending him off, when a final warning was more than enough, said more about the referee than it did the player.”