Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana has been at the heart of the club’s Champions League campaign, the good and the bad.
If there was one player you expected to step up in the Champions League this season for Manchester United, it would have been the player who reached the final with Inter Milan last season.
Yet the pressure of playing for Manchester United is like no other club, and Andre Onana has found that out to his cost.
The Cameroon goalkeeper has endured his worst moments in a Manchester United shirt in the competition, and will have to work hard to win his doubters over.
Andre Onana contributes to Champions League exit
Andre Onana’s errors have directly, or partially, led to Manchester United’s elimination from the Champions League group stages.
He conceded a very soft opening goal in the away defeat to Bayern Munich in September, a game which ended in a 4-3 defeat.
The following game at home to Galatasaray his poor pass out led to Casemiro‘s red card, and United folding to a 3-2 loss.
The worst came away at the Turkish side, where United threw away another lead, conceding two goals from free-kicks so that a potential victory turned into a 3-3 draw.
There was some good. His dramatic penalty save in injury time against Copenhagen sealed Manchester United’s only win of the campaign, and provided an upturn in his domestic form.
Sadly that didn’t quite outweigh the bad – but there were other reasons for the exit too, from injuries to a bizarre Marcus Rashford red card in Copenhagen.
Andre Onana showed positive trait against Bayern Munich
Last night’s 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich was a fairly solid night from the Cameroon international goalkeeper, who could do nothing about Kingsley Coman’s goal, when United’s defence was cut apart for an easy strike.
Three minutes after conceding, in the 73rd minute, Andre Onana showed the reason Manchester United signed him, with a defence-splitting pass which set Diogo Dalot through on goal. The Portuguese defender took a good first touch, but was soon shut out by Manuel Neuer, the ultimate sweeper-keeper.
What this did show was the passing ability Onana has, which can with time become an asset to Manchester United.
His pinpoint pass drew acclaim from former star Owen Hargreaves for TNT Sports, who applauded his performance.
He said: “That’s what you want to see from Onana. He’s so good at passing long distance. His short passing’s been good, he’s made good decisions.”
This is why Manchester United signed Onana, to give the team a new dimension on the ball. And at times it really shows. Erik ten Hag could have stuck with David de Gea, but he wanted to roll the dice on Onana, who can add something different.
What he didn’t expect were the early errors. Nor did Onana. This is part of the settling-in at a club like United, and if he can’t handle it, he will be replaced. But there was a reason United opened their cheque book and paid handsomely for the goalkeeper.
His defence-splitting pass amounted to nothing against an alert Bayern defence, and would have been too little too late anyway, but it gave a timely reminder that there was a point to making the goalkeeping switch. Unfortunately, it has not been an instant success, but United needed to do something with David de Gea’s limitations.
Getting rid of De Gea was not necessarily the problem. This was a goalkeeper who conceded seven last season against this weekend’s opponents Liverpool from an Expected Goals tally of just 2.91 for the Merseysiders.
The debate instead will be over whether Andre Onana was the right choice of replacement, and that’s a valid discussion.
If judging short-term, yes it has been costly. It is up to Onana to ensure it is a productive deal long term. There are good traits he brings to the table, he just needs to cut out the errors. Eventually when United can field a regular back four in front of him, this may become a little more straightforward.
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