Andre Onana has been a big improvement on David de Gea for Manchester United

Add as preferred source on Google

Andre Onana had a mixed first season, but his data shows he is already a big improvement for the side.

It is year since Manchester United legend David De Gea parted ways with the club and Andre Onana signed as his replacement for an initial £43.8 million.

The transfer brought a lot of excitement, but after high profile errors in Champions League matches – along with one crucial penalty save – Andre Onana sparked plenty of debate.

As the season went on Andre Onana showed demonstrative improvement and the decision to sign him as David de Gea’s replacement has become increasingly justified.

Andre Onana move leads to improvement in style

The incoming new goalkeeper is part of the all important blueprint that Erik ten Hag wishes to bring to the club. Tactically he is the new modern goalkeeping who is both an elite shot stopper and also a fantastic ball player.

This can be seen with the way Manchester United now have capabilities to build out from the back. At times the team has looked shaky with these moments, but it must also be stated that Onana is working with defenders who are also not in the mould that ten Hag wants. 

Looking at the data, Andre Onana is the much better distributor of the ball.

In every metric Onana far surpasses the output of David De Gea who struggled with playing with his feet. 

Not only is this data an improvement on David De Gea, but also some of Onana’s distribution data is the best in the league with the new goalkeeper having the third most passes attempted in the Premier League showing how involved he is with build up.

Andre Onana: World Class Shot Stopper

But some may contest that this ball playing ability is all well and good, but the role of a goalkeeper is to stop the opponents from scoring. Some critics believe that this is a weak point of Andre Onana’s game.

However, the data suggests differently and that Onana is once again an improvement on the output of David De Gea in his last season at the club.

In fact, once again, Onana is one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League. In the 2023/24 campaign he had the highest save % (74.9%) and was highly impressive in stopping goals, with the fifth best xG prevented per 90 this season. 

We can therefore see that, despite a bad start, this was a huge improvement to the team.

Onana is the goalkeeper of the future for the side, as he brings the tactical profile as well as the goalkeeping quality to the team. 

After establishing confidence in the second half of the season, Onana should have a brilliant 2024/25 campaign ahead.