There's no reason for him to be as big as he is. If he leaned out he may be faster and react quicker. Right now he's too lumbering. Any shots to the corners will most likely go in
24
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 16
- Clean sheets
- 6
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 0
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) look forward to a new life under Ruben Amorim. What system will we be playing? What players will impress? and how will it all go? We also say goodbye to Ruud Van Nistelrooy and review United's 3-0 win at home against Leicester City.
How many times has Onana pulled off a save and you think “wow, he had no business saving that”?
I can’t think of any.
We had that time and again with De Gea, even in his latter years at the club. That’s the difference between an average keeper and a great keeper.
De Gea was the difference so many times in games we should have lost or drawn. He quantifiably earned us points we wouldn’t have got otherwise.
I don’t see that with Onana at all. A club like Manchester United cannot have an average goalkeeper. The whole foundation of a successful, winning team is built on having a great goalkeeper.
I can’t think of any.
We had that time and again with De Gea, even in his latter years at the club. That’s the difference between an average keeper and a great keeper.
De Gea was the difference so many times in games we should have lost or drawn. He quantifiably earned us points we wouldn’t have got otherwise.
I don’t see that with Onana at all. A club like Manchester United cannot have an average goalkeeper. The whole foundation of a successful, winning team is built on having a great goalkeeper.
Some of you people are nuts. The Salah goal was pretty much an impossible situation. Even if he overcommitted to the left side Salah could just pass it into the other corner whilst Onana's momentum was taking him one way.
Never.
All these percentage stats showing he made the most saves are pointless catches down the middle or exaggerated dives for shots down the middle. Someone puts the ball either side of him and it’s a goal 9 times out of 10.
Yup - agreed. I also think one of the reasons we faced such a high number of shots last season was because teams were instructed to have a go in case he makes a howler.
I can’t get my head round anyone defending him. Hes been absolutely shite since we signed him. Talks a big game but that’s it.
Even if you disregard the goals Liverpool scored (and I don't think he did anything massively egregious for them, though he could have done better), it was still a match in which he came out and flapped for a cross and passed it out straight to a Liverpool player. Exactly the types of mistakes De Gea was crucified for.
Always a mistake or two from being called the worst keeper in the league, as if he's not the same guy who had one of the best save percentages in the league last year when our defense was open like a sieve.
When you're biased you always come out looking like right idiots
When you're biased you always come out looking like right idiots
Always a mistake or two from being called the worst keeper in the league, as if he's not the same guy who had one of the best save percentages in the league last year when our defense was open like a sieve.
When you're biased you always come out looking like right idiots
It's almost like he has very little credit in the bank because he was almost single handidly responsible for knocking us out of the champions league through a series of high profile errors.
Always a mistake or two from being called the worst keeper in the league, as if he's not the same guy who had one of the best save percentages in the league last year when our defense was open like a sieve.
When you're biased you always come out looking like right idiots
I think there's a big chunk of the fanbase who have made their mind up and decided that for a keeper, it's still the shot-stopping abilities that matter the most, and no matter how much evidence there is in favour of this not being true at all, they can't be convinced about it.
I don't see anyone claiming Onana is a world class, or even good shot-stopper. I myself have defended him for a year now, and yet always admitted that part of his game is average at best, but it's still no use explaining how he helps the team in possession, and in the build up. People just don't want to see it, despite 9 out of 10 successful managers at the highest level these days preferring a technical keeper with average shot-stopping over a world class shot-stopper who cannot use their feet and cannot pass.
As if it's level headed or sensible to judge a United keeper, or a player for that matter by his first few months at the club.
Yeah I know, it's just incredibly pathetic when the bias and hypocrisy comes out full frontal at once.
To be fair he should of got across quicker before the ball was struck
He left an open goal, but yer still likely Salah scores
And I don't even blame people who want a world class shot-stopper who's also excellent with their feet...obviously we would feel more secure if we had Alisson or prime Neuer between the sticks...but it's so incredibly difficult to find someone like that, and in all likelihood, they'd be worse than Onana technically anyway. Worse passers too.
However, the posters who would take De Gea back over Onana, yeah, they are totally uninformed and not willing to educate themselves on why no sane manager would even contemplate doing that.
He's a shit goalkeeper who occasionally makes a great save.
He is not a great goalkeeper who occasionally makes a shit mistake.
We have the former. We need the latter.
He is not a great goalkeeper who occasionally makes a shit mistake.
We have the former. We need the latter.
But he's not good enough with his feet to make up for glaring deficiencies with his gloves. So much talk about how he helps the build up, but when it's pointed out that we're not scoring any more freely than we did, the same people point to a dysfunctional midfield. In certain people's eyes Onana can't be blamed for anything because his supposed ball playing abilities make up for his housekeeping deficiencies, but we're not able to unlock those because of the rest of our team.
He always reminds me of this.
What exactly do you think a keep helping with the build up looks like?
I'd say he's more than good enough to make up for his shot-stopping deficiences in a system that wants to control their games, and have a lot of possession. Right now, we are going direct at the very first opportunity. That kind of game plan has nothing to do with Onana's strengths. We're not even looking to keep the ball for a bit, and every player is just hoofing the ball upwards, including Onana. It's obviously a tactical instruction, and a bad one.
Accurate short passing and being comfortable playing riskier passes into midfield with higher upside (eg bypassing the press). Having the vision to play those passes. The ability to play long when needed. He's demonstrated some of that sporadically but nowhere near enough to offset how bad he is at actual goalkeeping.
Maybe @Rojofiam phrased it better - he's not good enough with his feet to outweigh his inability with gloves for us. Frankly, I don't think he's good enough for a top team with his gloves regardless of how good he is with his feet.
I made Chat GPT make an analysis of short and long range passes, and here are the results - not sure what
The issue is that it's a recurring theme with Onana - getting beaten at the near post. As Foster pointed out, you cover your near post, and if the striker is able to curl it into the corner, good for him, but that is a helluva lot more difficult than shooting straight low into the near corner as Salah could do.
The issue is that it's a recurring theme with Onana - getting beaten at the near post. As Foster pointed out, you cover your near post, and if the striker is able to curl it into the corner, good for him, but that is a helluva lot more difficult than shooting straight low into the near corner as Salah could do.
Yep, he is built like a footballer from the 1990s. So unathletic it's ridiculous in this day and age.
Always a mistake or two from being called the worst keeper in the league, as if he's not the same guy who had one of the best save percentages in the league last year when our defense was open like a sieve.
When you're biased you always come out looking like right idiots
One of the best save percentages because we conceded 20-30 shots every match, most of which were hopeful at best. Considering save percentage etc are accumulated that would account as to why his stats were better than his actual performances.
I think he's an average at best shot stopper, decent at commanding his box, good at sweeping, great composure and great at short passing but only decent on long range passing. If we were a more dominant team, he might be good enough, but currently he's struggling because the players in front of him invite too much pressure and too many shots, many of which he should save even though they are not flat out mistakes. That being said, I would expect Alisson to save both the second and the third attempt.
That's almost certainly going to change, though. Either ETH adapts, or we hire a new manager that will play to his (and everyone else's) strengths. The current system is basically doing the opposite of masking its players' weakness, and unfortunately this even goes for the goalkeeper.
The first job of a goalkeeper is stopping shots from going in his goal. If you’re not stellar at that you shouldn’t be between the sticks at Manchester United. It’s as simple as that.
A good ball playing goalkeeper is a luxury for teams who are well oiled and accomplished elsewhere on the pitch to take advantage of such a player. We are anything but. So whatever Onana brings in that regard does very little to make up for his obvious weaknesses as a shot stopper.
Whenever we’ve had less than world class goalkeepers we’ve struggled. Schmeichel, Van Der Sar, De Gea. That’s the level of goalkeeper we should always expect at this club.
A good ball playing goalkeeper is a luxury for teams who are well oiled and accomplished elsewhere on the pitch to take advantage of such a player. We are anything but. So whatever Onana brings in that regard does very little to make up for his obvious weaknesses as a shot stopper.
Whenever we’ve had less than world class goalkeepers we’ve struggled. Schmeichel, Van Der Sar, De Gea. That’s the level of goalkeeper we should always expect at this club.
To be fair to him, that is also down to the players receiving the passes. Watching his Inter games, he would quite often ping passes right through the middle to one of the strikers who would lay it off first time to the supporting striker/midfielder. We barely ever set up like that/create those scenarios.
His shot stopping is bang average though, and he's so often in a position where he has absolutely no chance. I don't know how to explain it but he always looks "small", and it's not just cuz of his height. Raya is shorter but still makes himself so much bigger when defending close shots.
Why is it so hard to acknowledge this costly mistake of a transfer?
Next summer should be interesting, if Berrada sticks with his "players have 2 years to prove themselves stance", if Onana continues to not impress then I'd expect us to move him on. The only issue is next summer there will still likely be loads of positions that need reinforcing e.g. wingers, another midfielder, left back, maybe a striker along with potentially a new GK.
I'd say he does those things very well when we position for it. You can see the trust he has for Mainoo with some of the passes he gives him.
Ultimately a keeper isn't going to turn the team into a great footballing team by themselves though.
I don't think it's unfair to say you don't think he's good enough, but this thread was bumped after the Liverpool game with people slating him. If he prevents any of those goals it's with incredibly good saves.
It feels weird to be critical of the keeper for not doing that, rather than looking at why we're presenting those opportunities to the opposition. It happened a lot last season as well.
I mean that’s the biggest problem. He’s a fecking shit keeper for us. His passing may be great, but it doesn’t help us. His sweeping may be good but it doesn’t help us.
On the other hand, his footwork is shit and it does harm us. His positioning is shit and it does harm us. His decision making is shit and it does harm us.
I’ve no doubt that if we were a great possession based team, we could hide his weaknesses as City do to an extent with Ederson. But we aren’t that and won’t be for a while. Signing him was a shocking misjudgment from all involved, most of all the manager who wanted him, and knows his strengths and weaknesses, despite knowing we were going to play a style of football that doesn’t suit him.
I think he'll be a goner when we get a new manager in. He just hasn't worked out, whatsoever.
Could say that for near enough everyone
I could see quite a few improving under a better manager/system. I just don't think Onana even has the basic fundamentals to make it here.
I dont think he will, I think he'll be much better with a different manager and an actually functioning setup in front of him
When I switched him for Costa in FM, we kept more cleans sheets whilst using the same XI/Squad.
His eccentricity leads to many strange and unnecessary goals conceded.
His eccentricity leads to many strange and unnecessary goals conceded.
Yeah it's odd really, the angle from behind the goal shows it best. The out of context picture that's being shared on social media is nonsense, he is dead centre of the goal when Salah struck the ball. You'd want your goalkeeper to be slightly further over towards the near-post obviously but the reality is the ball has moved swiftly from left to right. He had set himself for the shot from Szoboszlai, which meant he was a split second slower moving across than you'd ordinarily expect and then he hasn't taken the extra step he'd normally take towards the near-post because he's expected Salah to curl it towards the far post as is his trademark really, and had he done so he would have been wrong footed completely. Essentially he's played the odds twice and lost both times which is unfortunate, and the reality is if Dalot was in position then he's well positioned for the shot from Szoboszlai which was really his main concern at that moment. I'm not his biggest fan by any stretch but I don't think it's overly fair to be losing our heads over that goal in particular.
After a season and a bit, I think it's safe to make a judgement on him and I'd say...he is okay! but nowhere near great.
Any half decent shot into the bottom corners will get passed him...over time he will be targeted more in that area as his technique is very unnatural on the eye for saving those kind of shots. More often he jumps over the ball or his body moves in an arc so the ball just flies past him before he gets to ground.
Any half decent shot into the bottom corners will get passed him...over time he will be targeted more in that area as his technique is very unnatural on the eye for saving those kind of shots. More often he jumps over the ball or his body moves in an arc so the ball just flies past him before he gets to ground.
Just like the Mason Mount signing, a lot of posters correctly predicted how this signing would turn out.
He was single handedly responsible for dumping us out of Europe last season.
With a keeper like Onana, you just know that we do not stand a chance of finishing in the top four. Any semi-decent shot taken by the opposition and we will concede.
There is a reason dynasties were built on the back of great shot stoppers like Schmeichel, VDS, Buffon, Cech, Neuer and Allison. The sheer number of points they rescue and put doubts in the minds of attackers that they will not be beaten.
We do not stand a chance with this clown in goal.
He was single handedly responsible for dumping us out of Europe last season.
With a keeper like Onana, you just know that we do not stand a chance of finishing in the top four. Any semi-decent shot taken by the opposition and we will concede.
There is a reason dynasties were built on the back of great shot stoppers like Schmeichel, VDS, Buffon, Cech, Neuer and Allison. The sheer number of points they rescue and put doubts in the minds of attackers that they will not be beaten.
We do not stand a chance with this clown in goal.
We haven't really improved from De Gea. In some ways he's better than a past it De Gea, in others he's way worse. I think we need to accept that this is his average level.
Yes, agreed our system certainly doesn't help him to play to his strengths but my point is that his weaknesses aren't sufficient to make up for them. Even in a side that's more geared to the way he wants to play, his subpar goalkeeping attributes let him down to a point where the bad outweighs the good. I'd rather have a keeper that's decent with ball at feet, though nothing special, and a great actual goalkeeper than a keeper that's great with ball at feet and a below average goalkeeper.
Re the Salah goal, freeze frames don't help him but even at regular speed in the game he looked poorly positioned and gave himself very little chance. Salah couldn't believe his luck.