The funny thing is there’s not a poster on the whole of redcafe who has mentioned Onana transforming our attack as often as you have. It’s been basically a one man campaign for over a year now.
Eff..I went through this carefully when this claim was made before. And it wasn't just the caf. Beth from The United Stand went on a rampage about how important Onana would be to our attack. And then there was Statman Dave, who's normally pretty decent but not always right (but then again, who is?).
I won't bother with timestamping every dubious comment but I'll just point out a few:
"A ball playing goalkeeper"
"Exactly what Manchester United need"
"From a tactical perspective having a goalkeeper who can play is so so important"
"Buying a goalkeeper this summer is more important than buying a new No. 9"
And that's just the first 40 seconds.
I'll have to paraphrase this next one, "[Onana] will create chances" -- a personal favorite of mine.
"Signing a goalkeeper [meaning, a ball playing keeper] improves all the attacking metrics" -- glorious
And we haven't even broken the 50 second mark. The rest is pure cringe.
I understand baseless euphoria. I've been a victim of it myself. When word first got out that United were interested in Jadon Sancho I was all in and I hold up my hand for being all wrong about Sancho. But the idea that a goalkeeper would ever have any impact whatsoever on chance creation, let alone "all attacking metrics" is beyond ludicrous.
All things being equal, of course you want a keeper who can play the ball over a goalkeeper who cannot play the ball. Where I was wrong about Onana was in believing the hype that he's brilliant with the ball at his feet, a true "modern keeper". I had my doubts, however, that his brilliance with the ball at his feet would make any difference whatsoever (pretend I typed that in all caps) to our "attacking metrics" and no detailed explanation is required to support the assertion that we were poor in attack last season. It's safe to say that my doubts were vindicated. And it's safe to say that Pep, master of the mind games, is having a good laugh now.
To be clear, I do not blame Onana for us being poor in attack last season because it was always daft on its face to believe that even a highly proficient keeper can turn any side into a goal scoring machine. Not even prime Allison Becker could have had the kind of impact on United in attack that Onana was expected by many to have last season. No blame on Onana whatsoever. We can discuss his poor shot stopping ability but I don't think that's any longer in dispute.
All we can hope for is Onana to improve substantially as a shot stopper, to take less time on the ball when his teammates are open for the right pass, and a bit more accuracy with his long passes. But the euphoria over a new keeper having a substantial impact on our attack was hilarious to read, day after day, in the summer of 2023.