André Onana | signed for United | On a flight to NYC

[McGrathsipan]

For me that’s a fail. Not only does it not mention the guy the chant is for, but it’s dumping on a club legend too. What about-


He's got it!
Onana, he's got it!
He’s your sweeper, he’s your keeper
He’s retired from international duty so won’t be called up for the Afcon.

Maybe last line needs to be a little snappier.

Oooohhhhnahnahnannnananna.....

 

[crossy1686]

Wow

It completely changes our shape in possession. Which negates any team's front press. Teams will have to be incredibly organised to stop us playing out from the back and keeping the ball.

Before:

After:

 

[Plant0x84]

It completely changes our shape in possession.

Before:

After:

Still got AM9 up top though

 

[crossy1686]

Still got AM9 up top though

Depressing I know, hopefully we get that CF in the door soon!

 

[Plant0x84]

Depressing I know, hopefully we get that CF in the door soon!

Fingers crossed

 

[T00lsh3d]

It completely changes our shape in possession. Which negates any team's front press. Teams will have to be incredibly organised to stop us playing out from the back and keeping the ball.

Before:

After:

Didn’t Bruno used to be the furthest forward of the midfielders? And won’t he still be when Mount replaces Eriksen?

 

[TheNewEra]

Still got AM9 up top though

We fan play that lineup 3 games a season

 

[TheNewEra]

I love how he's described as having the attributes/passion to play holding midfield

 

[Howl]

Didn’t Bruno used to be the furthest forward of the midfielders? And won’t he still be when Mount replaces Eriksen?

Yeah Bruno was always the most advanced. That led to issues defensively as Eriksen never really had the legs to deal with the defensive game. I'm also not sure where people get this idea we will play with a double pivot from. It will be like City when they played the three of Silva, KDB, Fernandinho where Fernandinho sat behind a two of Silva, and KDB. So one holding and two advanced midfielders as this allows more passing triangles, as well as better pressing of the opposition backline. Now of course Bruno and Mount will have to be defensively aware but the end goal is to press the opposition as far away from our goal as possible.

 

[SirScholes]

Onana will make our playing area more compact and closer to the opponent's goal.

With De Gea, we had 100 metres of green grass to progress through on every transition.

With Onana, every single player from the GK to the defenders to the midfielders to the attackers will be about 20 metres further up the pitch. This alone will create chances. It's always easier to score when you can start your attacks nearer to the net!

The flipside is, of course, that opposition teams will need to sit deeper and be less likely to score as well.

I think Onana could rival Bruno as the single most transformative signing we've had since Cantona.

Cantona was a culture change I think you’re getting a bit carried away here

 

[Grande]

Cantona was a culture change I think you’re getting a bit carried away here

Since.

 

[Plant0x84]

We fan play that lineup 3 games a season

 

[T00lsh3d]

Yeah Bruno was always the most advanced. That led to issues defensively as Eriksen never really had the legs to deal with the defensive game. I'm also not sure where people get this idea we will play with a double pivot from. It will be like City when they played the three of Silva, KDB, Fernandinho where Fernandinho sat behind a two of Silva, and KDB. So one holding and two advanced midfielders as this allows more passing triangles, as well as better pressing of the opposition backline. Now of course Bruno and Mount will have to be defensively aware but the end goal is to press the opposition as far away from our goal as possible.

I’m assuming Arsenal will do exactly the same with Rice behind Odegard and Havertz.

 

[city-puma]

I'm not saying he never tried to progress us tactically, he quite obviously had the idea in his head to progress us tactically which correlated to the evolving reality of the EPL. And he mentioned in a press conference about wanting to replicate Liverpool's high line tactics, which was great to hear from my own perspective.

But what he said and how he went about constructing the team towards the method he spoke about implementing couldn't be further apart imo. He got the recruitment badly wrong from the back line, midfield composition and topped it off by pushing to sign Ronaldo after it was reported that he ignored the advice of his coaching staff who had concerns about Ronaldo's off the ball game.

You can be the greatest coach in the world with the most progressive ideas, but if you don't recruit accordingly to the blueprint in question then the car crash is inevitable imo.

I agree, with hindsight, the biggest fault of Ole management is the player transfers. But, we have to also acknowledge that he had to work with the existing players, many of who had high wages and year’s remaining in their contracts. Still, he tried to keep Pogba, not ruthless to replace DDG, bought Telles, VDB and Sancho. Those acquisitions waste the opportunity window to improve the squad. And as you said, getting Ronaldo to result in the eventual meltdown.
I think Ole is too nice and is affected easily due to friendship and long time working relationship with many players. Sad outcome eventually for me.

 

[city-puma]

It completely changes our shape in possession. Which negates any team's front press. Teams will have to be incredibly organised to stop us playing out from the back and keeping the ball.

Before:

After:

In possession, sometimes, Onana can be found carrying the ball around the position occupied by Casemiro shown in the second figure.

 

[Bojan Djordjic]

Yeah Bruno was always the most advanced. That led to issues defensively as Eriksen never really had the legs to deal with the defensive game. I'm also not sure where people get this idea we will play with a double pivot from. It will be like City when they played the three of Silva, KDB, Fernandinho where Fernandinho sat behind a two of Silva, and KDB. So one holding and two advanced midfielders as this allows more passing triangles, as well as better pressing of the opposition backline. Now of course Bruno and Mount will have to be defensively aware but the end goal is to press the opposition as far away from our goal as possible.

I think it's because its not ideal having Casemiro has the deepest player in midfield when our keeper/defenders have possession. Madrid used to bring Kroos/Modric deep in those phases and keep Casemiro out of the way due to his shortcomings on the ball.

 

[Howl]

I’m assuming Arsenal will do exactly the same with Rice behind Odegard and Havertz.

Most likely as it makes sense from a pressing and possession standpoint as it gives you more numbers to close down the opposition in their half. Having more numbers also gives more passing options when a turnover is forced.

 

[r0663664]

I personally think he is a big risk looking at YouTube videos. I also questioned why we didn't get him free last season. Surely, ETH was going to sign with United. Wouldn't he be able to ask Onana to wait for United? Maybe Onana agreed to sign with Inter in Jan. I just feel United is paying silly money for someone who Inter got for free. Hoijund is another player who cost peanuts and now we are going in for a huge fee. Same of Mount who has 1 year to go. Something just isn't right with this club. No wonder we can't win anything where money is being misused.

 

[Howl]

I think it's because its not ideal having Casemiro has the deepest player in midfield when our keeper/defenders have possession. Madrid used to bring Kroos/Modric deep in those phases and keep Casemiro out of the way due to his shortcomings on the ball.

His shortcomings on the ball are irrelevant when we have Martinez or Shaw playing as the left center back, Martinez in particular, or when Shaw or Malacia play on the left as they are all good on the ball and comfortable under pressure. Also, when we are in possession in our half the shape will be different than when its the other way around. Formations are fluid and depend on the passage of play you are in. In defence it can easily become a 4-5-1 or even a 5-4-1, in offence it can become a 2-3-5. But, in regards to this thread being the Onana thread, he is going to massively assist in the build up phase due to be arguably the best keeper on the ball around. This will alleviate the reliance on the defence or midfield to build up play around the box and his sweeping will allow Martinez to further step into the midfield and assist in stopping the counters because he should mesh well with Varane who's usually the deeper of the two defenders due to his pace.

 

[sglowrider]

I personally think he is a big risk looking at YouTube videos. I also questioned why we didn't get him free last season. Surely, ETH was going to sign with United. Wouldn't he be able to ask Onana to wait for United? Maybe Onana agreed to sign with Inter in Jan. I just feel United is paying silly money for someone who Inter got for free. Hoijund is another player who cost peanuts and now we are going in for a huge fee. Same of Mount who has 1 year to go. Something just isn't right with this club. No wonder we can't win anything where money is being misused.

I think I read somewhere that onana had signed some pre-contract agreement way before ETH had even signed up at United.

 

[Avid fan]

What's done is done and I'm board with turning a new page on our keeper, but I have no expectation that a keeper with better footwork will have any impact on the footwork of our forwards.

Take Antony for example. What was our complaint with him all season? It was that he was so heavily one-footed that it became child's play to defend him. I can recall more than a few occasions where the defender invited Antony to go to his right but he insisted on going to his left with the play eventually resulting in a broken half-chance.

As for pressing higher up the pitch, our forwards just didn't want to commit to that much work. Antony to some extent did, but definitely not Martial, Rashford and Sancho...all of whom view such work as beneath their ball-playing ability. I'm just not having the argument that Martial refused to press because De Gea is poor with his feet.

City aren't even that much of a pressing team as they control the ball so much they don't need to press very often. When they do lose possession deep in the opponent's back third they will press, but City's bread is buttered by control of midfield and clinical finishing, not pressing. Liverpool at their peak was a pressing machine and Alisson played his part in that, but it was the workrate that all 10 outfield players committed to that made their pressing work, not Alisson's undenied brilliance as a keeper.

As for Onana, the 22/23 Inter Milan team made its coin as a counterattacking, not pressing, side. This fact neither speaks for or against Onana, but if we're looking to past experience to suggest where the future is heading, Onana's experience in a counterattacking side isn't exactly indicative that United will become a successful pressing side. The following statement wanders into speculation so take it with a grain of salt but when you look at the players we currently have there is nothing in the makeup of our most likely regular starting XI -- Onana, Shaw, Martinez, Varane, Wan-Bissaka, Casemiro, Mount, Bruno, Rashford, Hojlund and Antony -- that will look anything like a high-pressing side.

All I'm saying that we ought not to get carried away with the supposed transformation in our game that Onana will deliver us. Nearly all clubs outside of the top six sat back against us and took their few chances on free kicks (Olise) and shots from distance (Benrahma) while we dominated possession and created chances but found the clinical finish we needed to put the game away by the 60th minute beyond our reach. Against the top six last season at OT we took care of business but found it impossible to control midfield and create any chances, which had nothing to do with Dave. The first season for any new keeper at OT is going to be a rocky road. He will make mistakes even as his fizzes balls to his fullbacks.

What I'm trying to say is that it's not DDG poor passing ability that causes Antony's bad decision making or Sancho's lack of intesity and I agree that they needed to have done better to contribute to more goals.

DDG definitely affected was our ability to control games better by being terrible at sweeping/ coming off his line and a very bad passer who constantly lost the ball playing hoofball and wrong passes.

About the press, a goalkeeper who enables you to play a high line helps to create a more compact structure and more passing triangles amounting to more possession less defending and also more time to build better opportunities to score and if you do lose the ball then the compactness of the players guarantees a efficient press, unlike a deep line as said before was caused by DDG, which i think was the problem of our pressing not been so effective because the gaps between the defence and midfield was too big. So generally our lack of control is also why we had so many games that were hanging on balance it's not much saying we should have scored more than one goal to give us more comfy wins because even the game against Spurs away we went 2 up yet allowed them back in because we couldn't keep the ball partly DDG and partly some defenders and midfielders movement and positioning.

 

[lex talionis]

You've obviously put a lot of effort in this post so i don't really want to be flippant about it but this is a just a long winded way to deflect a lot of the criticism of De Gea's ability on the ball when it does directly affect the team whether that's defensively or offensively. All teams that wish to be successful and progressive with the ball must have players that are good on the ball; that includes the keeper, every player on the pitch is responsible for something. If you can freely criticise about AWB, Maguire and Lindelof etc being bad on the ball then that also equally applies to De Gea. Take a step back and then think holistically what does that actually mean? Bad on the ball = less possession, less passing angles, less passes, less opportunities to progress the ball, more opportunities for the opposition to press, to have time on the ball themselves, to attack us etc etc. So yes if AWB is bad on the ball, then so is De Gea and therefore his deficiencies are also directly involved in the inability of the team to do things. They are all intrinsically linked.

De Gea is objectively bad on the ball and he did negatively affect our ability to control games. Now does that mean Onana is going to transform our team? Yes and no. Casemiro and Martinez are two perfect examples who basically delivered on every measure of what they could do on an individual level to improve our team i.e defensive and passing beasts. Did they stop our team from getting thrashed? Did they help us dominate teams, middle table or top 6? No but their impact is very clear and they've clearly better than Maguire/Lindelof/Fred/McTominay; they've also help get the best out of AWB/Shaw/Rashford/Bruno etc. If Onana delivers on what we hope he can, we could see an equal impact by raising the bottom level, which going forward should mean more 'attacking' or control to win games.

TLDR: sure we can't say xyz player can improve Antony taking on a player but in terms of maths, here's an overly simple example. Let's say last season, in a single game on average Antony had 10 take-on attempts and completed 4, which is 40%. Next season, with a different set of players behind him (Onana and Mount), he may still be only complete 40% but he may have double (20) the opportunities because of our control of the game and therefore he will take on a player 8 times. Can you see how that may mean 'better attacking' now? Of course it's not linear like that.

The problem with this logic is that it could be used to blame Martial and Antony for the poor form De Gea. I would never argue that argument, as it's daft on its face, but that's exactly the logic you're using here:

If Onana delivers on what we hope he can, we could see an equal impact by raising the bottom level, which going forward should mean more 'attacking' or control to win games.

The argument that De Gea makes too many mistakes for a United keeper is a reasonable argument, but it is not reasonable to argue that De Gea's mistakes caused Martial, Antony and Sancho to shit their pants on goal. We created enough chances to score far more goals than we actually did in the PL (only 58, which in no way can be laid primarily on De Gea). The 1-0 defeat to West Ham, for example, is a match where there is no denying that De Gea's mistake-- let's be clear, a blundering howler -- on the Benrahma shot conceded the match winner, but it is a bad faith, agenda-driven argument to blame our poor play in the final third against a team which at that point was under threat of relegation on De Gea that resulted in us being held scoreless. What held us scoreless wasn't an inability to progress the ball beyond our own third due to shambolic passing by De Gea, but by the ineffectiveness of our front line in capitalizing on the chances we actually created (which I in no way give De Gea credit for).

This is not merely my opinion. This from the BBC match report:

The visitors had actually started the brighter of the two sides before the opening goal but lacked a cutting edge, having 10 shots without hitting the target before Christian Eriksen finally found Fabianski's gloves in first-half stoppage time.

Their energy levels dipped in the second half, with their only real opportunities a Rashford shot tipped over from a tight angle before Martial went close late on.

It's fair game to blame De Gea for the decline in his shot stopping ability, but completely absurd to suggest that he somehow caused our front line to miss chance after chance.

 

[MadDogg]

The ball to Maguire v Sevilla was perfectly reasonable and should never have resulted in a Maguire panic.

Deciding to pass to Maguire was fine. The actual pass itself was not. It was too slow, bobbly, and behind the space that Maguire was moving into. Obviously Maguire should still have done better, but the pass to him put him in a much more difficult position than it should have.

The recurring theme for getting rid of De Gea has been that commits too many howlers and that we score too few goals because of him. I agree with the howler thesis and in fact am board with bringing in a keeper who still has 3-4 peak years ahead of him before his decline begins, but the "Dave destroys our attack" thesis is not supported by the facts. That facts are that we created our fair share of chances but that our finishing on those chance was extremely poor, among the worst in the league. No keeper, not even prime Schmeichel, could have rescued Martial, Antony and Sancho all having very disappointing -- to the point of being ludicrously poor -- seasons.

De Gea obviously didn't destroy the ability of our attackers to score. Simply switching Onana for De Gea last season wouldn't have seen us score 30 extra goals (I believe I recently saw someone claim that which was ridiculous). However Onana in for De Gea allows us to have more possession, better field territory, better ability to play through an opposition press, and to some extent an extra person getting into attacking positions. All those things will enable us to score more goals. By itself it won't be enough goals, but it will be more. It will also put us in a position where we can more easily create chances for a new striker coming in who will finish those chances, so it will have a further improvement going forward (since I presume we will sign a striker who will do better than what we had last season). Hopefully together it will be 'enough'.

 

[criticalanalysis]

The argument that De Gea makes too many mistakes for a United keeper is a reasonable argument, but it is not reasonable to argue that De Gea's mistakes caused Martial, Antony and Sancho to shit their pants on goal.

I don't think anybody is actually saying this in good faith though when they mean 'the attack will improve' and it's certainly not what I wrote. You've also conveniently ignored my last point, which spells it in very plain english. I'll use your example: Martial, Antony and Sancho will still shit their pants on goal regardless of who is our goalkeeper but if said goalkeeper helps us retain the ball more, they may get double the amount of chances to shit their pants and then hopefully convert.

What held us scoreless wasn't an inability to progress the ball beyond our own third due to shambolic passing by De Gea, but by the ineffectiveness of our front line in capitalizing on the chances we actually created (which I in no way give De Gea credit for).

We were shit in attack and we were also shit in passing, which De Gea was a part of; both contributed to the scoreless situation. This is the crux of the argument that you're seeing quite narrowly. At this level, everyone's performance on the pitch are intrinsically linked with each other. It's like saying:

'Bruno creates the most chances in the bar none, it's not his fault we can't win games' and totally ignoring his tendency to spam balls left, right and centre when the game calls for more nuance and control.
'AWB locks down his winger and stops that whole right side, it's not his fault Antony can't take on his player' and totally ignoring that sometimes the overlap and support are non-existent.

Etc etc.

No player is perfect and of course we can't expect them to be extremely well rounded and perform like machines but De Gea's ball playing ability or lack thereof was absolutely a net negative in terms of his contribution (for his position) in 'attack'/control/whatever you want to call it. Like I said with my Casemiro and Martinez examples, no one player can transform a team but it's possible Onana can have a similar impact to them and that will be quite massive because we've taken big steps to improve as a team finally.

 

[dasty]

The problem with this logic is that it could be used to blame Martial and Antony for the poor form De Gea. I would never argue that argument, as it's daft on its face, but that's exactly the logic you're using here:

If Onana delivers on what we hope he can, we could see an equal impact by raising the bottom level, which going forward should mean more 'attacking' or control to win games.

The argument that De Gea makes too many mistakes for a United keeper is a reasonable argument, but it is not reasonable to argue that De Gea's mistakes caused Martial, Antony and Sancho to shit their pants on goal. We created enough chances to score far more goals than we actually did in the PL (only 58, which in no way can be laid primarily on De Gea). The 1-0 defeat to West Ham, for example, is a match where there is no denying that De Gea's mistake-- let's be clear, a blundering howler -- on the Benrahma shot conceded the match winner, but it is a bad faith, agenda-driven argument to blame our poor play in the final third against a team which at that point was under threat of relegation on De Gea that resulted in us being held scoreless. What held us scoreless wasn't an inability to progress the ball beyond our own third due to shambolic passing by De Gea, but by the ineffectiveness of our front line in capitalizing on the chances we actually created (which I in no way give De Gea credit for).

This is not merely my opinion. This from the BBC match report:

The visitors had actually started the brighter of the two sides before the opening goal but lacked a cutting edge, having 10 shots without hitting the target before Christian Eriksen finally found Fabianski's gloves in first-half stoppage time.

Their energy levels dipped in the second half, with their only real opportunities a Rashford shot tipped over from a tight angle before Martial went close late on.

It's fair game to blame De Gea for the decline in his shot stopping ability, but completely absurd to suggest that he somehow caused our front line to miss chance after chance.

It seems that you kept trying to use Martial, Antony and Sancho's form to absolve De Gea of any blame. We have major issues in converting chances (11 goals less than xG suggests) and that is evidently due to the fact that we do not have a proper striker for the entire season. No one is saying that just replacing De Gea with Onana will make us convert our chances more, there is a reason why we are pursuing another striker this whole transfer window.

However, signing Onana will allow our defense to push forward more thus resulting in them being able to recycle possession way easier and press more effectively, as there are less space for the opposition to play with. Our midfield get bypassed way too easily at times simply because the players were too far apart from each other, and the major reason being that our defense line had to sit back to cover up for De Gea's weaknesses. We kept trying to attack while having a deep defensive line, so you can easily imagine the distance between our players. If you look at the statistics, we play one of the deepest line in PL (3rd or 4th deepest IIRC), and De Gea played a major part in that. All other team who sat that deep are relegation battlers (Forest, Bournemouth, Palace, Everton and Wolves), so you can figure out the rest yourself. There were simply way too many occasions every game where our defenders had to drop back to babysit De Gea passing the ball, and when that doesn't happen he simply punts the ball upfield thus ceding possession.

Watch Onana play and you will realise that he makes a lot of line breaking passes, something which De Gea had never ever done. De Gea's passes are usually just a simple pass to the center backs or full backs dropping back, but Onana actually plays the ball accurately (a nicely weighted pass instead of just a punt) to the midfield, which gives the opposition less time to set up their defensive positioning and thus more effective attacks. There is a reason why all top clubs wants a keeper that is good with the ball, and why none of them have any interest in De Gea at all. You also talked about how Inter plays in a counter attacking system thus isn't exactly indicative that United will become a successful pressing side with Onana. Let me remind you that Onana played for Ajax before Inter under ETH, and they were one of the most successful pressing side in Europe. One season of counter attacking system in Inter does not discount that.

There is a lot more factors affecting a football game other than just simply chance creation and chance conversion, and De Gea severely affects the other factors in our play. No one is saying that just replacing De Gea with Onana will solve all our issues, but it is a big step forward for us.

 

[Real Name]

Big day today.

 

[ForeverRed1]

Now it’s public knowledge de Gea has left.. teams know we are literally desperate for a keeper, they are going to squeeze the maximum out of us. We’re desperate… we NEED a number 1.

 

[ManRed]

Now it’s public knowledge de Gea has left.. teams know we are literally desperate for a keeper, they are going to squeeze the maximum out of us. We’re desperate…

Or maybe announcement was delayed till we finalised the Onana price with Inter and the player.

 

[ForeverRed1]

Or maybe announcement was delayed till we finalised the Onana price with Inter and the player.

not according to all reports out there at the moment. Inter are sticking to their 51mil valuation which were trying to find a middle ground on.

 

[Real Name]

Now it’s public knowledge de Gea has left.. teams know we are literally desperate for a keeper, they are going to squeeze the maximum out of us. We’re desperate… we NEED a number 1.

What teams. We're literally negotiating with Inter for Onana. That's it.

 

[Zoo]

not according to all reports out there at the moment. Inter are sticking to their 51mil valuation which were trying to find a middle ground on.

That report came from Dharmesh Sheth at Sky sports.

Fabrizio Romano said it’s one step away and just the formality of the offer needs to go in. All sides want and need this to happen.

 

[izak]

Onana Day today

 

[quadrant]

The problem with this logic is that it could be used to blame Martial and Antony for the poor form De Gea. I would never argue that argument, as it's daft on its face, but that's exactly the logic you're using here:

If Onana delivers on what we hope he can, we could see an equal impact by raising the bottom level, which going forward should mean more 'attacking' or control to win games.

The argument that De Gea makes too many mistakes for a United keeper is a reasonable argument, but it is not reasonable to argue that De Gea's mistakes caused Martial, Antony and Sancho to shit their pants on goal. We created enough chances to score far more goals than we actually did in the PL (only 58, which in no way can be laid primarily on De Gea). The 1-0 defeat to West Ham, for example, is a match where there is no denying that De Gea's mistake-- let's be clear, a blundering howler -- on the Benrahma shot conceded the match winner, but it is a bad faith, agenda-driven argument to blame our poor play in the final third against a team which at that point was under threat of relegation on De Gea that resulted in us being held scoreless. What held us scoreless wasn't an inability to progress the ball beyond our own third due to shambolic passing by De Gea, but by the ineffectiveness of our front line in capitalizing on the chances we actually created (which I in no way give De Gea credit for).

This is not merely my opinion. This from the BBC match report:

The visitors had actually started the brighter of the two sides before the opening goal but lacked a cutting edge, having 10 shots without hitting the target before Christian Eriksen finally found Fabianski's gloves in first-half stoppage time.

Their energy levels dipped in the second half, with their only real opportunities a Rashford shot tipped over from a tight angle before Martial went close late on.

It's fair game to blame De Gea for the decline in his shot stopping ability, but completely absurd to suggest that he somehow caused our front line to miss chance after chance.

I guess a simple question would be - do you think the goalkeeper affects a team's overall performance in possession? Because it feels from your posts that you see no link between the goalkeeper and how the outfield team performs.

 

[TheNewEra]

Now it’s public knowledge de Gea has left.. teams know we are literally desperate for a keeper, they are going to squeeze the maximum out of us. We’re desperate… we NEED a number 1.

We've literally agreed a fee with Inter around €45m with €5m add ons and this was done before De Geas exit imo.

We arent getting fleeced here hes a top keeper.

We will play the no money card for a #9 before we sell players I bet.

 

[Dorris]

The problem with this logic is that it could be used to blame Martial and Antony for the poor form De Gea. I would never argue that argument, as it's daft on its face, but that's exactly the logic you're using here:

If Onana delivers on what we hope he can, we could see an equal impact by raising the bottom level, which going forward should mean more 'attacking' or control to win games.

The argument that De Gea makes too many mistakes for a United keeper is a reasonable argument, but it is not reasonable to argue that De Gea's mistakes caused Martial, Antony and Sancho to shit their pants on goal. We created enough chances to score far more goals than we actually did in the PL (only 58, which in no way can be laid primarily on De Gea). The 1-0 defeat to West Ham, for example, is a match where there is no denying that De Gea's mistake-- let's be clear, a blundering howler -- on the Benrahma shot conceded the match winner, but it is a bad faith, agenda-driven argument to blame our poor play in the final third against a team which at that point was under threat of relegation on De Gea that resulted in us being held scoreless. What held us scoreless wasn't an inability to progress the ball beyond our own third due to shambolic passing by De Gea, but by the ineffectiveness of our front line in capitalizing on the chances we actually created (which I in no way give De Gea credit for).

This is not merely my opinion. This from the BBC match report:

The visitors had actually started the brighter of the two sides before the opening goal but lacked a cutting edge, having 10 shots without hitting the target before Christian Eriksen finally found Fabianski's gloves in first-half stoppage time.

Their energy levels dipped in the second half, with their only real opportunities a Rashford shot tipped over from a tight angle before Martial went close late on.

It's fair game to blame De Gea for the decline in his shot stopping ability, but completely absurd to suggest that he somehow caused our front line to miss chance after chance.

What on earth are you talking about? At this point I think you’re just being obtuse. I don’t think he could’ve broken his point down any more and made himself any clearer. If we have more of the ball and more control we’ll be a better team, it’s as simple as that.

 

[Heardy]

Why the references to bog day today? Speculation, or people just hoping we get it over the line?

 

[SirScholes]

Since.

It’s a massive exaggeration no matter how much

 

[Plant0x84]

Have we signed Obama yet?

 

[horsechoker]

Have we signed Obama yet?

Thanks Onana

 

[Real Name]

Why the references to bog day today? Speculation, or people just hoping we get it over the line?

Every day is a big day.