Do we need a new No. 1 Keeper or a Backup?

[Salus Populi Suprema Lex]

But remember shot stopping isn't important. It's the keepers ability with the ball at his feet

We had so many posts like this when we were signing Onana, and some of said he wasn't good enough with his shot stopping.

I remember people waxing lyrically about how Onana would be a game changer for us and allow us to play a high defensive line and how de gea was such a problem. Even though he won Golden glove for us in his final season and has 6 clean sheets this season from 14 games.

Bring a keeper who can battle it out with Onana for no1 and phase him out. There's some really great keepers out there, especially ones who don't give away goals direct from corners.

Yes, I think football fans sometimes overthink everything. Basics: the main function of keeper will always be to save shots; it shouldn’t need saying. De Gea is a hundred times the keeper Onana is. He wasn’t great with the ball at his feet, but he was a superb shot stopper. Onana makes me nervous; you just don’t know when an error is coming.

 

[IRN-BRUno]

In Onana's defence, his slump in form this year seemed to coincide with the departure of Ten Rouwelaar as goalkeeping coach. That's after it improved when he arrived in the summer. Ruud quickly took him to Leicester as well so obviously rated him highly.

Might have been a mistake from Amorim to move him on.

 

[JBG]

In Onana's defence, his slump in form this year seemed to coincide with the departure of Ten Rouwelaar as goalkeeping coach. That's after it improved when he arrived in the summer. Ruud quickly took him to Leicester as well so obviously rated him highly.

Might have been a mistake from Amorim to move him on.

This and set piece coach... 2 things Amorim apparently changed and went to shit immediately.

 

[Invictus]

How good is Diogo Costa these days?

Diogo Costa is a good goalkeeper and is doing quite well these days too, however there are a couple of issues...

• As United supporters we were spoiled rotten by the relatively error-free goalkeeping of Van der Sar and then peak De Gea. Costa isn't necessarily an error-prone goalkeeper but can have “moments of madness”, which isn't exactly ideal. Though thankfully, he is quite headstrong and doesn't dwell on his mistakes.
• He will cost a pretty penny, with an official release clause of around €75 million. Accordingly to reports, Porto might be willing to accept an offer in the €50 million range, and that quite a bit of money as well (considering we don't have a ton of money to spend and have several wants needs).

If possible, we should reinforce with a cheap but somewhat reliable goalkeeper, as a contingency measure — before upgrading to a superior but more expensive one in 2026 or 2027. Shoot, Costa's current contract at Porto expires in 2027, Chevalier's current contract at Lille expires in 2027, and Carnesecchi's current contract at Atalanta expires in 2026; maybe we could aim to sign one of them on a Bosman transfer? That would be quite neat and cost-effective.

 

[Hughie77]

Yes is the Answer., this guy couldn't catch a cold . Oh he's good with his feet though

 

[Al-T]

We should be looking at Verbruggen. He’s young, PL proven and has the level.

His transfermarkt value is €25M, though I dunno for how much he is available

He’d solve our GK problems for the next decade or so

I think it's highly unlikely Brighton let him go mid season unless we're prepared to pay silly money and we desperately need a striker in the January window. Summer more likely. Brighton have a large number of highly promising young goalkeepers and might be tempted.

Still won't be cheap. Brighton don't need to sell and he has about three years left on his contract.

Bloom got £25million for Sanchez, who had fallen behind Verbruggen and Steele, fallen out with De Zerbi and wanted away.

 

[dinostar77]

Yes, I think football fans sometimes overthink everything. Basics: the main function of keeper will always be to save shots; it shouldn’t need saying. De Gea is a hundred times the keeper Onana is. He wasn’t great with the ball at his feet, but he was a superb shot stopper. Onana makes me nervous; you just don’t know when an error is coming.

I didn't see any of Onana at Inter. Italian clubs have been traditionally famous for playing a 'broken formation' ie. always keeping a set number of players back near their own goal in a low block even when the team is attacking.

Just wondering if that and a stingy defense at Inter made him look better than he is.

 

[dinostar77]

This and set piece coach... 2 things Amorim apparently changed and went to shit immediately.

Thanks, I was wondering about our set piece coach. Didn't realize he was let go when amorim came in. I know ETH wasn't keen but was overruled. I would have thought the club would have kept him on regardless of amorim.

 

[Salus Populi Suprema Lex]

I didn't see any of Onana at Inter. Italian clubs have been traditionally famous for playing a 'broken formation' ie. always keeping a set number of players back near their own goal in a low block even when the team is attacking.

Just wondering if that and a stingy defense at Inter made him look better than he is.

I didn’t see much of him at Inter either. Perhaps one of the posters who watches a lot of Serie A could answer that. Onana certainly isn’t the highest priority in this train wreck of a very expensive squad, but I think we need better down the line.

 

[Shabby as she goes]

I think it's highly unlikely Brighton let him go mid season unless we're prepared to pay silly money and we desperately need a striker in the January window. Summer more likely. Brighton have a large number of highly promising young goalkeepers and might be tempted.

Still won't be cheap. Brighton don't need to sell and he has about three years left on his contract.

Bloom got £25million for Sanchez, who had fallen behind Verbruggen and Steele, fallen out with De Zerbi and wanted away.

Yeah mid season is quite unlikely and better to focus on a striker and LWB first

You seem well-informed, how much you think he may be available for in the summer?

 

[DeludedOptimism]

100% need a new GK. Onana was brought in as a “ball playing” GK and yet apart from his composure and calmness playing out to the CBs, his distribution is actually average. On the flip side, his ability to command the box (which is critical in the current PL) is woeful!

 

[Furious George]

Stevie Wonder, Stephen Hawkin or that drummer out of Def Leppard please.

 

[The Hilton]

This and set piece coach... 2 things Amorim apparently changed and went to shit immediately.

We were awful at set pieces before Amorim, and have been poor with them for years now.

 

[Al-T]

Yeah mid season is quite unlikely and better to focus on a striker and LWB first

You seem well-informed, how much you think he may be available for in the summer?

He won't be cheap. We spaffed £50million on Onana. Verbruggen will be just 23 at the start of next season. Bloom will factor all of that in.

Will also depend, I suspect, on whether Brighton's coaching team believe Carl Rushworth (actually slightly older than Verbruggen) is ready to take over as their No.1.

If we could get Verbruggen for anything under £45million in the summer, I would be surprised. Particularly with there also being noises that Real Madrid are interested.

 

[Chaky_Best]

Since we need to replace 7/8 other positions before him, I would say we need another keeper to push him, but try to offload him in the summer 26 hopefully

 

[Litch]

Who knows. Is anything currently good enough? Seen the same pile on about Scott and Fred as it was all their problem. They'd arguably be starting against Liverpool.
The issues are bigger than just focusing on individual players and wouldn't matter who is in the net, we'd be having the same discussion.