Andre Onana analysis
The ideal goalkeeper for Man Utd?
I am a big fan of de Gea, have always been since he came through at United. He has saved us more times than we can count with winning the POTY 4x being evidence as to how important and brilliant he’s been for us over the years.
But, as with everything, time can catch up with one. The world moves forward and in the world of football, things move pretty damn fast. With Erik ten Hag coming in, we all knew that he likes to play a possession-based brand of football where his team builds up from the back. This involves a goalkeeper who is quite adept with the ball at his feet and distribution needs to be on point.
This is not something that David de Gea has been renowned for at any point in his career. In the past few years, we’ve even seen him dropped from the Spanish national side with a big reason for that being his weakness when it comes to playing out from the back, something the Spanish are well-known for doing.
So time is maybe up for him at United. It’s unfortunate that he hasn’t really evolved into a ‘modern goalkeeper’ as people call it, because we know how good he was in his hayday.
We have been linked with a move for a new ‘keeper for a while now. Many names have been thrown into the hat giving Erik ten Hag several choices when it comes to picking a new shot-stopper for the club.
David Raya, Diogo Costa and even Jordan Pickford are all names that have been linked to the number one spot at MUFC.
But Andre Onana is the one for me.
This guy just has a lot going for him. I find that he is pretty complete.
Style of play
He can pass out from the back.
Well, it’s a bit more than that with him but some (err, most) would say that that is already a hell of an improvement to our current number one de Gea.
Onana’s performance in the Champions League final against City showed the best of his abilities. City are known as one of if not the best team when it comes to pressing. That didn’t phase the Inter goalkeeper at all. Like seriously not. Bro was ‘teasing’ them at times by inviting pressure before playing a pass out as if there was no one there.
Yeah, he’s kinda alright with the ball at his feet.
For that final, guardiola picked out Onana as one of Inter’s more dangerous players due to this incredible ability to build up from the back. Pep said that he is “an exceptional goalkeeper to take the position to build-up. Really, really good.” He continued to say that “Onana, makes it really difficult to deploy a high press against. You cannot press the goalkeeper properly”, via Goal.com. When somebody like Guardiola praises you, you must have something special.
Pep was proved right in that final as Onana was one of the best players on the pitch.
So, what is all this passing of his all about?
The best way to explain how good his ability on the ball is, is to say that he can play in midfield. A goalkeeper with the ability on the ball and passing of a midfielder. Wow!
Short passing, long passing, dribbling, under pressure, no pressure; Onana will find a way out and make the best pass available.
He is not afraid to drag opposition players towards him before he makes the pass to a teammate who is in space. The fact that he is comfortable with inviting that pressure allows his teammates to be in the space vacated by the opposition player as he presses the goalkeeper. Once Onana passes to them, it can take a player out of the game giving his team a better chance of going on the offensive against oppositions.
He can go in the air or along the ground, doesn’t matter. He can chip the ball over opponents to his teammates, play it into feet, go long in the air and place it on the forward’s head, and the most impressive is when he plays passes right through the heart of the opposing team taking out 4,5,6 players all in one go while starting attacks. He does all this while being pressed yet remains ice cool despite it. Incredible ability.
What is also impressive is Andre’s ability to play with both feet. Predominantly right-footed, the Inter number one is no mug with his left. There was a particular instance in that final where he found the right-back who was out wide while he was in the opposite end of the penalty box while still being relatively pressured.
But it’s not all about passing when it comes to Onana. He is still a very good shotstopper, which is something he’s gonna have to be should he repalce de Gea as one thing we do know about the Spaniard is that he is amazing when it comes to that aspect of goalkeeping.
Andre’s sweeper keeping is top-notch too. He reads the game so well and anticipates when he needs to leave his box and clear the ball or like he does, stay calm, get the ball and pick out a teammate. The fact that he is sometimes out of his box allows his teammates to go back to their goalkeeper while not actually having to go all the way back to their own goal and recycle play. This is something that I like to see as there is nothing more frustrating than to see your team pass alllllll the way back to the goalkeeper after being in a promising attacking position.
As he is 1.9m tall, Onana has good aerial ability as well. He also looks like quite a strong fellow which would improve in our goalkeeping department in that aspect as well as we know how weak de Gea can be.
Here is a table comparing the two over the past season in the league:
Stats via FootyStats.
We can see that de Gea actually wins in most categories but the fact that he has a 14 game advantage over Onana probably has a big part to play in that.
History with ten Hag
Onana and ten Hag go way back. Well, when I say way back, I mean a couple of years. During ten Hag’s years at Ajax, Andre Onana was his goalkeeper majority of that time where they won three Eredivisie’s, knocking both Real Madrid and Juventus out of the CL before that heartbreaking semifinal defeat to Spurs in the 18/19 season.
The Cameroonian was one of the main reasons as to why ten Hag could play the possession-based, build-up from the back football he wanted which saw them get a lot of success. This is what the manager wants to emulate at Old Trafford but with a goalie like de Gea, it is kind of difficult to do so.
Onana would obviously improve upon this and solve a position where United lacked a player that allows the manager to play that modern style of football. The fact that the two of them are so familiar is also a positive.
Or is it?
It was reported that Erik ten Hag was becoming annoyed at Onana’s lack of fitness and poor performances while the two were in Amsterdam. The manager then informed the goalkeeper earlier that week that he wouldn’t be playing. And Onana never played for Ajax again.
Prior to all this, Onana was booed by the Ajax fans when he conceded from a mistake he made. The ‘keeper said that he “did not give a shit”. He was then dropped for the squad entirely for the Dutch Cup final a week later, a final which ended in defeat.
So there is a bit of a problem there. Hopefully time has healed some of those issues because this guy would be perfect at United.
Final Thoughts
He has all basis covered and would seriously improve our goalkeeping in so many ways as well as improve our style of play entirely.
The fact that we met with the player’s agent earlier in the week suggests that we could be making a play to sign him. But this is United so that play could take three years.
If we did sign Onana, this has to mean the end of de Gea’s 12-year spell at Old Trafford. It would be hard for me to see him go but we cannot afford to have two first team goalkeepers.
In the region of £40–50m, would you make this deal happen? I definitely would.
#ONANA #DEGEA #GOALKEEPER #MUFC #GGMU #CMONUNITED #GLAZERSOUT
