A Future Slipping Out of Their Hands

Two years ago, André Onana left the Champions League final with his head up. Having proven, with a fantastic Inter side, to be a top keeper, Europe’s elite called to him.

Now, the Cameroon stalwart’s mistakes continue to make him a pariah in the river of sadness that is Manchester United.

Onana finds himself as the fall guy for United. While the player continues to make mistakes, he represents how far the club has fallen more than anything.

With both Ajax and Inter, the keeper showed himself to be an elite shot stopper who thrived in the Champions League. While not the perfect keeper by any stretch, Onana proved himself to be, at the very least, a starter for a good Champions League side. Unlikely to ever reach the heights of David de Gea, there was still enough to suggest that he could help United in this current stage.

Almost from the moment he put on the gloves, everything fell apart. One of the leakiest backlines and constant chaos at the club surely hindered the players’ ability to acclimate to a tougher league. Everything that needed to go right didn’t.

Out of all the clubs across Europe, it feels difficult to see one worse than United in terms of fit for Onana.

The player does share his part of the blame, but it’s a marriage that should have never happened.

The Onana who arrived in Manchester after that final was a player who had spent the better part of a decade knocking on Europe’s doors. Despite being somewhat older by the time he joined United, it seemed like the club had secured an experienced keeper for the new era.

Having already worked with ten Hag at Ajax, the fit promised to be seamless. Coupled with the trove of Champions League experience that he brought, Onana felt like a safe bet. At least, he promised to be better than Robert Sánchez for Chelsea.

PHOTO: ITV Football/Facebook

At both Ajax and Inter, Onana played the role of the finishing piece to what was an already top-tier defense. In front of him, at both clubs, stood defenders like a young Matthijs de Ligt, Alessandro Bastoni, and Milan Škriniar, to name a few.

Yes, United lacked any sort of defenders of that ilk, but they did have an older de Ligt; they thought he could make the most of the backline. After all, no one expected him to be worse than what, at the time, was a washed up de Gea. Coming off that Champions League final appearance, expectations were too high for what the player ultimately became.

Perhaps, however, this is where things fell apart for Onana. Without elite defenders in front of him, he found himself forced into situations that he never really had before. The lack of any real help magnified any error that he made.

As the club entered a ouroboros cycle of turmoil, every player fell upon the chopping block. Any grace period was denied to them. For Onana, this was especially tough because the manager who brought him in found himself out the door almost immediately after he joined.

United wanted the Cameroonian to be their next great keeper.

One who could solidify them for the next ten years, but he proved to be a starter without any real ceiling.

What this situation basically ends up asking is who was Onana before he arrived in Manchester? Was he a keeper carried by elite backlines, or did United ruin a talented shot stopper?

Looking back at his resume prior to his move to the Prem, an image of a complicated keeper emerges. The last real elite season he played was in 2021, and since then, he has struggled.

In that 2021 season with Ajax, he finished the year as one of the top keepers in the league. Showing an ability to both stop the ball and come out for crosses, Onana proved to be a threat to any attack. Even in subsequent seasons, those two areas, save percentage and crosses stopped, remained at a starter level.

However, one area continues to be the bane of Onana’s existence. Post-shot expected goals is a stat that shows how well a keeper can handle difficult shots.

Near the bottom of all comparable keepers in this statistic, it highlights a keeper that can stop easy shots, but can’t do anything for the tougher ones. It’s these shots that differentiate elite keepers from just starers. In previous seasons, Onana relied on elite defenders to help him limit tough shots, but at United, any error is magnified.

Interestingly, there are shades of Claudio Bravo in Onana’s situation. Both players contribute by being able to move the ball forward with their feet; however, both struggle at almost every other aspect.

Onana’s profile shows a mid-table keeper who had one truly elite year, but his other years have been buoyed by elite defenses. The best situation for Onana would have been a club like Brighton bringing him in, where there would have been stability. United needed a keeper who could solidify the sinking ship, and Onana was never going to help.

Both parties, Onana and United, came together with totally different expectations.

The club never should have seen the keeper as a stopgap, not as the player to hang their hopes on.

Being dumped out of the EFL Cup by Grimsby, Onana’s mistakes made him a scapegoat for what was a terrible team performance. It feels his days are numbered, but United have no real plan after him.

Like almost everything else that Manchester United continues to do, Onana represents the process of acting without thinking of the consequences.