Manchester United legend Lee Sharpe has admitted that Andre Onana is at serious risk of losing his place in the team if he continues to “kill” his teammates with costly goalkeeping howlers.
Onana was in goal for United’s Sunday clash with Arsenal, helping them to keep a 1-1 draw. There was very little he could do to keep out Declan Rice’s smashing finish but he has once again come in for criticism as a result of the sheer number of high-profile mistakes he has made so far this season and in truth, throughout his time at the club.
At times, his errors have proven extremely costly, with matches against Brighton and Ipswich Town coming to mind.
Ruben Amorim has publicly backed the Cameroonian but United are still believed to be scoping out potential replacements for him ahead of the summer window.
Some of the shot-stoppers the Red Devils continue to be linked to include Bart Verbruggen (Brighton), Andriy Lunin (Real Madrid), Mike Maignan (AC Milan), Diogo Costa (Porto), James Trafford (Burnley), John Victor (Botafogo) and Aynsley Pears (Blackburn Rovers).
Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Peoples Person, hosted by BetBrain, Lee Sharpe gave his verdict on Onana and whether or not United should be parting ways with him.
Asked how big of a problem the 28-year-old, Sharpe initially laughed at the question before responding, “I’m still not sure about the goalkeeper.”
“You want your goalkeeper to be safe, to be consistent and you sort of need to understand him a little bit. But at the moment, I’m not sure what Onana’s doing. He’s letting in some silly goals and making some silly mistakes. We know he can play a little bit, he’s got great feet and he can ping the ball around. But the first job of a goalkeeper is to keep the ball out of the back of the net and that’s a nigh-on impossible job for him.”
“With a change in back-three and back-five all the time, it’s really hard for the goalkeeper to get any connection and understanding with his defenders, but he’s got to start doing a lot better.”
“You can’t have outfield players working so hard, trying to get results and then the goalkeeper just throws one in and just kills everybody’s spirit. Everybody’s head drops down, confidence goes…so yeah, you need him to be trustworthy, reliable and consistent and he’s not being that at the moment. But I’m sure he’s got that in him.”
On whether United should keep faith in Onana or ship him out when the window commences, Sharpe explained, “[Altay] Bayindir could get a chance. I think he played well in the cup game, the last time he was there. It all depends on Amorim’s priorities.”
“I think there’s a lot of players that need to come in and a lot of players that he needs to get rid of and maybe at the moment he’s thinking ‘I can get away with the goalkeeper until Christmas.’ I don’t really know the manager’s thoughts on the goalkeeper but I think if he was particularly unhappy with the goalkeeper then Bayindir would have had more starts by now and he’d have left Onana out.”
“But he’s obviously seen something in training that makes him think Onana is a better goalkeeper than Bayindir. Maybe he’s seeing something we’re not in games and it’s just down to individual errors but you just can’t do that at the top level and he will be changed if he keeps doing it.”
United are back in action on Thursday when they face Real Sociedad in the return leg of their Europa League round of 16 clash.
Featured image Clive Rose via Getty Images
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Derick Kinoti
Derick Kinoti is a football writer at The Peoples Person who has covered Manchester United and the game extensively for many years. He is a keen analyst with expertise in SEO and journalism standards. Derick is convinced Wayne Rooney is the true GOAT and won’t hear otherwise!
