Andre Onana has made some huge mistakes since joining Manchester United in a £47.2million transfer in the summer and Erik ten Hag is demanding improvements from his goalkeeper
Erik ten Hag has warned Andre Onana he is expecting better performances from him, with his period of grace now over at Manchester United.
Erik ten Hag has warned Andre Onana
Onana has made a poor start to his United career since joining in a £47.2million transfer from Inter Milan in the summer. The Cameroon international has conceded 19 goals in 12 games so far, keeping just three clean sheets.
He has made some huge mistakes, including a dreadful hospital pass to Casemiro which led to the midfielder’s red card and penalty in United’s 3-2 defeat by Galatasaray and failures to save Leroy Sane’s shot in the 4-3 loss to Bayern Munich and Mathias Jensen’s tame shot vs Brentford. He was also lucky to get away with the clattering of Sasa Kalajdzic on his debut against Wolves.
Onana will be back in action against Sheffield United on Saturday evening in the Premier League and Ten Hag is expecting improvements. “He knows and we know he will do much better,” he said. “Every player coming into the Premier League needs an integration period, but he has to step up.
Andre Onana is under pressure at Manchester United
“Big United keepers like Peter Schmeichel and David de Gea started not good and Andre knows it is good to know a little bit from history. But we live now, we live in the future, and he has to make his future by giving better performances. I’m sure he will.”
The United manager added: “I will never use injuries as an excuse and Andre is not doing that either. But, of course, every time you have a different defending line in front of you it is not helpful. It didn’t help his integration, absolutely.”
Schmeichel has tried to help Onana, telling Premier League Productions: “I think a lot of that [Onana’s mistakes] is pressure. I spoke to him after Bayern. I spoke to him after Galatasaray as well and he was very down on the mistakes he made.
“I’m trying to speak to him about what it’s like being at Manchester United and why whatever [mistakes] you’ve made, you have to put it in a box and put it to the side. If you make a mistake in the game, it might be a mistake we can see, it might be a mistake that we don’t see.
“But you wait to think about it and analyse it after the game or at night or whatever. You have to be there for the next moment. If you’re not, you’ll make the next mistake. And now he’s upset the whole team. They will now not trust him even more, and my God, it’s not good.”
