After appointing the former Inter Milan star as his new No. 1 custodian, Erik ten Hag has confidence that Andre Onana will change the way Manchester United plays.
The 27-year-old Onana, who worked with Ten Hag at Ajax, made a name for himself last season as Inter advanced to the Champions League final. The Cameroonian international just signed for Inter last summer, but earlier this month he completed a £47 million transfer to Old Trafford.
After getting rid of David de Gea, who had been United’s first-choice custodian for more than ten years, Ten Hag pushed for Onana. The Spaniard quit the club after a new contract fell through because he had trouble convincing when playing out from the back the previous season.
Ten Hag had previously refrained from blaming De Gea’s technical shortcomings for his departure, but the Dutchman hinted at it in remarks in which he backed Onana to alter United’s style of play owing to his “different profile.”
Ten Hag informed the media that Onana is a fantastic custodian with a unique profile when questioned about the skills he will offer. We wanted to sign him for that reason. He will bring about a revolution in our game.
Onana, who made his United debut during the team’s preseason tour of the United States, will likely start the Premier League season in goal for Ten Hag’s team.
Despite sticking with the veteran for a further year, former Manchester United custodian Ben Foster, who currently works for Wrexham, said this week that replacing De Gea with Onana was “probably” the right decision.
Foster told The United Stand, “He’s obviously a very, very modern custodian and that’s what it is nowadays.” “Manchester United needed to sign Onana if they wanted to go better and advance. It’s just as easy as that and that is how it works. Whether or not the players around him are prepared for that and can handle him stepping up and behaving like a true sweeper-keeper when the game is being played out from the back.
“I’ve seen how he plays, and he’s quite high up and comes coming out with the ball with comfort. [Whether his teammates are prepared for it] is still up in the air. It’ll be fascinating, but I believe it’s probably the proper course of action.
It’s an extremely difficult task [playing as United’s No. 1], he continued. If you can consistently deliver a 6 or 7 out of 10 [performance], as David did, that is priceless. Onana is a very self-assured player; I’ve seen him perform Cruyff turns and other similar maneuvers.
But it just needs one or two for him to be exposed. Then you begin to consider whether you really ought to do that. It would be ideal if he started off strong, but sometimes that isn’t possible.