 "Andre Onana is facing criticism from former football greats after his mistakes against Lyon. Images: Reuters")
Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana is facing criticism from experts after his error-prone performance in the Europa League match against Lyon but the Cameroonian footballer has been backed by manager Ruben Amorim.
The 29-year-old made two costly mistakes as Manchester United were forced to settle for a 2-2 draw at Lyon. He first failed to keep away a Thiago Almada free kick and also was at fault when Rayan Cherki scored the last-gasp equaliser.
The mistakes from Onana came after he was branded “one of the worst-ever goalkeepers” in the club’s history by former Manchester United midfielder Nemanja Matic, who now plays for Lyon.
Since the beginning of last season, no Premier League club goalkeeper has committed more errors leading to goals across all competitions than Onana.
Amorim defends Onana, Scholes blasts United goalkeeper
Nonetheless, Amorim defended his goalkeeper, saying mistakes will happen if you play a “lot of games”.
“It can happen, if you play football, you play a lot of games, you can make mistakes,” Amorim said. “If you look at the season, I make more mistakes than them during these last games and these last months.
“The other thing is we have one more game to change everything and that should be our focus.
“The best thing is to look at the goals, all the actions that Andre had in the game, this is the best way to help any player, it’s to focus on the game, what happened, what we need to improve.”
Man United legend Paul Scholes, however, did not share the same sentiment as he slammed Onana for labelling the Red Devils a better team than Lyon before the clash and later proving to be the difference between a draw and a win.
“He’s probably wishing he kept his mouth shut before the game I would have thought,” Scholes said on TNT Sports. “The keeper I’m not sure what he’s trying to do to be honest. It’s an awful mistake from him.”
Scholes also shared his thoughts on war of words between Matic and Onana ahead of the game.
“I don’t think it was something I would have done, try and provoke a team by saying you are better than them,” Scholes added.
“Matic overreacted slightly, it was a bit aggressive, but I don’t mind a bit of needle.”
Former Premier League midfielder Robbie Savage also criticised Onana for making mistakes against Lyon.
“It’s a goalkeeping error,” Savage said on TNT Sports. “It’s a good ball in, great area, is Onana anticipating a touch? We’ll see it here, everyone looks onside there, it’s a terrible goalkeeping error, it bounces just before him, he’s got to save that, it’s a poor goalkeeping error.
“It looks like a good delivery, terrible goalkeeping. The ball is put into a great area, United held a high line, dropped as the ball is kicked and the bounce just before Onana, he’s expecting a touch but he has to save it.
“It will go down as a goalkeeping error. We can watch it so many times but it’s an error.”