Legendary former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel says the current squad are starting to lose faith with Andre Onana after the new signing’s string of mistakes to start his Old Trafford career.
Onana arrived from Inter as the successor to David de Gea but has made a series of embarrassing gaffes, the latest of which came in the dramatic 2-1 victory over Brentford on Saturday afternoon. Mathias Jensen’s first-half strike should have been stopped by the 27-year-old, whose blushes were sparred as a late Scott McTominay double earned Erik ten Hag’s side a much-needed win.
The late turnaround helped United move up to tenth but Onana came in for criticism as Jensen’s strike proved to powerful to keep out.
Red Devils legend Schmeichel said he has spoken with the Cameroon international recently but also revealed why the rest of the squad may be losing trust in their new goalkeeper.
“The goalkeeper is not covering himself in glory in that one [against Brentford],” Schmeichel said. “My theory here is he’s just lifting up, he’s not setting off, his arm is coming up to go down, whereas, as a goalkeeper you learn to dive along the around for the ball, you don’t go up to come down.
“We saw the same mistake against Bayern Munich and I notice the same thing, he just kind of lifts himself instead of actually diving and moving towards the ball.
“I think a lot of that is pressure, I spoke to him after Bayern, I spoke to him after the other Champions League match against Galatasaray as well, he’s very down on the mistakes he’s made.
“I’m trying to speak to him about what it’s like to be at Manchester United, what you have to take.
“Whatever you’ve made, you have to put it in a box straight away and put it to the side. So you make a mistake in a game, it might be a mistake we see, it might be a mistake that we don’t see, but you wait to think about it and analyse it until 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. Now they will even more not trust him, and my god, it’s not good.”
Onana was signed to be a transformative figure between the sticks for United, catching admiring glances with his adventurous positioning and passing while with Inter. However, that style of play is yet to manifest at Old Trafford while his shot-stopping has looked weak in displays against Bayern Munich and Galatasaray.
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