How Man Utd will solve the Andre Onana problem

Carlo Garganese

24 Oct 2023 12:15 BST
4 min read

Andre Onana, Man Utd, 2023/24 — © ProShots

Rio Ferdinand has explained what Manchester United must do in order to solve the Andre Onana problem at the club.

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Onana has endured a disastrous start to his career at Old Trafford since his €55 million move from Inter in the summer.

And Ferdinand says his start is reminiscent to that of his predecessor David de Gea, who also made a string of errors soon after joining Man Utd from Athletic Bilbao in 2011.

What did Ferdinand say about Onana?

“Those moments are about the experienced players making the new ones more confident,” Ferdinand

“When they make a good save it’s about reassuring them, when they make a mistake it’s about not berating them. There will be times when you have to berate someone like that but when you know someone was young and fragile, like David was, you've got to be clever around those situations.

“He wanted to feel his team-mates had confidence. If your team-mates have confidence in you, f*** what anyone else has said. That’s what the experienced players at Man United have to do now, rally around.

“He (Onana) looks like a confident kid. I’ve spoken to him a couple of times and he seems confident. Mistakes are part of it. He understands that.

© ProShots - Ex-Man Utd star Rio Ferdinand

“But we have to remember that he’s not a goalkeeper who hasn’t had these moments before. He’s made mistakes and come back. He’s played for Inter Milan in a Champions League final, he’s played for Ajax in the Europa League final.

"He has the experience of making mistakes, rebuilding and going again. I think he can do that. He’s made of the right stuff. Speaking to the staff, they say forget about ability because you can tell he has the character for this.”

Onana has had a torrid time in goal for United so far this season. He has conceded 20 goals in 12 games, keeping only three clean sheets.

He has also made a string of costly errors. The most recent was in the 3-2 home defeat to Galatasaray in the Champions League.

Onana passed the ball directly to Dries Mertens through on goal in the second-half, which led to the Belgian being wiped out by Casemiro inside the penalty area and a red card for the Brazilian.

He then failed to stop a fairly routine Mauro Icardi shot, with Onana crouching down to let the Argentine chip him to seal a 3-2 Galatasaray win.

Before that, in Champions League matchday one, he made a catastrophic error for Bayern Munich’s opener by Leroy Sane.

These poor performances have contributed to Man Utd’s worst start to a season in almost 40 years, with six defeats in their first 12 games.