Andre Onana faces a potentially made match for her career as Manchester United against Lyon in the Europa League on Thursday while the English Giants are fighting to maintain their life in life. The international goalkeeper of Cameroon made the main discussion point before the first stage of the quarter-final in France, which ended with a 2-2 draw, boldly affirming United was “much better” than their opponents. This caused a savory response from the former midfielder United Nemanja Matic, now with Lyon, who called him “one of the worst goalkeepers in the history of Manchester United”.
Onana received a hostile reception of fans in France and his words returned to haunt him when he was at fault for the two goals that United conceded.
The manager of United, Ruben Amorim, abandoned him for Sunday’s trip to Newcastle, bringing the rescue goalkeeper Altay Bayindir, but the match ended with a 4-1 defeat, with the International of Turkey in fault for the fourth goal.
Amorim now has a decision potentially defined by the season to be taken – does he do in Onana or repels Bayindir again?
The issues are high. The defeat at Old Trafford ends the season of United, without playing anything in the Premier League.
The victory would maintain them on the right track to win the Europa League, which would be a passport in the lucrative Champions League for next season.
United, with Erik Ten Hag at the helm, paid around 47 million pounds Sterling ($ 62 million) to sign ONANA from Inter Milan in 2023 to replace David de Gea.
Ten Hag, who had previously worked with the goalkeeper in Ajax, spoke his ball skills.
The 29 -year -old has shown lightning with his glove work during his stay at Old Trafford and sometimes demonstrated his capacities with the ball at his feet.
But it lacked consistency and developed an undesirable reputation as a calamity goalkeeper.
Error account
According to OPTA figures before the last round of matches, since the start of last season, no premier League goalkeeper had made mistakes leading to goals in all competitions in Onana (eight).
To worsen the questions, the former Spanish international of Gea, who was authorized to go on a free transfer, now features the Italian club Fiorentina.
Amorim defended Onana after the draw last week in Lyon and explained his decision to leave him aside in Newcastle.
“Sometimes you have to push the player to play again, sometimes you have to let them disconnect a little, but (Monday) he will be trained to prepare for the next one,” he told Sky Sports. “I felt that it was a good time for Andre to disconnect.”
He added: “It was therefore a normal situation. You have to manage everything and sometimes people just look at the physical aspect, but the mental aspect is really, really important.”
The image with Onana is nuanced.
On the one hand, he has the worst ratio of minutes by objective of any united goalkeeper with 10 appearances or more of the Premier League.
But OPTA figures last week have shown that since the start of the 2023/24 season in the Premier League, only Jordan Pickford of Everton (8.7) had prevented more goals than the expected goal model of the sports analysis company.
What is out of doubt is the importance of Thursday’s match in Old Trafford.
United is an embarrassing 14th in the Premier League with only six games to play and could in theory be in 17th place, just above the relegation places.
It would be their lowest finish because they were relegated to the upper division of the 1973/74 season.
Amorim still has a chance to end the turbulent campaign of United with a European trophy, which could prove to be transformer during its reconstruction.
But if Onana remains at the heart of her short -term and long -term plans, it remains to be seen.
(This story has not been published by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a unionized flow.)
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