Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag believes Andre Onana is going through his “integration period” like former goalkeepers Peter Schmeichel and David de Gea.
The Dutchman will certainly hope so because I’m old enough to remember some of the problems Sir Alex Ferguson faced when trying to settle on a replacement for Schmeichel, a keeper he signed that went on to become one of the club’s best of all-time.
However, in 2023, the game has moved on and there’s a lot more money involved. United spent a whopping £55m to bring the Cameroon international to Old Trafford from Inter Milan and it would be fair to say he’s had a poor start.
Fans are bound to ask questions of Onana’s start – even if some of those questions seem premature – but at least Ten Hag is confident he will come good.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference this afternoon, Ten Hag was asked about Onana.
He said (via Manchester Evening News): “He knows, we know, he will do much better and as every player who’s coming into the Premier League, you need an integration period but he has to step up. Big United keepers like Peter Schmeichel and David de Gea started not doomed and Andre knows that it is good to know a little bit from history. We live now, we live in the future and he has to make his future by giving better performances. I’m sure he will do. He showed it at Barcelona, Ajax, Inter Milan, he was in semi-final and final of Champions League, I’m sure he will give a great performance.”
Schmeichel and De Gea had rocky starts at United too and I think a lot of people are quick to forget that.
However, a lot of keepers have failed to recover from slow starts at the club. The question is can Onana follow some of our greats by redeeming himself.
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