’s coaches have identified one major concern with error-prone signing following a series of mistakes during his first 11 appearances for his new club.
The 27-year-old joined in the summer from Inter after United agreed to pay £47.2million, having dispensed with club legend David de Gea.
Onana was recruited, in part, on the strength of his ability with the ball at his feet and it was hoped that he would play a key role in helping accelerate ’s plan to turn United into a team capable of playing out from the back and improving in transition.
While there has been only limited evidence of Onana helping United in that respect, more alarming has been the number of basic goalkeeping errors he has committed already.
Last weekend’s weak attempt to keep out Mathias Jensen’s shot would have resulted in another defeat, were it not for Scott McTominay’s late heroics, and while Ten Hag has no immediate plans to drop a player he was so insistent on signing, his form is of huge concern.
Reports last week claimed opposition coaches had spotted a weakness in Onana’s game that is regularly being exploited in that he stays too close to his line when preparing to face shots.
United’s own backroom team, according to , meanwhile, were alarmed by the way in which Onana reacted to allowing Leroy Sane’s tame shot squirm through his grasp and into the net during the recent Champions League defeat against Bayern Munich.
It was noted how it appeared to take Onana a considerable amount of time to recover from that lapse, with it taking over 30 minutes before he returned to issuing vocal support to his defenders.
Ten Hag’s support are working hard to help iron out the mental and technical flaws in Onana’s game, while Onana is determined to make a success of his United career and is unwilling to miss a month of the season at next year’s Africa Cup of Nations.
Despite his intentions, Rio Ferdinand insists Onana needs to ‘buck up his ideas’ if he is to retain his place ahead of another summer signing Altay Bayındir.
‘At the moment, there are nerves that are in there, because of the mistakes. A lot of people are asking if he can recover. I was there when De Gea came,’ said Ferdinand earlier this week. ‘He was obviously younger but he didn’t start well, you know. I think in his first 10 games or so, the numbers are similar to Onana.
‘If you were to speak to Onana himself, I think he would say, ‘This is not the start I wanted, this is no way near the level I am used to performing at and this is not the standard required at Man Utd so I need to buck up my ideas’.’
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