Weeks after arriving at Manchester City in the summer of 2016, Pep Guardiola took decisive and ruthless action by jettisoning Joe Hart, then England’s No 1, from his plans due to his limitations with the ball at his feet.
Seven years later and a similarly brutal changing of the guard has occurred at Old Trafford with Erik ten Hag allowing David de Gea to depart after 12 years of service, replacing him with Inter’s Andre Onana, whom he previously worked alongside at Ajax.
Initially, it had looked as though De Gea would be retained after winning the Premier League’s Golden Glove for keeping the most clean sheets (with 17) in 2022-23. But after weeks of speculation and a few cryptic tweets De Gea was gone, quietly ushered out of the door a week after his contract had officially expired on 30 June.
The Spaniard lasted significantly longer at United under Ten Hag than Hart did under Guardiola, but the outcome is the same: a long-serving stalwart and gifted shot-stopper has been succeeded by a newer model renowned more for his ball-playing abilities than his reflexes.
YouTube highlights compilations are notoriously untrustworthy, but many of those of Onana which have circulated on social media in recent weeks are instructive to the type of goalkeeper that United are getting.
Supporters can expect to see as many risky passes skittled through narrow corridors and enthusiastic dashes outside the box as finger-tip saves and Schmeichel-style starfishes from their incoming No 1.
One of the biggest criticisms aimed at De Gea was that he was too unwilling to leave his six-yard box to deal with crosses or sweep up behind his defence; one of the accusations levelled at Onana is that he leaves his area too much. This transition might take some getting used to.
Considering their history in Amsterdam, that is unlikely to concern Ten Hag too much. Speaking to United’s official website a few months into his tenure, the Dutchman outlined how he envisaged his team’s development over the next couple of years.
“I hope that we have developed a way of play,” he said. “It has to be a proactive way, proactive football and that we are dominating and dictating games against all our competitors, so at the highest level.”
Proactive is certainly an adjective that describes Onana. He actively wants the ball, often moving ahead of his centre backs while in possession to open up the pitch, scan for potential passing options into midfield or out wide and invite the opposition press, with a view to bypassing it and setting an attacking move in motion.
Onana’s bravery on the ball was evidenced during the Champions League final last month when positioned midway through his own half he successfully dribbled around Erling Haaland as he surveyed his options.
It is indicative of Onana’s style that he attempted over one hundred more passes than any other goalkeeper during last season’s Champions League campaign, and he has an impressive range to his distribution too. Onana completed 44 per cent of his “launched” passes – ones that travel over a 40-year distance – in Europe, which compares favourably to De Gea’s rate of 31.4 per cent in last season’s Premier League.
Onana’s hazardous style is not to everyone’s taste. His Qatar World Cup came to a premature end after he fell out with Cameroon manager Rigobert Song who believed he was taking “too many risks during games”. You can already hear the first yelps of anguish from the Stretford End or shouts to “get rid of it!” when Onana takes a split second too long to release a pass, or charges out to mop up a loose ball that his defenders could probably deal with.
Inevitably there will be times when it goes wrong, but such is the life of a goalkeeper. And Ten Hag will accept the odd mistake if Onana’s overall contribution is positive. Attempting to implement a style of play from back to front with a goalkeeper who is awkward on the ball is like to trying to drive a car with one arm tied behind your back. Onana is just a much better fit for what Ten Hag wants to do than De Gea.
Onana is also extremely capable when it comes to the more traditional aspects of goalkeeping such as keeping the ball out of his own net. According to Opta, Onana prevented 7.6 “goals” that should have been scored based on the quality of the chance created in last season’s Champions League, significantly more than the next best performer Thibaut Courtois, and saved over 80 per cent of the shots he faced.
Ten Hag certainly hasn’t shied away from making big calls during his first year in Manchester. He refused to bend his philosophy to accommodate Cristiano Ronaldo, a stance that paved the way for the Portuguese’s exit; Harry Maguire lost his place and now the captain’s armband due to his struggles to adapt; and now De Gea, the final link to the Sir Alex Ferguson era, has been moved on.
United have made a few impactful acquisitions during the Ten Hag era with Casemiro and Lisandro Martinez both excelling in their debut campaign and Mason Mount regarded as a coup. But taking into account his specific skillset and how drastically that will modernise United’s style of play, Onana looks set to to be the most significant of the lot.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/o5YEl9S
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