Andre Onana has had, on average, a new goalkeeping coach every five months since joining Manchester United in summer 2023.
The period since December has been very different from his early days at the club. The 28-year-old has been one of United’s best players this season, the caveat of course being that the team have struggled in outfield areas, which naturally shines a light on a side’s goalkeeper.
The Cameroon international has pulled out some ‘Wow’ moments which have spared United’s blushes: the penalty save in the 3-0 win at Southampton which was a decisive moment with the game goalless at the time, the double-save against Crystal Palace a week later that kept his team in the game as they went on to take an away point, another double-save in the 1-1 draw with Fenerbahce in Istanbul and, most recently, an excellent point-blank parry against Ipswich Town’s Liam Delap in Sunday’s stalemate at Portman Road.
Onana also felt he could have saved Omari Hutchinson’s equaliser in the latter match had the shot not taken a deflection off United defender Noussair Mazraoui.
Despite the flashy acrobatics which showed off his individual prowess, when speaking to club channel MUTV, Onana picked the Southampton penalty stop as his best save so far in a United shirt because it was the turning point for the team in the game. Matthijs de Ligt opened the scoring just two minutes later.
But it has not always been so rosy for Onana.
His first five months in Manchester after signing from Italy’s Inter were not easy, as has been well documented. In his first appearance, in pre-season against French side Lens, he was beaten from the halfway line at Old Trafford. It was a poor goal to concede, when all eyes were on him. Sources close to Onana say from that point on he struggled to regain his confidence. In one training session, a United youth player said: “Are you going to save one or what?”.
This time last year, Onana was at one of his lowest points as a United player.
Away against Galatasaray in the Champions League, Hakim Ziyech had caught him out from two free kicks as United threw away a 3-1 lead to only draw the game. After, he stood alone on the pitch. Those mistakes, and the two dropped points, would later cost his team knockout-stage football.
But Onana bounced back straight away and, according to the player’s inner circle, playing Newcastle away in early December, despite United losing 1-0, was a turning point. He told friends after the game that he was going to free himself from the shackles of doubt and prove himself.
The biggest difference is psychological — say those who know the player well — and Onana is confident in his capabilities. He tells himself: “The mistake is next to me”. It is a way of rationalising that errors are inevitable and nobody is perfect, but he is now more prepared to handle those situations.
It is very difficult, however, to prepare for the scrutiny that comes with playing for United. Onana had won three league titles with Ajax in the Netherlands and later appeared on one of the biggest sporting stages of all in the 2022-23 Champions League final with Inter.
But a few weeks after that match he had made the biggest move of his career for £43.8million ($55.5m), with a potential £3.4m more in add-ons, replacing David de Gea — who had left a lasting legacy — at the most global club in the game. There was expectation. And Onana was not used to receiving abuse online, being the subject of memes and receiving criticism in the press and on social media.
According to those close to the player, like many in this article wishing to remain anonymous to protect relations, United’s manager at the time Erik ten Hag was key to getting Onana back on track. He backed his No 1 and constantly reminded the player that he had proved he was a top goalkeeper when playing for Ajax (where they had worked together) and Inter. He had started slowly with those clubs too, but improved once he got to know his team-mates.
Onana felt that even if he made another mistake, he had the manager’s support.
They say a happy person makes for a happy player and Onana has now settled into his environment in Manchester.
“He knows how the club and his team-mates work,” says former professional goalkeeper and now The Athletic analyst, Matt Pyzdrowski. “That naturally, as a goalkeeper, gives you more confidence.”
Pyzdrowski has noted Onana has been more consistent with his positioning in goal and his set position with his hands.
“They are in sync almost the whole time,” he says. “Last year, he wasn’t always in sync, sometimes the set position was a little bit too low. Now he has much more of a neutral position. His hand placement has really helped improve that. It’s much easier for him to make the decision whether he’s going (to try to make a save) with one or two hands. He’s always been a good shot-stopper, the question mark has been consistency.”
Twelve games into the season, Onana leads the Premier League in the expected goals on target prevented (xGOT) metric. This is an accurate way to measure goalkeeper performance, comparing how many goals they have actually conceded and the number they were expected to allow. The higher the goals-prevented number, the better the shot-stopping performance.
Onana would have been expected to concede 17.5 goals based on the quality of shots he’s faced but his shot-stopping ability has kept that number down to 13. His goals-prevented rate is also the league’s best. This is a metric that adjusts for how busy a goalkeeper is, suggesting he is conceding a goal for approximately every 1.3 xGOT faced.
Onana was solid in this regard over the course of last season too, preventing 3.8 goals more than expected and finishing fourth among all Premier League goalkeepers for that metric.
But why would such intricate details such as footwork and set position be affected by matters away from the actual football?
“You start to overthink,” says Pyzdrowski. “When you don’t feel comfortable off the pitch, you just naturally don’t feel comfortable on it.
“Players train throughout their lives, focusing on all the details so when you get to gameday, it’s just second nature. You just do it as opposed to thinking, ‘Do I stay or go? Last time I made a mistake when I did this, maybe I shouldn’t do it next time’. These are all the thoughts that come into your head when you’re not comfortable or you’ve been making mistakes.”
People familiar with the dressing-room environment say Onana has got on well with his string of United goalkeeping coaches, all of whom have been different characters: Richard Hartis was old school, Dutchman Jelle ten Rouwelaar light-hearted and focused on fun, and now it is the charismatic 63-year-old Jorge Vital from Portugal. It is testament to Onana that he’s built a rapport with each of them.
Even though they have only had a handful of training sessions together so far and Vital has changed Onana’s routine, the United No 1 is happy to adapt and feels he has a good connection with his new position coach.
“It affects you,” says Pyzdrowski, when asked about changes in routine. “That’s the guy you’re working with every single day who should be pushing and giving you confidence. The relationship between the goalkeeping coach and goalkeeper is even more important than that of the head coach and goalkeeper. If you don’t have that relationship with your goalkeeper coach, you feel even more isolated than you already do as a goalkeeper.
“It comes down to comfort. Routine happens off the field: sleep, nutrition, family, all that stuff impacts the player on the field. We are starting to see him shine, he’s been able to step out of the shadow and show that he can be the guy.”
That guy, according to those at United, is a very personable, smiley figure around the club’s Carrington training ground. Onana is now an important member of the dressing room. He is multilingual — speaking English, Spanish, French, Italian and Ewondo (a regional Cameroonian language) — and that helps knit the squad together, and he sees himself as a future captain.
When times are tough, some players may take the earliest opportunity to go home but Onana has never shot out of Carrington. He always eats on-site, often staying there until mid-afternoon, and has never shirked responsibility from his club duties, even going so far as having a brief spontaneous chat on the phone in French with The Athletic while this article was being formed.
That is a small glimpse into the person who has visited the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital to donate United-designed hospital gowns and the club’s foundation’s Street Reds training sessions for local children. On Tuesday, Onana received the FIFPRO Impact award for his humanitarian work in Cameroon and other African countries, where his charitable foundation provides free medical care to underprivileged communities.
A new head coach with a new style of play and new demands will test Onana once again. If his team-mates struggle to adjust to Ruben Amorim’s methods, there will be more pressure on their goalkeeper to deliver.
Onana, however, believes he is in his best form since joining the club and there is still more to come.
(Graphic: Thom Harris)
(Top photo: Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
