Uncertainty remains over Manchester United‘s goalkeeper position despite André Onana’s imminent exit, with inexperienced Senne Lammens set to challenge the shaky Altay Bayindir.
When Manchester United paid a reported £47 million to Internazionale for André Onana in 2023, it was supposed to be symbolic of a philosophical transformation.
After Erik ten Hag’s arrival the year before, United were looking to implement a more specialist approach in build-up, playing out from the back with the goalkeeper and centre-backs. The Dutchman had been hired having impressed playing a certain way at Ajax, and so it was no surprise that he might try to alter things somewhat.
Ten Hag always tried to cool comparisons with his Ajax side, insisting the players at his disposal would dictate their style of play, but the shift to start building from the back was unmistakable. This was never going to be a natural change of course for incumbent number one, David de Gea, who’d rarely looked confident with the ball at his feet.
And so it proved; that brand of football just wasn’t a good fit for De Gea. Although this couldn’t be regarded as the sole reason for his departure, as he was coming to the end of an eye-watering contract, his struggles in this respect undoubtedly contributed to the growing sense United needed a different sort of goalkeeper.
Whether that broader point of view was right or wrong is up for debate. But Onana ultimately proved to be the wrong choice, with his United career serving up far more examples of why he might have been seen as a liability as opposed to influential.
Moving the Goal Posts?
Onana is expected to complete a loan move to Turkey’s Trabzonspor imminently. Although the Cameroon international will reportedly be earning even more money than he was at Old Trafford and the Turkish Süper Lig isn’t quite the “retirement home” some critics might regard it as, it’s fair to say the two clubs in question are worlds apart. It may be felt that this reflects a massive dent to the goalkeeper’s reputation.
But is there also an argument Onana’s strengths weren’t maximised at United? He might claim that to be the case.
For instance, the assumption following Onana’s arrival was that he’d potentially make United an entirely different proposition when it came to building from the back, but they actually became more direct.
The average speed at which they progressed up the pitch with their open-play passing sequences was 1.8 metres per second in 2022-23, going up to 1.9 m/s in 2023-24. Similarly, their passes per sequence decreased from 3.7 to 3.6; while obviously only slight differences, they don’t exactly suggest United became significantly more intricate as a result of Onana’s signing.
Man Utd Playing Styles
One potential rebuttal to this could be that Onana’s greater confidence with the ball naturally led to more mid-length passes out from the goalkeeper and therefore allowed United to get upfield quicker and more efficiently. The fact the team’s best ball-playing defender – Lisandro Martínez – featured prominently in De Gea’s backline but missed most of Onana’s first season also isn’t completely irrelevant.
Both are reasonable points, but the fact is, from the same number of minutes played (3,420), Onana registered 428 long open-play passes in 2023-24 compared to De Gea’s 321 the season before.
David de Gea passes 2022-23
Andre Onana passes 2023-24
Now, it’s worth acknowledging that a long pass isn’t necessarily an aimless punt up the pitch. Similarly, whether that pass qualifies as accurate or not is highly influenced by the defenders that team is up against and the attacker the pass was intended for, so a pinch of salt should be taken with any direct comparison between players in this respect. But De Gea actually had a better success rate with long open-play passes in 2022-23 (38.9%) than Onana did in 2023-24 (36.4%).
The fact Onana created three chances to De Gea’s zero probably supports the widely accepted view that the former is better and more deliberate in possession than the latter.
Andre Onana chances created
But it’s difficult to make the case that Onana’s abilities on the ball were in any way transformative. Whether that’s down to him or his manager(s)’s instructions isn’t for us to say.
Onana didn’t go long quite as often in 2024-25, though it was such a dismal season all round for United that their goalkeeper’s passing habits almost feel irrelevant.
While there is some evidence United didn’t make the most of Onana’s passing ability, this doesn’t explain why he made so many mistakes, and it’s the errors that have led to him seemingly being deemed surplus to requirements.
End of an Error?
There’s no two ways about it. Onana simply committed too many mistakes in a United shirt. That isn’t to say he offered nothing, but any upsides were increasingly difficult to justify for every howler.
Since joining the club, his nine errors leading to goals across all competitions is the joint most of any goalkeeper from the top five European leagues. While it is relevant that he’s also played more minutes (9,300) over that period than all but one other keeper (Jan Oblak – 9,660 minutes), the frequency of his mistakes still doesn’t make for great reading.
Among current Premier League goalkeepers to have played at least 900 minutes over the same time, only six have made an error leading to a goal at a greater frequency than Onana (every 1,033 minutes on average).
There’s even an argument the data cuts Onana some slack, too. For instance, in United’s EFL Cup humiliation by Grimsby Town last month, it was only their hosts’ second goal that was counted as coming from an error by United’s keeper, though he was arguably also culpable for the first as he was beaten at his near post.
His actual mistakes cover a variety of situations. There were a couple of failed claims from crosses/corners, a few instances of short passes to defenders being cut out, then just some examples of not stopping shots/deliveries that might usually be seen as a keeper’s bread and butter.
Despite the fact he’s about to leave (at least until the end of the season), a foreboding sense of uncertainty continues to hang over United’s goalkeeping situation.
Onana’s exit will come a couple of weeks on from United spending a reported £18.2m on 23-year-old Belgian goalkeeper Senne Lammens from Antwerp. You’d think that would suggest confidence in the new man and Altay Bayindir, but most unofficial briefings from the club have indicated Lammens is seen as one for the future rather than there being an expectation of him becoming first choice right away. And although it’s possible Bayindir retains the faith of the coaches, he certainly hasn’t inspired confidence among supporters.
In fact, remember when we mentioned there being six current Premier League goalkeepers who’ve made goal-ending errors at a greater frequency than Onana? Well, Bayindir is top (bottom?) of the pile, committing one every 430 minutes while playing for United.
Goalkeeper errors
The Turkey international’s performances for the club have rarely been convincing, with worrying signs in all three of his Premier League outings this term. The biggest concern of all is his susceptibility at corners, where he’s been bullied and looked physically ill-equipped to deal with the attention being given to him even though he’s nearly two metres tall.
When Life Gives You Lammens
United’s hope will presumably be that Lammens is better equipped – than Bayindir or Onana – to cope with the league’s physicality, or at least that he has the skillset to adapt in the long run.
One potential sign in that respect is the fact Lammens recorded twice as many claims (12) as the first contact from corners in the Belgian Pro League last season as Onana (6) managed in the Premier League.
In fact, 63.2% of Lammens’ first contacts at corners were successful claims of the ball, a greater proportion than any other Pro League keeper to get first contact more than four times. Meanwhile, only 31.6% of Onana’s first contacts were claims.
It’s early days this season, of course, but Bayindir has yet to claim a corner delivery (admittedly only five goalkeepers have in the Premier League) and he’s got first contact on just one – that accounts for 7.1% (1/14), which is only better than that of Caoimhín Kelleher (5.9% – 1/17) and Dean Henderson (4.2% – 1/24). We must bear in mind that we’re only looking at small sample sizes here, but Bayindir’s record does tally with the obvious struggles he’s had over the early weeks of 2025-26.
We can actually go a little deeper here, looking at how they’ve commanded their respective boxes in open play with respect to facing crosses.
Since the start of last season in league action, United’s opponents have put 369 open-play crosses into the box while Onana was in goal – he’s successfully claimed 13 of them, which is 3.5%.
United’s opponents have delivered 106 open-play crosses into the area while Bayindir was in goal – he claimed five of them, or 4.7%.
Over the same period, Antwerp’s opponents put 466 open-play crosses into their penalty area – Lammens successfully claimed 42 of them, which equates to 9.0%. So, not only is he used to dealing with these situations, he has a considerably better claim rate.
We are of course talking about two very different leagues here; there are numerous factors that could be influencing the numbers such as the height and physicality of forwards, the average quality of the crosses in question, and even tactics used by attacking teams to put goalkeepers off.
But Lammens could only play against and contend with what was in front of him. On paper, his top-line numbers offer encouragement when shown side by side with those of Onana and Bayindir.
As mentioned before, though, noises out of Old Trafford over the past couple of months seemed to suggest United didn’t see Lammens as someone who’d go straight into the starting XI, rather a keeper who’d hit his prime in a few years.
But if the only other option is the shaky Bayindir, Lammens might well be called upon sooner rather than later, and there’s no guarantee he’ll be ready. He may be required to learn on the job, and the Premier League is obviously unforgiving.
None of this is to say either letting Onana leave or signing Lammens are mistakes. Who knows, the young Belgian could be an inspirational signing and be United’s goalkeeper for the next 15 years. But without hindsight to help us, the timing of these deals at least seems questionable because briefings out of the club have generally looked to ease expectations.
While United remain in a state of flux in goal, one thing’s certain: Onana couldn’t inspire a philosophical transformation and is symbolic only of the misguided faith in Ten Hag’s familiarity-driven recruitment choices.
Premier League Stats Opta
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