Altay Bayindir cost Man United in their Premier League defeat to Arsenal and Andre Onana has had more training sessions this week.
Onana sat out the Arsenal game
Onana sat out the Arsenal game
Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim is giving serious consideration to recalling goalkeeper Andre Onana against Fulham.
Onana has recovered from a hamstring injury that prevented him from playing during pre-season and he had three team training sessions before the opening Premier League defeat to Arsenal.
Amorim deemed Onana too undercooked to start against the Premier League runners-up of the past three seasons and Altay Bayindir kept his place. Onana was left out of the squad entirely.
Bayindir was widely criticised for his feeble 'keeping that led to Riccardo Calafiori's 13th-minute winner and Amorim is leaning towards starting Onana at Craven Cottage on Sunday.
Well-placed sources say Onana and Bayindir enjoy an excellent relationship but that a demotion for Bayindir could kill his confidence.
United players had a recovery day on Monday before a day off on Tuesday. Provided he has not suffered a setback, Onana will have had a minimum of four team training sessions.
Bayindir, 27, joined United on transfer deadline day in September 2023 for £4.3million from Fenerbahce and has played 12 times for the club, conceding 21 goals.
The Turkey international started the three matches that United shipped four goals in last season and his error against Arsenal was reminiscent of Son Heung-min's winner for Tottenham Hotspur in the League Cup quarter-final last December.
United's goalkeeping situation is further complicated by the club's efforts to bring in a reinforcement. United enquired about the possibility of signing Emiliano Martinez on loan from Aston Villa in the summer but the MEN revealed in May a new goalkeeper was not considered a priority.
Amorim bristled at the suggestion that he might have considered starting the 39-year-old Tom Heaton ahead of Bayindir against Arsenal.
"Why? He (Bayindir) suffered a goal like this where?" Amorim asked. "Without VAR. With VAR (at Tottenham), is a foul and then what happened in the next game? At Arsenal (in the FA Cup third round): who saved the penalty? Who saved the game, all the game? No, no, no, before the penalty.
"You don’t remember the game? I remember the game. Altay was unbelievable in that game. I consider everything to put one or the other and I choose Altay."
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