With David de Gea out of the door, Manchester United have completed the signing of forward-thinking
goalkeeper Andre Onana from Inter Milan.
Onana, who previously worked with Erik ten Hag at Ajax, has been priced up at £5.0m by Fantasy
Premier League (FPL), half a million cheaper than team-mate Luke Shaw (£5.5m), who is currently
found in 34.7% of squads.
Let’s assess the shot-stopper’s 2023/24 prospects in this Scout Report.
“To join Manchester United is an incredible honour and I have worked hard all my life to get
to this moment, overcoming many obstacles along the way. Walking out at Old Trafford to
defend our goal and contribute to the team will be another amazing experience. This is the
start of a new journey for me, with new teammates, and new ambitions to fight for.
“Manchester United has a long history of incredible goalkeepers, and I will now give
everything to create my own legacy in the coming years. I am excited by the opportunity to
work again with Erik ten Hag, and I can’t wait to play my part in the success I know he is
determined to deliver at this great football club.” – Andre Onana
“Andre was our top choice to become the new goalkeeper for Manchester United, with exactly
the right profile of technical attributes and personality. Having achieved success throughout
his career, we know that Andre will further add to the winning mentality we are building
within our squad. He is already one of the world’s best goalkeepers and at the age of 27 we
firmly believe that he can develop even further over the coming years.” – John Murtough,
Manchester United’s football director.
Onana is an excellent ball-playing goalkeeper who frequently completes pinpoint passes into
the opponent’s half.
Ten Hag wants his side to play out from the back and it’s a key reason why he was so keen to
bring Onana to Old Trafford.
“Most important, always for a keeper, is clean sheets and he’s not doing that on
his own. Therefore, you need a very good defensive organisation, [it’s] quite clear.
But also the capabilities of a keeper is [about] keeping the goal clean. So this is the
first criterion of a good goalkeeper. But, nowadays, football also demands good
playing from the back, out-playing qualities, and that is a quality Andre has. You
need both and you need to cover both areas.” – Erik ten Hag
Onana’s ability on the ball was also praised by Pep Guardiola when Manchester City met
Inter Milan in the Champions League final earlier this year.
“The goalkeeper, Onana, makes it really difficult to deploy a high press against.
You cannot press the goalkeeper properly. Inter are masters at keeping the ball.” –
Pep Guardiola
Meanwhile, he’s got very good reflexes and his save percentage in 2022/23 (73.5%) was
better than de Gea’s and only narrowly behind Liverpool’s Alisson (£5.5m).
So, we have a modern ‘keeper who has the technique of an outfield player, who is able to
launch very quick counters.
It’s obviously a riskier style of play than what we have become accustomed to at Old Trafford
over the years, which means we might see a few mistakes, but overall, Onana sounds like a
huge upgrade.
THE FPL PROSPECTS
Onana offers a cheaper route into the Man Utd defence than Shaw, saving FPL managers
£0.5m, which could be important at the start of the season.
And there is real potential for him to rack up the points, given that ten Hag’s side kept a
league-high 17 clean sheets in 2022/23 and ranked mid-table for shots conceded from
outside the box, with 161.
As discussed in our Team Review, there was an element of defensive overperformance, yet
Onana’s arrival and his relationship with the fit-again Lisandro Martinez (£5.0m), who he
played with Ajax, immediately improves them.
“Did he have a good relationship with Martinez at Ajax? Yeah, of course. With the
centre-half, it’s very important, that communication. That is always very important. It’s about the co-operation, the team. The keeper with his back four, the keeper with his whole team. It has to be connected. So you need the social and communication skills to get that on the highest level, on the level with the demand and the standards are very high in the Premier League and especially with Manchester United.” – Erik ten Hag
Our Season Ticker shows that Man Utd’s opening eight fixtures rank fifth-best in terms of difficulty. It’s a good start, too, with home clashes against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Nottingham Forest, the two lowest-scoring away sides in 2022/23.
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