Andre Onana: Man Utd boss Erik ten Hag says the goalkeeper is the second best in the league “based on the stats”.

December 1, 2023

Updated 1 hour ago

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“Onana is the second best goalkeeper in the Premier League” – Ten Hag

According to Manchester United coach Erik ten Hag, goalkeeper Andre Onana is “statistically” the second best goalkeeper in the Premier League.

However, the Cameroonian has the most goals conceded in the Premier League this season with five players.

And Onana has also prevented 3.67 goals – the second most in the league.

Only Luton Town's Thomas Kaminski is ahead of him with 6.3 goals prevented.

These figures come from Opta calculations, with actual goals conceded subtracted from expected goals conceded (xGOT), which reflect the quality of the opponent's chances and shot execution.

Ten Hag defended his goalkeeper, saying: “If you analyze it well, you can see that according to the statistics he is the second best goalkeeper in the Premier League, so his expected defensive goals are the second best in the Premier League.”

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The Football News Show: Defensive injuries have hampered Andre Onana, says Chris Kirkland

Onana arrived from Inter Milan in the summer for £47.2 million, replacing David de Gea, who left the club when his contract expired.

But in addition to the mistakes in Turkey, he also made mistakes in the 3-4 defeat against Bayern Munich at the start of the group stage.

Ten Hag, whose team play Newcastle United in the Premier League on Saturday evening, said of Onana: “He’s fine. He also knows that he makes some mistakes in the Champions League, but you can see everywhere that he is doing well in the first five months.

“You saw how he reacted to a bad performance like in Munich. He was outstanding at Burnley.”

“He’s a strong character, he’s a personality and he’ll get through it.”

According to Opta, Onana made four errors leading to shots in this season's Champions League, one more than any other goalkeeper. United have to take slightly more shots per game in this competition (15.4) than in the Premier League (14.6).

His 34 line-breaking passes are the third most of any goalkeeper in the Champions League, showing Ten Hag's desire to sign a goalkeeper with a strong game.

With 43.7 touches of the ball and 25.6 successful passes every 90 minutes in the Premier League, Onana has, on average, been more involved in the game than any other Manchester United goalkeeper in recent history, including such records (since 2006-2007). .

When it comes to the most important element of his job, keeping the ball out of the net, the United goalkeeper has conceded 15 goals out of 18.67 xGOT in the Premier League, suggesting he is exceeding expectations overall in this area. Own goals are not taken into account in such calculations.

		Goals conceded (excluding own goals)	Expected goals conceded
Alisson Becker (Liverpool)
William Vicar (Tottenham)
Wes Foderingham (Sheff Utd)
Alphonse Areola (West Ham)
Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa)

Van de Beek has to move for his career – Ten Hag

Ten Hag has told Donny van de Beek that he will likely need to move in the January transfer window to revitalize his career.

Van de Beek has made just two appearances as a substitute, both against Crystal Palace in September, since recovering from the serious knee injury he sustained against Bournemouth in January.

The 26-year-old midfielder wasn't even named in United's Champions League squad and with Ten Hag having plenty of options for Van de Beek's preferred central role, it's impossible to imagine him making his breakthrough at three and a half years on completing a £35m move from Ajax.

It has previously been suggested that Van de Beek does not have the personality required to excel in an environment like United, and although Ten Hag is naturally protective of his fellow Dutchman, he recognizes that the current situation is not conducive to his career is.

“Donny has to play,” he said.

“It was a slow start to the season as he was still recovering from physical setbacks, but now he's back and doing really well in training.”

“In the games he was in the squad so he had the chance, but I understand he has to play for his career and everything.”

Van de Beek said in an interview last week that perhaps it was time to find a new challenge.

He was heavily linked with La Liga side Real Sociedad in the summer, but a move failed to materialise.

Van de Beek still has 18 months left on the five-year contract he signed when he moved to United.

During his time at the Old Trafford club he only made six appearances in the Premier League. He scored five goals during a six-month loan spell at Everton in the 2021–22 season.

Meanwhile, United defender Tyrell Malacia has “successfully” undergone further knee surgery after suffering a setback in his recovery, the club said.

Malacia, 24, is yet to feature this season after undergoing initial surgery in the summer.

He is back at the club to begin his rehabilitation and is expected to return to action “early in the new year”.