During the sky sport interview, ONANA blasted FABRIZIO ROMANO, saying, “I am superior to DE GEA in one area in particular.”

Onana has had a difficult start at Manchester United, with the club allowing 10 goals in five games and holding only one clean sheet.

In comparison to Onana, De Gea had superior passing and long pass accuracy, while Onana made more saves per game.

While De Gea was a fantastic shot-stopper in his heyday, it remains to be seen whether Onana can meet expectations and aid enhance the team’s performance.

Andre Onana has had a difficult start to life at Manchester United, having replaced David de Gea, who had spent more than a decade in goal at Old Trafford. The Spaniard left the club earlier this year after his contract expired, and he is yet to find a new team.

Some Manchester United fans had grown increasingly vocal about their dissatisfaction with the Spanish goalkeeper’s inability to successfully play the ball out from the back. These supporters believed the 32-year-old was holding the squad back under Erik ten Hag, who expected his team to be comfortable passing the ball to the custodian and receiving it.

Following a masterclass in this aspect of the game during the Champions League final, Onana was picked as the guy to replace De Gea. Ten Hag had known the former Inter Milan custodian while they worked together at Ajax.

The 2023/24 Premier League season is still in its early stages, with only five games played. However, Manchester United’s new custodian has not had a smooth start.

Only two clubs in the division have conceded more goals in the league this season than United, with the Red Devils allowing 10 goals in five games. This implies Onana concedes an average of two goals per match, with only one clean sheet against Wolves.

In contrast, De Gea earned the ‘Golden Glove’ accolade in his final season with Manchester United after maintaining an incredible 17 clean sheets in 38 games. While it may be an unfair comparison given to the disparity in performances from the club as a whole, with United starting the 2023/24 campaign in extremely dismal fashion, Onana hasn’t covered himself in glory at times.

After being deemed fortunate not to concede a late penalty in his Premier League debut, his second Old Trafford appearance featured an unusual attempt to save a Taiwo Awoniyi shot, as the Cameroonian effectively sat down and allowed the Nottingham Forest striker to slot his shot into the gaping right-hand side of the net.

Andre Onana reacts after conceding the first goal.

Declan Rice’s late goal gave Arsenal all three points over Ten Hag’s side, with Onana’s attempts to save the effort futile as he could only help the ball into his own net. In the most recent league setback, Joao Pedro’s effort grazed the United number one’s hands before finding the back of the net.

The United custodian has struggled not just in the league, but also in the Champions League, where Bayern Munich scored four goals against him in his debut for the club. Onana was also unable to stop a poor drive from Leroy Sané, which went into the net off his palms.

Bayern Munich vs. Manchester United: Andre Onana Makes Terrible Error for First Goal

What elements of the game does David de Gea excel at?

Using Squawka data, we compared the two goalkeepers to determine who came out on top, taking into account De Gea’s 2022/23 season and Onana’s current 2023/24 season. While the Spanish player has a larger sample size to choose from, each indicator was measured on a per-90 basis to ensure fairness.

It may surprise some to learn that, for the most part, De Gea was more effective with his passing last season than his successor has been this season. His passing accuracy is slightly lower (68.33%), but he attempts (13.7) and completes (5) more long passes than Onana per 90 minutes. This does not account for the new goalkeeper’s preference for short passes over long ones, but De Gea’s long pass accuracy of 35.96% is much higher than Onana’s 23.64%.

Manchester-United-David-de-Gea

The data also suggests that United’s defence may have been more structured last season, as they faced an average of 1.1 long shots on target each game, compared to 0.8 per 90 this season. This can help to explain why De Gea has a little better record of saving shots from outside the box than his replacement, at 0.9 versus 0.8. Another parameter in which the Spanish keeper excels is overall save percentage, with a success record of slightly more than 70%. This is higher than Onana’s 66.67 percent.

Where does Onana excel?

While the assumption was that the incoming custodian would be a revelation with the ball at his feet when he arrived in the summer, this has not been the case, as Onana has struggled with longer-range passing, as previously stated.

Footage of Andre Onana during a Manchester United training session goes viral.

Despite conceding more goals on average than his predecessor, the 27-year-old has saved more shots per game, an average of four to De Gea’s 2.7. This demonstrates once again that Onana isn’t playing well behind a solid defensive at the time, with the club’s keeper making more saves but conceding more goals.

According to the statistics, Onana has faced an average of six shots on target per 90 minutes, with 5.2 coming from within the box. Comparing this to the former number one at Old Trafford is like comparing apples and oranges, as De Gea faced an average of 3.8 shots on goal per match, with only 2.8 of those coming from within the box.