‘A heavy shirt to wear’ – being Man Utd number one

In this situation, it’s difficult to be a Manchester United goalkeeper.

In preparation for the Manchester derby on Sunday at Etihad Stadium, one of Ruben Amorim’s final public statements before the international break summed up a topic that will come into sharp focus at United’s Carrington training ground this week.

Since Amorim spoke after the 3-2 win against Burnley, United have paid £18m to sign 23-year-old highly rated but inexperienced Senne Lammens from Royal Antwerp in preference to Aston Villa’s World Cup winner Emiliano Martinez.

Andre Onana, who United signed from Inter Milan for £47 million two years ago, will now be able to leave on loan with Turkish Super Lig outfit Trabzonspor, according to a contract they have been working on.

It requires Amorim to stick with Turkey’s No. 2 goalkeeper Altay Bayindir, who has started all three of his Premier League games this year but made two errors in the opening weekend against Arsenal, looked shaky at Fulham, and looked uninspired against City, and made a major mistake at Fulham, to give Lammens his debut in a fairly unforgiving environment.

First of all, it is incorrect to say that Onana is simply not very good in general.

Edwin van der Sar observed the Cameroon international closely for three years when he was chief executive at Ajax.

Van der Sar, who is widely regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in history, was still backing Onana despite his parlourous debut.

It’s impossible to imagine a person as sane as Van der Sar talking so passionately about someone without bringing up the truth of what he was saying.

Onana himself has spoken about his introduction to life at United. Before the 2024 FA Cup final, he declared, “I arrived as the best goalkeeper in the world and boom, it went down.” What transpired, exactly?

Sources close to Onana have said he was brought to United because of his ability to play close passes – and ended up having to go long.

When he came out of his area during a pre-season friendly against Lens and made a pass to Diogo Dalot, who then gave the ball away, part of the reason for that was. From 50 yards, Onana was chipped.

Erik ten Hag, who had also worked with Onana at Ajax, axed David de Gea to bring his new goalkeeper in, but the change in tactics reduced the goalkeeper’s effectiveness and the regular mistakes that followed undermined confidence in Onana among supporters.

Ten Hag and Amorim continued to pick him, but the Europa League match in Lyon in April was a clear sign that support was waning.

Onana claimed during the build-up that United should succeed because they were “way better” than the French club.

The comment itself seemed innocuous. However, Nemanja Matic, a former United midfielder and close friend of De Gea, took notice in the pre-game press conference, blaming Onana as “one of the worst goalkeepers in the club’s history.”

It sounded like a deliberate attempt to score a friend while also putting pressure on Onana.

The tactic worked. As the first leg ended goalless at 2:33, Onana committed two errors.

While Onana did appear to end the season as the first choice given that he started both legs of the Europa League semi-final and the final, Ten Hag’s previous faith in him from the coaching side had diminished so much that the only game he missed was the FA Cup win at Newport, which he did not win, had reduced.

Bayindir started the final league game of last term and then, even though Onana had recovered from the hamstring injury he suffered right at the start of pre-season, kept his place for the first three matches of this campaign.

In the Carabao Cup defeat at League Two Grimsby, Onana was responsible for their second goal, but his only appearance was in that match.

On transfer deadline day, United argued that they wanted a player who would be able to play a key role in their team when they hope to challenge for major honors once more.

This theory is solid.

The noise that emanates when a United keeper mistakes is ignored.

Phil Jones, who played 229 games for United for 12 seasons, most of it in defense, said, “To be the number one at United you need to have rhino skin.”

During Jones ‘ time at the club, seven goalkeepers featured in the Premier League – Ben Amos, Anders Lindegaard, David de Gea, Victor Valdes, Sergio Romero, Joel Pereira and Dean Henderson.

He claimed that the Manchester United shirt is “heavy to wear.”

The goalkeeper’s calmness and ability to handle certain situations are absolutely necessary. He needs to be commanding and not be flapping at crosses.

The mistake of a goalkeeper spreads quickly and quickly throughout the defensive unit. It almost seemed like you couldn’t get rid of a mistake made by a goalkeeper until the following game.

That is why Jones feels De Gea – the goalkeeper he played most often with – turned out to be so good, even if he had a tough start before eventually going on to win four club player of the year awards.

He had rhino skin, Jones said.

De Gea, Van der Sar and Peter Schmeichel are widely acknowledged as United’s modern-day great goalkeepers.

However, there were others who helped the team win Premier League titles.

In the championship-winning campaign from 1999-2000, Mark Bosnich and Raimond van der Gouw played 37 of their 38 games. World Cup winner Fabian Barthez was in goal for 30 matches of the 2000-01 title triumph. In 2002-2003, Roy Carroll played ten times, and he did the same.

The Northern Irishman has first-hand knowledge of what it takes to be a United goalkeeper, and is currently employed as an academy coach in Saudi Arabia.

” I arrived from Wigan in 2001, “he said”. I was 23 years old when Fabian Barthez was behind me.

“Playing for Manchester United at the moment is difficult, but everyone was anticipating the new Peter Schmeichel,” said one player.

” Even then, if you made a mistake, it was big news. You must have mental fortitude, which is still present.

“We are all humans, not robots,” the statement continues. It is not so much what you do on the pitch as what you do off it”.

Carroll is aware of the potential impact of a single United game.

In the club’s FA Cup final victory over Millwall in 2004, he was selected as a substitute for the team after winning the league title. He made 72 United appearances in total as part of a career than spanned nearly 500 senior games for 11 clubs across five countries.

However, mentioning his name will likely bring up the moment that comes to mind: the Pedro Mendes shot that he dropped over the goalline and saved before the assistant referee noticed.

He claimed, “I made a big mistake against Spurs, and that’s what people talk about.”

“I take it. It makes me laugh. I was upset at the time, but I realized that I wasn’t laughing because I was upset.

Carroll is wary of pushing the mental toughness message too far because he knows repeating the message and adopting it are very different.

He openly discusses the depression he experienced throughout his career, which is more likely to be related to his injuries than his mistakes, which is why he discusses off-field support, not just for United goalkeepers.

He claimed that no one had ever taught him how to manage the mental side. “All I was bought to do was be a goalkeeper – train every day, play every weekend.

I played in all the English leagues, and I always had a strong mind, whether at the bottom or the top.

“You can be the best keeper in the world, but it can break you once you lose the mental component, as it did with me for a while.