Onana is a strange one for sure.
For the amount of shots he's faced, he's actually done very well, and yet he doesn't fill me with confidence either. He is capable of making really good saves, but by and large struggles if they are either low down in the corners or high into the corners. Even those shots that are straight at him aren't dealt with very well, and he's liable to feck up with his feet at times as well.
And yet he's put under tremendous pressure with the complete lack of protection afforded to him by our midfield being wide open and defence being wide open.
I agree he could do much better, but I think I would like to see him play behind a solid midfield and defence before I throw him to the wolves. The United keeper position is one of the hardest in football, as every mistake is amplified through the United lens, by both fans and opposition fans, and the media in general. You could make 10 great saves, and then feck up, cost a goal and that's all everyone will go on about. So I do feel some sympathy for him as well.
I'd agree with this. It becomes an even stranger discussion when you throw De Gea in the mix. It's true that Onana leaves a lot to be desired, and he's having an underwhelming season. The way we defend as a team - from our reactions when we lose the ball high on the pitch, to the individual decisions to either close down or protect the space that lead to the ridiculous amount of shots we concede - is also a huge problem.
It is an issue because of the particularities of the position. It's very different playing for a team that allows the opponent a lot of shots, and a whole different story when you're at a (more often big) club where you have to be prepared to clear out the danger just a few times in a game. For example, Henderson looking like a world beater at Sheffield United doesn't (and didn't) translate into him being able to sit between the sticks for a title contender. It just doesn't work like that. Some keepers just look very good, despite their weaknesses, when they are busy all the time. Onana isn't probably one of them, and he has certainly never played (until now) in such a team. But, except for Alisson, i don't know who else is out there that can look good in both sets of circumstances.
The thing with De Gea is that he was the former type. He always looked very good when he had a lot of work to do. And some of his most memorable performances came when the team was under a lot of pressure from the opposition. I still remember a friend of mine describing him as "the best small-club goalkeeper" in the world when i asked him where he would rank him among his colleagues. This is a description of United in the post-SAF era as much as it is an evaluation of De Gea. Now, id Onana the answer? Possibly, no, he is not. On the other hand, goalies nowadays (at the highest level) are, more often than not, much more than shot-stoppers. The reason why so many can't see it, is because United are resisting to get on with the times, and we are always in the process of thinking which hole to plug first instead of drawing a line and starting anew. It's similar to the praise Maguire has been getting lately. He passes the eye test for a traditional centre-half in our current mess, but if you have a closer look, he plays to protect himself more than his team.
