Manchester United’s former goalkeeping coach Eric Steele believes that Andre Onana has faced the same difficulties that David De Gea and Peter Schmeichel had.
The Red Devils were keen on bringing in a goalkeeper in the summer and they signed Onana from Inter Milan, paying a huge transfer fee.
However, Onana’s first season at Old Trafford has been difficult, as the Manchester United ‘keeper has faced severe scrutiny from critics and supporters.
Steele pointed out that the Cameroon international has faced similar difficulties to those former Manchester United goalkeepers De Gea and Schmeichel faced.
He believes that the Premier League’s pace and tempo, with teams playing different styles of football, take time to get used to for a player coming from outside of England.
And Steele also pointed out that the pressure of supporters expectations is also a factor that is a reason for Onana’s difficult start to life at Manchester United.
“He has followed a similar path to David and even Peter Schmeichel”, Steele told The Athletic.
“A difficult first few months, but you have to understand why.
“Onana came from Italy where the pace and tempo are different.
“There’s no league in the world where you have the variation in games that you get in the Premier League and it catches new goalkeepers out.
“You play against a possession team one week — Liverpool, Brighton, Villa or Manchester City — and then you have counter-attacking teams and sides mixing it up far more than you see in Serie A.
“You’re playing with fans right on top of you in full stadiums that hold 74,000 or 11,000.
“There are so many variables to get used to and the fans are looking for big saves, which is what you want when you’ve paid so much for a goalkeeper.”
Onana has featured in 37 games for Manchester United so far this season in all competitions and has managed to keep eleven clean sheets.
