“Unfair criticism” – Paul Ince defends Man United star, blaming two others for poor form

Paul Ince has addressed Andre Onana’s poor start to the season and the criticism of the Manchester United goalkeeper.

Onana, 27, replaced outgoing shot-stopper David de Gea in the prior summer as Erik ten Hag looked to move towards a more ball-playing system in his second season in charge at Old Trafford.

Instead, United have struggled largely so far this term, and Onana was largely culpable for their Champions League exit.

Mistakes in key moments, most notably away at Galatasaray, led to Ten Hag’s side finishing bottom of their group and falling out of Europe altogether.

However, Onana has also shown a large amount of promise in Premier League games and is one of the best-performing goalkeepers in the competition – with six clean sheets already.

Overall, there are still major question marks over the Cameroon international, but former United midfielder Paul Ince has suggested that Onana does not deserve the spotlight, with many underperformers in the squad right now.

“I’d say Onana is getting some unfair criticism as it’s not just about him,” Ince told daznbet. “We need to consider the team as a whole and look at players like Antony and Sofyan Amrabat. Let’s see how Onana performs after he goes through his phase – I think he’ll be better for it.”

On a larger scale, Ince believes that the overall defence at Old Trafford has not been performing and that has impacted Onana’s beginning to his United career.

He believes that these difficult moments will prove ‘valuable’ for the goalkeeper in his career and backs him to succeed at the Manchester club.

“Onana has to get past this phase of his United career, and he’ll do exactly that. He’s very good and he’s made some great saves already. It may take a year to see the best of him, but that’s the case for a lot of players.

“That pressure will always be there, and players have to perform every week. It’s no good having one good game – the fans want at least a 7/10 performance every week! Onana is the last line of defence, and any mistake he makes will most likely result in a goal.

“Andre Onana is still young, and he’ll get through it. This phase of his career will provide valuable experience for him. It’s not just him, either, as the goalkeeper is only as good as the defence he has in front of him. That’s why he looked so good at Inter and why he didn’t have so much to do. Man United are conceding a lot of goals and a lot of shots, like we saw last night. They’re not protecting him enough, and there lies the problem.

“Peter Schmeichel had Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister, Roy Keane, and myself in front of him and it was hard for teams to get at us! Man United look all over the place and they’re very open at times. That doesn’t help Onana’s performances whatsoever.”