{"id":356112,"date":"2025-08-19T06:26:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T06:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/356112\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T06:26:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T06:26:16","slug":"manchester-united-already-have-potential-solutions-for-goalkeeping-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/356112\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester United already have potential solutions for goalkeeping issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Altay Bayindir blundered again against Arsenal and Andre Onana missed the entirety of pre-season at Man United.\"Samuel<\/p>\n

Samuel joined the Manchester Evening News in 2014 and is the Chief Manchester United writer. He has broken exclusives on Jose Mourinho’s appointment, the re-signing of Cristiano Ronaldo, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s sacking, the club’s interest in Ralf Rangnick and Erik ten Hag, as well as numerous other transfers and team news. He has represented the MEN on the BBC, Sky News, Sky Sports News, TalkSport, Radio 5 Live, CNN and various other media outlets worldwide.
\nTo receive Samuel’s weekly newsletter for exclusive views and insight, subscribe at https:\/\/insideoldtrafford.substack.com\/about<\/p>\n

\"BayindirBayindir has conceded 21 goals in 12 starts for United<\/p>\n

“Andre recovered.” The words of Ruben Amorim on Friday. Onana stayed in his purple Manchester United hoodie and tracksuit bottoms at Old Trafford on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Onana had three team training sessions before the Arsenal fixture, an insufficient number in Amorim’s eyes. So Altay Bayindir kept goal, Tom Heaton was on the bench and Dermot Mee assisted with the warm-up.<\/p>\n

Bayindir blundered, United lost and Amorim seethed at the suggestion that Heaton, 40 in April and without any playing time since February 2023, should have started ahead of him.<\/p>\n

The post-match questioning centred so heavily on the goalkeeper that it was the quickest an Amorim press conference had been wrapped up. United had performed admirably but lost because of his choice of goalkeeper. Questions on that topic were inevitable.<\/p>\n

Whenever Onana does not play, United cannot have him back between the sticks quickly enough. Bayindir did not cover himself in glory at Newcastle United in April when Onana was taken out of the firing line in the wake of his lapses in Lyon.<\/p>\n

After persistent questioning from a colleague, Amorim assured journalists he was “happy” with the United goalkeeper department. He can’t be. Onana has had two error-strewn seasons and Bayindir is inadequate back-up.<\/p>\n

This correspondent reported in May that a goalkeeper was not considered a priority by United and they have not wavered. They have been on the lookout for one, serious enough to chance their arm with a loan offer for Emiliano Martinez of Aston Villa.<\/p>\n

Midway through last season, United considered goalies to come in but not as outright number ones. A competitive understudy to Onana would be the smart move.<\/p>\n

Goalkeepers are protective of each other and Onana rates Bayindir. He is in the minority. Bayindir has conceded 21 goals in 12 United appearances. The three matches that they conceded four goals in last season – away at Tottenham, Newcastle and Brentford – came with Bayindir in goal.<\/p>\n

The standard of United’s first and second-choice goalies is so low there is not an argument to rotate them. It is not even akin to Roy Carroll and Tim Howard in 2004-05, never mind David de Gea and Anders Lindegaard for the first half of the 2011-12 campaign or De Gea and Dean Henderson in 2020-21. If Onana is remotely fit, he should always start.<\/p>\n

\"OnanaOnana at Old Trafford on Sunday<\/p>\n

Erik ten Hag knew it and he was the manager when Bayindir signed. He did just about anything he could to not play him, delaying Onana’s release for the Africa Cup of Nations in January 2024. Bayindir’s only outings under Ten Hag were against League Two Newport County and League One Barnsley in domestic cup ties.<\/p>\n

Bayindir’s international situation has partly caused United to preserve the status quo. He is always picked for Turkey squads to play second fiddle, so there is not the incentive for Bayindir to get on the move and guarantee a call-up for the World Cup next year.<\/p>\n

Arguably the best ‘keeper in the world is on the market now. Paris Saint-Germain want to cash in on Gianluigi Donnarumma but United are not expected to come calling for a goalie reputedly demanding \u00a3400,000-a-week. If Donnarumma ends up in Manchester, it is likely to be at City.<\/p>\n

\"DonnarummaDonnarumma helped PSG win the Champions League<\/p>\n

Onana expects to stay with United more intent on recruiting a midfielder than a goalkeeper before the September 1 deadline. His hamstring injury has had an undeniable influence on the dormant state of the club’s goalkeeping department.<\/p>\n

United have promising goalies on loan in the Championship and League Two. Radek Vitek, a teammate of Kobbie Mainoo’s and Alejandro Garnacho’s in the FA Youth Cup-winning squad in 2022, has kept two clean sheets in two games for Bristol City in the second tier.<\/p>\n

The unspoken rule at United is academy players loaned to the Championship have a decent chance of returning to the first team squad. With Heaton in his 40th year and Bayindir and Onana highly unlikely to start a fourth successive season as No.1 and No.2, Vitek is auspiciously placed for a promotion if he continues his solid start at Ashton Gate.<\/p>\n

\"VitekVitek briefly trained with United last month<\/p>\n

Elyh Harrison is lower down the pyramid at Shrewsbury Town and could be lower come the campaign’s conclusion. They have lost their first two matches and are one of the favourites to drop into the National League. Dean Henderson enhanced his reputation on loan at Shrewsbury in 2017-18, back when they were attempting to break into the Championship.<\/p>\n

It has been three-and-a-half years since Henderson last played for United and no good can come from dwelling on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s mismanagement of him. United are improving their development of club-trained ‘keepers, so much so that Matej Kovar fetched a respectable fee of \u00a37.7million from Bayer Leverkusen in 2023. The Czech Republic number one absconded to PSV Eindhoven last month after Ten Hag, who sanctioned his sale by United, arrived at the BayArena.<\/p>\n

Ten Hag resisted a reunion with Onana. His new goalkeeper, Mark Flekken, is Dutch and shares the same agent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Altay Bayindir blundered again against Arsenal and Andre Onana missed the entirety of pre-season at Man United. Samuel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,423,9060,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-356112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-manchester-united-fc","13":"tag-manchester-united-transfer-news","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115054011315873276","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}