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10 years of FIF
Very well explained. These are the reasons he's "sucking" at United. Because they thought Onana is some short of saviour for them. But the whole team is a mess and bringing in "libero" GK doesn't help one bit in that situation. The team needs to be a unit for that to work, like it wokred at Inter.First part holds true in general but we can't tell if this is valid here. But for someone who lived in Barcelona, Amsterdam and Milano, I think you're getting somewhere here
But let's be real. At Manchester United is showing exactly what we feared when we signed him - plus the 10 month inactivity - because this is what he's known for. His weaknesses are highlighted and exaggerated because Manchester United is a bad team, with zero cohesion at the back and the whole environment in this marketing frenzy era where these players face no pressure on a daily or even weekly basis, is just taxing on all that.
He was not a "top goalkeeper" for us, he started off quite bad, similar to his Manchester United level. Remember Bayern games, Barcelona game away and several Serie A games until we fixed our defense. He hardly made any saves that were crucial and those came in February. He's had a good spell, especially that Porto game was incredible and enabled us to get our heads high once again. Had one great save vs Benfica when the entire thing was settled but could be blamed for like all three goals we conceded at the home game as well. We obliterated Milan and allowed them like zero chances. He deserves praise for allowing us to expand our playing from the back and he was part of a cohesive unit where everyone was sticking to their role. He doesn't have that now. But having that meant that it was an easy job overall. He arguably stepped up twice in the entire season where he gave us points/qualification. That's not enough to rate him so high as people have been doing. That was an irrational behavior from the majority of FIF.
I do agree that we should have gotten more for him, but not because he's a top goalkeeper. He's a good goalkeeper that has a few great moments but many more hillariously bad ones. We were lucky that he didn't have that many with us, especially when it mattered. Because if you want to check howlers, he's had his share with us, too. But most didn't cost us. Salernitana was one that everyone remembers, but in most times our defense was quick to fix the mistake. At Manchester United, they're not.
Once we fixed our defense, Onana started to look good. Because he was rarely under pressure. Now he constantly is. He's never been in this situation either. At Ajax they were always in control, too. And that's how he was raised with Barcelona. And Cameroon mostly dominates in Africa. He's not used to being in a circus and now he's labeled as the lead clown, which is rough on him. He doesn't deserve all this criticism, but you rise much higher than you're supposed to (hype) and you fall much harder.
One thing I don't agree tho. You say he isn't a top keeper and while we got top3 amount for all goalkeepers ever in his sale, we should have got more in the sale? Nah man, I think we got a great price out of him precisely because he is NOT a top keeper. That CL run was a great marketing campaign for selling Onana but as you explained, he was mostly "hidden" there in terms of the team being a cohesive unit. Chelsea went for a cheaper option. There was just one buyer.