Roy Keane reacts to Andre Onana being dropped by Amorim: “It’s a Big Call”

Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim has made headlines after reportedly dropping Andre Onana from the squad that will face Newcastle United this weekend — and club legend Roy Keane believes it’s a “big call.”

Onana has come under renewed scrutiny after his error-strewn performance in United’s 2-2 draw with Lyon in the Europa League quarter-final first leg. The Cameroonian was at fault for both goals, including a last-minute equaliser that slipped through his hands into the path of Rayan Cherki.

Earlier in the game, Onana also failed to keep out a bouncing free-kick from Thiago Almada — both mistakes have now led Amorim to make what Keane called a “decisive” move.

“He’s certainly under pressure and football is about making mistakes but if you’re a goalkeeper and you make a mistake and it leads to a goal then you’re going to be criticised,” Keane told the media.

“It’s difficult for another goalkeeper to come in and get up to speed so quickly, maybe he’ll just leave him out for the weekend and let him recharge his batteries for the game coming up on Thursday, we’ll see,” he added.

“But that’s the manager’s job, to make big decisions. I think he’s done okay in the league, defensively United haven’t been too bad. The big problem is going forward, they don’t score enough goals. But the ‘keeper has made some big mistakes and he’s been punished for it. It’s a big call from the manager.”

Onana’s expected replacement against Newcastle is Altay Bayindir, who has yet to start a Premier League game for United. A strong performance from the Turkish international could further complicate Onana’s chances of returning to the starting XI for the second leg against Lyon.

Despite the costly mistakes, Ruben Amorim refrained from publicly criticising Onana after Thursday’s match. Instead, he chose to focus on the bigger picture.

“It can happen. If you play football, you play a lot of games, you can make mistakes. If you look at the season, I make more mistakes than them during these last games and these last months. The other thing is we have one more game to change everything and that should be our focus,” Amorim said.

When asked whether Nemanja Matic’s comments before the match may have unsettled Onana, Amorim responded: “I don’t know, that can happen.”

He went on to explain the importance of reviewing the performance with his coaching team: “The best thing is to look at the goals, all the actions that Andre had in the game, talk with [goalkeeping coaches] Jorge [Vital] and Craig [Mawson], this is the best way to help any player. It’s to focus on the game, what happened, what we need to improve and then put the player in.”

Speaking about the post-match atmosphere, Amorim added: “I didn’t see [Onana], to be honest with you. I use these minutes to try to calm down, to come here to say the right things. It’s normal. I felt the dressing room was really quiet. We draw away, in Europe, that is always hard, but the team is suffering, we need to change that.”

Onana joined Manchester United from Inter Milan in the summer of 2023 and has had a mixed debut season. While he’s shown moments of brilliance, his consistency has remained a concern, particularly in big matches.

With Bayindir now getting his chance, and United still battling for European qualification, all eyes will be on the goalkeeper position ahead of the second leg at Old Trafford.

Andre Onana’s 2023/24 season has been a rollercoaster at Manchester United. While he’s delivered some strong performances, his inconsistency has led to nine errors resulting in goals — the most of any Premier League goalkeeper since the start of the season. Despite this, the Cameroonian has managed to register 10 clean sheets and a respectable overall save percentage across all competitions. Below is a breakdown of his stats so far this season.