Onana is terrible but ‘calamitous’ De Gea ‘was never good enough’ for Man Utd either

Manchester United fans have short memories over David de Gea while Ten Hag had the Red Devils in a much better 13th than Ruben Amorim.

It’s a short one today and we would love to hear from more of you. Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.

Short Man Utd memories
I don’t understand how people have such short memories. Obviously, Onana isn’t up to standard. I don’t know how he’s become so bad, but bad he is. He’s poor at the stuff he used to be good at, and his existing weaknesses remain.

But, save me the nonsense about De Gea being an upgrade. He isn’t. He wasn’t. He was never good enough and, bar a few great saves, he was woeful in a lot of matches. People talking about him “saving us points”. Well, duh, that’s what every keeper who makes a decent save does; Onana has done those too. But it’s astonishing how quickly people forget the calamitous errors De Gea gave us. So many instances of flapping at corners, being beaten at his near post and of course the wonderful “rolling around on the floor pretending to be injured because of his own players stepped on his foot while Arsenal (IIRC) put the ball into an open net”.

We need a new keeper. We need a better keeper. We absolutely do not need bloody De Gea back.
Badwolf 

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Expecting more of Amorim
I recently saw your piece on Manchester United’s “worsts” over the years, and noticed you mention Amorim and how he was left an almighty mess by Ten Hag (after Ruud’s brief spell as caretaker). Whilst I am not going to claim he was left a wonderful situations, I will question the main point made here;

“There was an all-time low last term before sticking with Erik ten Hag after that eighth place finish, handing new boss Ruben Amorim a hellish introduction to the Premier League after Ten Hag’s sacking, with the Portuguese facing the ignominy of leading United to a bottom-half placing for the first time in history”

You mention the bottom-half placing, and indeed Manchester United are very likely to now finish bottom half. I just want to highlight something that I think is being missed – when Amorim took over, people were talking about him shoring up the team and going for a top 7 finish – hoping to qualify for the Europa. There was even talk of him maybe being able to push for the CL depending on results. I remembered this a couple weeks ago but thought I must have misremembered, as many seem to be complaining he inherited a hopeless situation. But here is the league table on the 11th November.

That is the day Amorim took over – Manchester United are indeed in 13th, but a very different 13th to where they find themselves now. They were 3 points off 7th and only 4 points off 3rd(!) after 11 games.

I am not saying Amorim should have them in the top 4, but the fact they are now 13th and miles behind even getting top half highlights how bad he has been – playing players out of position in a system that does not suit them, in the hope he can sell them in the summer and get in players who can play in his system (and of course hoping a couple might be able to adapt). It all seems very daft, surely play the players you want to sell in their best positions so you might get a better price for them….

All this to say, when you step back a bit and think through what Amorim has done at United, it leaves a lot to be desired. Sure he did well in Portugal, but so did Ten Hag at Ajax – do you really want to sell one or two of your best youth academy products (Garnacho/Mainoo linked with moves away) and invest in his players this summer? Feels risky to me, but then maybe United have no choice – particularly if he wins the Europa League which has very few good teams in it at the moment. We could all be sitting here in November/December enjoying yet more United misery.

Thanks
Tim Harringtton (QPR, London)

A truly magical moment
Soei asked what magical moments people have experienced and as a fellow Arsenal fan, watching Tony Adams slam home a half-volley against Everton in 1988 was until recently my most magical moment.  But Wednesday topped it.

Unfortunately, my wife was recently diagnosed with gall bladder cancer and told that it was inoperable – we’ve both been in shock for the past few weeks.  We did request a second opinion and on Wednesday we took a break from visiting family & friends to drive hundreds of miles to do something we both love (watch Arsenal).