Man United boss Ruben Amorim ‘really confident’ in Onana despite mistakes

Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim has put his weight behind goalkeeper Andre Onana despite gaffes. The Cameroonian made two mistakes in a 2-2 draw against Lyon at the Groupama Stadium on Wednesday.

Thiago Almada scored in the 25th minute for the home team whereas Leny Yoro equalized in the half-time stoppage. Joshua Zirkzee scored the go-ahead goal for the visitors in the 88th minute but Rayan Cherki scored in the injury time as Onana made a mistake.

“It can happen,” said Amorim. “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. But I’m really confident in André.”

The Portuguese manager said he has nothing to say to Onana despite his mistakes.

“There’s nothing I can say to André in this moment,” said Amorim.

“The most important thing is to be natural and then, when the time comes, I will choose the best XI to play.

“The best thing is to look at the goals, all the actions that André had in the a game, 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.”

Recently, former United midfielder Nemanja Matic tipped Onana as “one of the worst goalkeepers in United’s history”.

Lyon coach Paulo Fonseca said there wasn’t any underhand motive behind Matic’s pre-match words.

“It was not a strategy by Nemanja Matic at all,” he said. “I think that’s something normal.

“Of course, we need to respect everyone’s opinion and I think Nemanja and André Onana forgot about this tonight, so everything is good now.”

The second leg of the quarterfinal will be played at Old Trafford on Thursday.