Legendary Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel has defended Andre Onana after a topsy-turvy first season at Old Trafford.
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Great Dane defends United's No. 1'Mistakes at Old Trafford stay with you'Cameroonian let down by inconsistent defenceGetty ImagesWHAT HAPPENED?
Onana had a difficult start to life at Old Trafford after signing from Inter for £47 million ($60m) to replace David de Gea, who was the Red Devils' longest-serving goalkeeper and also kept a record number of clean sheets. The Cameroonian had a particularly torrid time in the Champions League, playing his part in United's disastrous exit from the group stage.
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"I just thought he was a bit unlucky for two reasons," Schmeichel told GOAL. "First of all, not playing behind a consistent defence. That's a problem as a goalkeeper. You can be the best goalkeeper in the world but if your defence is not protecting you you have a problem. Secondly, the goal he conceded in Munich was unlucky, if you do that for Inter or Ajax it goes away within a week or two. You do that for Man Utd, it stays and you will be a goalkeeper who makes mistakes. That's just the cruel reality of playing for Man Utd."
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Schmeichel, talking on behalf of , who today launch their Official Premier League Trading Card game, believes Onana soon settled into life with United and had a strong finish to the campaign, which ended with the Red Devils stunning Manchester City in the FA Cup final.
"I saw a lot of improvements with different things in his game over the season. What I particularly liked was he looked like he was enjoying it more and more, that's the first step towards becoming the one that you want in goal," Schmeichel added. "He needs help like any other goalkeeper in the world, he needs a defence in front of him. If he's got that I'm sure we'll have a world-class top quality goalkeeper who will do well."
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Schmeichel spoke of his fascination for collecting football stickers when he was growing up. "My first one was the 1974 World Cup. Obviously we didn't have too many things to do with football, there was no Internet, so all of a sudden you had these stickers with all the teams in the World Cup," he recalled. "It became a really big thing between me and my friends and everybody else, you'd get the album filled in first, trading cards, it was a fantastic way to get to know the players playing in the World Cup."
