Joshua Zirkzee says it would be “ridiculous” to pin the blame on Andre Onana for Manchester United‘s 2-2 Europa League draw against Lyon. Onana made two howlers, including one in the 95th minute to hand Lyon a dramatic late equaliser, as Ruben Amorim’s side were held in the first leg of their quarter-final tie.
But Zirkzee said the United squad rallied around Onana in the wake of his latest blunders and said none of the players hold the error-prone goalkeeper culpable.
“100 percent,” said Zirkzee. “We’re one team, so we’re not going to take someone out for making mistakes. That’s ridiculous. To draw in this way is always a little bit, I don’t want to say frustrating, but it hurts for it to go this way.
“But it it was it is and we just have to focus on the next game and that’s Newcastle away. Then we all know what we have to do when we face them [Lyon] again at home next week.
“I’m sure, with the full support of the stadium it’s going to be difficult for them and easier for us, but they’re a great team, let’s not forget that, and it’s not going to be easy. But we all want to win, we have to win, so we’ll see. We have to win it, we all know that. There’s no way around that. It’s the only thing we have to do.”
Onana received plenty of stick from fans and pundits after his costly mistakes and United legend Paul Scholes warned the club they might need to look at signing a new goalkeeper this summer.
“Yeah, I think it’s something they need to think about. But they need to look at the budget as well. Can you get away with not spending that money on a goalkeeper?
“He hasn’t been quite good enough but it will come down to money and what Amorim has got to spend. We’ve seen this goalkeeper do well at Inter Milan as well. But I don’t think his distribution has been great either, and that’s one of the reasons he was brought in.
“But can you almost get away with not spending another £40m on a goalkeeper? I don’t know. Ruben Amorim has a lot of problems to solve.”
Amorim himself opted not to criticise Onana despite his mistakes and insisted he was still “really confident” in his shot stopper.
“There’s nothing I can say to Andre in this moment that will help him. So the most important thing is to be natural. And then when the time comes, I will choose the best 11 to play. But I’m really confident in Andre.
“The best thing is to look at the goals and all the actions that Andre has had in the game and to talk with [goalkeeper coaches Jorge] Vital and Craig [Mawson]. This is the best way to help any player – to focus on the game, what happened, what we need to improve and then put the player [in] again.”
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