Jamie Carragher is a fantastic pundit, a football nut, and always entertaining. He is ideal for that Sky studio role since he is knowledgeable about English club football tradition while still being bursting with modernity, tactical nuance, and trends you hadn’t noticed before.
Regarding André Onana and the politics of yelling at Harry Maguire, Jamie is mistaken. This week, Carragher wrote a powerful defense of Maguire in his weekly column, arguing against his role as the main target of public shaming and making the compelling argument that he should just take a break for his own benefit.
In the midst of that, he brought up Onana yelling at Maguire during a preseason friendly as an illustration of hostile mob behavior. Carragher is of the opinion that Onana did this to win over United’s supporters by pandering to the crowd and ostentatiously separating himself from the main target of hostility.
Carragher’s sarcastic writing is audacious. He is obviously doing the exact same thing Onana is accused of, placing his hand on Maguire’s shoulder to protect him from the throng while simultaneously encouraging the mob in to take a swing at Manchester United’s goalkeeper with the other hand.
First off, this is just how Onana plays; it’s who she is. He enjoys yelling and pleading with his defenders. At Internazionale, he routinely engaged in it. He was probably signed by United for a purpose, thus he should do it since his management has asked him to.
He is not alone in being ostentatious about it either. Jordan Pickford never quits talking about this. From the very beginning of his international debut, Conor Coady literally yelled at his teammates in a barren stadium in Denmark. The entire English leader-legend trope is a type of performance, done for the enjoyment of the squad, the manager, and the supporters.
Why was Onana singled out? Why presume a Cameroonian, only two weeks into his United tenure, comprehends the Maguire dynamic in such great depth when, in his second game, the main concern isn’t setting up his defense but winning Dave from Bury over?
The fundamental issue with Onana is that he plays the most difficult position in football, one that is so difficult that sympathy is the only appropriate reaction. As always, Onana’s main responsibility is to keep the ball out of the goal. He is here, though, for other purposes as well. must completely rethink Manchester United’s tactical strategy, free up the forwards and midfield, disrupt the rival press, and revive his team’s road performance. And to accomplish all of this by merely being a better ball passer than David de Gea.
Of course, Onana will act immediately and in front of one of the most tense, prominent football clubs in the world. He will accomplish it while adjusting to a new group, location, and team, as well as enjoying good health, good fortune, and no unexpected incidents along the road. Be decent. Be transformative as well. Act immediately. without ever making a mistake, and this is crucial. Welcome to the tough job, André.
It’s hardly surprising that his trickiest moment to date—Taiwo Awoniyi’s magnificent goal after 90 seconds at Old Trafford in United’s final home game—was marked by this fundamental misunderstanding. In his designated sweeper position, Onana began the game. Awoniyi simply exhausted himself rushing towards it, so he immediately abandoned this as he realized United’s defensive approach at that precise moment was to see if they could give him too much space.
Onana appeared to do four or five different goalkeeping moves simultaneously while fully retreating: pre-diving, faux-diving, pretending to dive, as if he were a one-man accordion and spoons virtuoso juggling a set of steak knives. The ball rolled beneath him as he managed to suspend himself in midair above the Old Trafford turf. This instance of anti-gravity was produced, like so many other things in this wandering ghost club, by the power of pure, complex bewilderment.
