1 week Ago By Vatsal Gupta
It is not a position that many thought would need urgent addressing at Manchester United but things have snowballed recently for the goalkeepers. It started with questions about Andre Onana, which culminated in a near-fatal performance for United’s Europa League prospects from the Cameroonian.Onana was then dropped from the squad for the visit to Newcastle and Altay Bayindir didn’t fare much better, leading to Ruben Amorim’s biggest headache yet.
He needs to address a lot of positions in the short future and goalkeeper was not one of them so it’s an unexpected strain on the finances. Not if they give their own 6’6′′ giant a chance to stake a claim first..
.Photo by Severin Aichbauer/SEPA.Media /Getty ImagesMan Utd’s answer to goalkeeping worriesIt is ironic that the position looking increasingly weak in the senior setup is arguably the strongest in the academy squads right now.
From players on loan to ones in the academy, United have many goalkeepers who could eventually be good enough to challenge for the No. 1 spot at Old Trafford. However, “eventually” does a lot of heavy lifting in the sentence above, not the ideal scenario for Amorim.
Fortunately, one of those players is very close to making that “eventually” arrive sooner rather than later after shining this season. Radek Vitek was United’s pre-season hero last summer and leveraged those performances to earn a move to Austrian side BW Linz. It followed Vitek’s success at Accrington last season so the player has handled a massive step up with no fuss, becoming a BW Linz favourite.
Vitek will return from Austria a much better player, deserving a chance to build on his last pre-season heroics and stake a claim for a position that looks unexpectedly open all of a sudden. Radek Vitek can save Man Utd millionsIt is startling to see how well Vitek is doing at BW Linz because jumping from a League 2 side straight to the Austrian first tier is no easy feat. Vitek has shone for Linz, either with his impressive reflex shot-stopping skills or with his deceptively good ball-playing abilities.
Furthermore, his giant frame allows him to command the area like Thibaut Courtois does for Real Madrid, where every cross even in the slightest vicinity of the goalkeeper is gulped down. Outside of Diogo Costa, there isn’t even any sure-fire goalkeeping prospects who can take the rein reliably from day one, so it’s worth giving a chance to a player who’s waited for it all this time. His breakout coincides with the fall of his two rivals in the senior setup.
It’s time to give Vitek the chance that he arguably should have had after his impressive pre-season at the start of this campaign..
