1 week Ago
Andre Onana was ousted from the Manchester United team for Newcastle after his Europa League errors and while nobody really believed Altay Bayindir would be the long-term solution to their goalkeeping woes, the Turkey international made sure that wouldn’t be the case against the Magpies. He was rotten . Thoughts now turn to which poor sap will be signed by the Red Devils this summer to take on the job between the sticks and courtesy of the wonderful FBref we’ve used the PSxG minus goals allowed metric to rank 10 goalkeepers who have recently been linked with replacing Onana at Old Trafford.
‘What the f*** is that?’ you might reasonably ask...
Post-shot expected goals is expected goals based on how likely the goalkeeper is to save the shot. When the number of goals they have conceded is subtracted, we are left with the figures below. FBref explains that positive numbers suggest better luck or an above-average ability to stop shots.
We’ve used the same method to rank Premier League goalkeepers this season and we accept that it may not be the only metric by which the United bosses choose their replacement given Onana (+1.8) is doing better than half of them, but we would implore them to look beyond a goalkeeper’s ability to play a pretty pass having failed to do so when signing their current No.1.
10) Bart Verbruggen (Brighton): -5.5 We were all a bit confused last season as Roberto De Zerbi rotated Verbruggen with Jason Steele, more because it’s just Not Something You Do rather than because one was very much better than the other. Verbruggen was made the main man by Fabian Hurzeler after a very good Euro 2024 for the Netherlands, with those displays apparently still at the forefront of Manchester United minds rather than his performances for the Seagulls this season, which make him the very worst in the Premier League.
9) Aaron Ramsdale (Southampton): -3.5 It’s almost exactly two years to the day since Ramsdale produced one of the most remarkable goalkeeping performances in Premier League history to ensure Arsenal escaped Anfield with a 2-2 draw to keep their title hopes alive. He probably thought at that point – as many of us did – that a Premier League winner’s medal was in the post if it didn’t arrive that season.
Saturday’s defeat to Aston Villa may well have been a more enjoyable game for Ramsdale than any of his previous 23 this season despite picking the ball out of his net for the 55th, 56th and 57th time, as TWO penalty saves appear to have caught the eye of United and a couple of rivals for his signature this summer . 8) Andriy Lunin (Real Madrid): -1.6 He’s only played five La Liga games this term and would have been fourth on this list on the basis of last season when he played 21 games to earn a score of +4.
2. Eyebrows may be raised by some Red Devils fans over signing a No.2 to become their No.
1, but there may not be a goalkeeper in world football who wouldn’t be back-up to Thibaut Courtois. 7) Mike Maignan (AC Milan): -0.9 Outstanding for Lille and then in his first season for Milan as they won the Scudetto and made it to the Champions League semi-final, with Maignan pivotal in getting them there, but he’s not had a positive PSxG minus goals allowed score since that 2021/2022 season and his manager’s call to put him on a diet due to weight concerns isn’t great, while his age (29) may also be a factor in United’s thinking .
6) Zion Suzuki (Parma): -0.2 United being strongly linked with Suzuki in 2023 when he moved on loan to Belgian side Sint-Truiden from Urawa Red Diamonds and then failing to battle Parma for his £6.5m signing last summer before making a move for him now he’s valued at £40m is very Manchester United.
5) David de Gea (Fiorentina): +2.8 Manchester United fans have predictably forgotten the errors and general downturn in De Gea’s performances at the end of his Old Trafford career during Onana’s struggles in recent weeks, with the decision to replace the club legend becoming more criminal by the day amid nonsense reports of United re-signing a player who would most likely tell them to f*** off in any case. READ MORE: Man Utd goalkeepers ranked: Onana five places behind De Gea.
.. 4) Mads Hermansen (Leicester): +3.
1 We confess to not paying all that much attention to Hermansen before a report claimed United scouts were watching him in December, and perhaps because of the pressure of those links, he appears to have made a horrible mistake in every game we’ve watched him play since. We blame Paul Parker . 3) Joan Garcia (Espanyol): +5.
5 If offered the choice between moving to Arsenal to become a back-up to David Raya or moving to Manchester United to be their undisputed No.1, we genuinely don’t know what we would do. Real Madrid and Barcelona are both also supposedly sniffing around Garcia, which suggests that if United can hijack the Gunners’ move for the 23-year-old then they probably should.
2) Lucas Chevalier (Lille): +7.1 Manchester City’s interest in Chevalier has a long-term replacement for Ederson is obviously a problem for United – there’s only going to be one winner in that transfer ‘battle’ – but again, given the record of the Red Devils’ scouts, picking players on the basis of other clubs’ interest wouldn’t be such a bad idea. We don’t really remember a mass brawl to sign Antony for £86m.
1) James Trafford (Burnley): +11.2 It might be worth United considering Trafford’s -5.9 score in the Premier League last season when making their decision and interest from Chelsea should sound alarm bells given their honking record of signing goalkeepers, but Newcastle are also keen and haven’t got a lot wrong in recent transfer windows, while 28 clean sheets in a season is absurd no matter the level.
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