Ruben Amorim has claimed that Andre Onana struggled with the pressure of being Manchester United goalkeeper before leaving for Trabzonspor on loan.
Onana had been United’s No.1 since joining the club from Inter Milan for £47.2million two years ago, but endured a difficult career at Old Trafford.
He lost his place to Altay Bayindir for the first three Premier Leagues of the season after suffering a hamstring injury early in the summer, and was allowed to leave for Turkey on a season-long loan once United signed Senne Lammens from Antwerp. The deal went through on Thursday night with Onana set to make his debut against Fenerbahce on Sunday.
Amorim believes the Cameroon international will benefit from a fresh start in Turkey, and suggested that he found it hard to handle the intense scrutiny of being United keeper.
‘We saw Andre had a very, very good season in Inter,’ said Amorim. ‘The quality is there, but we are in the club sometimes, in the moment, things are getting harder and harder. And you can be really experienced. But in this club, the pressure is sometimes so hard on every detail. Sometimes you need a change.
Ruben Amorim admitted Andre Onana struggled with the pressure of being Man United’s No 1
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Onana has left the club on loan following a nightmare spell between the sticks at Old Trafford
‘I think we understood that he needed a change. Sometimes it’s hard to point why. It’s the performance, the moments. The bad luck in some moments was hard on him, and it was hard on us. Our thinking is to have a change in the goalkeepers.
‘I wish the best for Andre. He was really good at working, trying to help the players. Sometimes you can have all the quality in the world, but sometimes you need to change the environment to return to your level. That was a feeling, not just from us, but also from Andre.’
Onana’s only appearance of the season came in the embarrassing Carabao Cup defeat to Grimsby on penalties. United bounced back to beat Burnley 3-2 before the international break, but Amorim vowed to use the time to look into his team’s problems and fix them.
‘I did everything,’ he said on Friday. ‘I watched a lot of games. I tried to understand different things. I talked to Jason (Wilcox), I talked to Omar (Berrada). I tried to anticipate scenarios. The market was frozen in this break. I tried to do everything in this kind of break to prepare for the future.’
Meanwhile, Amorim was asked if he would ever consider breaking United’s proud sequence stretching back to 1937 of having an academy player in the matchday squad.
‘I don’t want to be the guy that broke that record,’ he replied. ‘If you see the past of Manchester United, it’s built on kids that grew up here and stayed here for a long time. I think that should be our goal in the future, so I will try to maintain that.’
