Andre Onana will return in goal for Manchester United’s Europa League quarter-final second leg against Olympique Lyonnais despite his errors in the first leg but striker Joshua Zirkzee is out for the season, manager Ruben Amorim said on Wednesday.
Lyon snatched a dramatic 2-2 draw in the first leg last week after Onana made errors for both goals, with Amorim leaving him out for Sunday’s Premier League match at Newcastle United where Altay Bayindir played in goal in a 4-1 defeat.
Onana’s errors came a day after Lyon midfielder Nemanja Matic described the Cameroonian as “one of the worst goalkeepers” in the club’s history but Amorim defended his player at the time and continues to trust him.
“Onana will play tomorrow… As a coach and former player, I try to do things that can help a player in this situation,” Amorim told reporters ahead of Thursday’s game at Old Trafford.
“Sometimes we talk about managing players physically but we also talk about managing them mentally. We had one weekend where I felt it was better for Andre Onana not to play and a good thing for Altay to play.
“I’m trying to be clear on things and try to make the evaluation really simple and not over-think it… He had one weekend to rest, now he’s ready to return to the competition and I chose Andre to start this game.”
Dutch striker Zirkzee pulled up at Newcastle while clutching his hamstring and Amorim said at the time that the injury did not look good.
“Joshua is out for the season, let’s prepare him for the next one,” Amorim said of the 23-year-old who had seven goals and three assists in all competitions this season.
“It’s tough in the moment because he was improving in all aspects of the game and it is hard for any player to stop.”
‘MY RECORD IS THE WORST’
But when questions were raised about the performances of Onana and Bayindir, Amorim refused to be drawn into a discussion on whether he was happy with the goalkeepers at his disposal.
“My answer is that we need to improve every position on the field. Goalkeeper is the same, we can work with Andre,” Amorim said.
“(In the close season) we are going to make that evaluation for any position in the squad. If we are talking about mistakes, you can see my record. My record is the worst one in our team.
“So I’m also underperforming and I think I’m the right guy to coach the team. So I think the same for Andre.”
Centre back Harry Maguire also came to Onana’s defence, saying he has proved in the past that he is an ‘excellent’ goalkeeper and that he had confidence in the 29-year-old who is keen to prove a point.
“He’s won numerous trophies, played in a Champions League final (with Inter Milan). During your career, you always have spells where you have ups and downs and you find yourself a little bit out of form,” Maguire said.
“It’s about how you build yourself back in and find that confidence to perform again. At the moment he’s probably feeling that everything’s going against him. But you take game by game, and I’m sure he’s going to be there tomorrow night.”
