Carragher says Man Utd star would ‘never feature again’ if he was a youth player

Jamie Carragher says Andre Onana would ‘never feature again’ after the Champions League draw with Galatasaray if he was a youth team player.

Onana made errors for the first two goals United conceded on Wednesday, as the £47m summer signing was beaten by a couple of relatively tame Hakim Ziyech free-kicks.

The 27-year-old has been in the spotlight ever since joining the Red Devils from Inter Milan having made a number of mistakes and Carragher became the latest pundit to slam the goalkeeper in his column for The Telegraph.

Carragher said: ‘Onana cost the team home and away against Galatasaray and was poor against Bayern Munich in the opening group game.

‘Yes, he made a last-minute penalty save against Copenhagen at Old Trafford, but the numerous minuses far outweigh that one positive.

‘The performance in Turkey was unacceptable for a Manchester United goalkeeper. You would not expect an Under-18 keeper to make the basic handling error for Galatasaray’s second goal.

‘If a youth keeper was promoted and played like Onana on Wednesday evening, he would probably never feature for the first team again.

‘Onana has cost United too many cheap goals. The hope that the worst was behind him after a poor start to his Old Trafford career has been blown out of the water and Wednesday was a huge step backwards.

‘Onana has already developed a reputation for being a liability. That will take a long time to overcome and reverse.

‘On a personal level, I feel sorry for him. The criticism is not intended to be cruel. It is a reflection of the standards expected at the top of the professional game. You cannot play for Manchester United and avoid this level of scrutiny, especially when the stakes are as high as they were in Istanbul. Huge fixtures are settled by small margins.’

The Liverpool legend says Erik ten Hag should take a leaf out of Sir Alex Ferguson and be ‘ruthless’ in his treatment of Onana.

He continued: ‘Ten Hag must be concerned moving forward.

‘No manager understood the importance of a reliable goalkeeper more than Sir Alex Ferguson. Ten Hag might ask himself, “What would Fergie do?” and there is plenty of material to guide him.

‘From Jim Leighton through to Massimo Taibi, Mark Bosnich and Fabian Barthez, Ferguson was ruthless when he believed his keeper was costing games. It did not matter if he signed the number one, even for a decent fee. You either met the required level or you were out.’

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