Man Utd goalkeepers ranked: Onana five places behind De Gea…
With Manchester United goalkeepers in the spotlight, we’ve gone back through the Red Devils’ No.1s to consider where Andre Onana sits among his predecessors at Old Trafford.
Here’s how we’ve ranked all those who played at least 50 games since the start of Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign in 1986. Which rules out the likes of Mark Bosnich, Massimo Taibi, Ben Foster, Ricardo, Andy Goram…
13) Tomas Kuszczak
We start with a keeper signed from West Brom to serve as Edwin van der Sar’s deputy; although Kuszczak had ambitions of replacing the Dutchman, it was never a likely prospect.
The Poland international, capped 11 times, arrived from West Brom in 2006, by which time Van der Sar was close to turning 36. Despite staying at Old Trafford for more than five years, Van der Sar played his last game for United after Kuszczak, who saw the writing on the wall long before he was finally released in 2012, after which he accused Ferguson of holding back his career. Still, Kuszczak won three Premier League titles and a Champions League winner’s medal even it’s hard to recall any major contribution.
12) Sergio Romero
Romero was a stand-in at Monaco before he joined United for free to do the same job at Old Trafford. The Argentina international, with 96 caps, became United’s cup keeper for Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho and that role seemed to suit him.
He made 61 appearances for United, keeping 39 clean sheets, while playing in the 2017 Europa League final. Romero was competent – even if some of his distribution was ropey – but was never likely to usurp De Gea, even when the Spaniard was out of form. Similar to Kuszczak, things got messy in the end, with Romero spending much of his last season away from the squad while his wife urged the club to let him go when Everton were sniffing.
11) Jim Leighton
Leighton was Ferguson’s first goalkeeping signing, brought in 1988 for £750,000 from Aberdeen where the pair had enjoyed great success together. The Scotland No.1 had a reasonable first season in a poor United side which finished 11th in Division One. Still, Leighton kept 14 clean sheets and conceded more than twice on only one occasion in all competitions.
It all fell apart towards the end of his second campaign at Old Trafford. Ferguson was clinging to his job while United shambled their way to a 13th-placed finish. An FA Cup run saved Ferguson – but it buried Leighton.
The No.1 had a poor game, one of a few in 1990, in the final with two of Crystal Palace’s three goals pinned on Leighton. Ferguson made the bold call to drop him for the replay, bringing in Les Sealey, then on loan from Luton. It proved to be a masterstroke, with Sealey relishing his moment in the spotlight, keeping a clean sheet while Leighton looked shattered in the stands.
Leighton played only once more for United – a League Cup game against Halifax at The Shay – with his relationship with Ferguson irreparably broken. “We’ve never spoken since, and never will do again,” said the keeper in 2018.
It took Leighton three years before he began rebuilding his career north of the border with Hibs, where he regained his international place.
10) Roy Carroll
Carroll was signed from Wigan in 2001, initially to be back up to Fabien Barthez, with a view to perhaps one day replacing the Frenchman. That finally happened late in his second season when Ferguson lost faith in Barthez amid a title battle with Arsenal.
Carroll helped get United over the line but was immediately presented with a new challenge when Tim Howard turned up. The American won the battle for the gloves in his first year but his second season saw an even contest with no outright winner.
It was during that season, amid a run of 22 Premier League matches for United, that Carroll got away with fumbling Pedro Mendes’ late, long-distance hoik, a moment that is now inextricably linked with his name. More costly was a mistake in the first leg of a Champions League last-16 tie against AC Milan which prompted another rotation.
Carroll left at the end of that season when Ferguson finally stopped faffing with his keepers.
9) Tim Howard
Few had heard of Howard when he was signed from NY/NJ Metrostars in 2003 for £2.3million. But the then-24-year-old was thrust straight into the United team with Ferguson having run out of patience with Barthez.
His first season started well and all seemed to be going swimmingly until March, when Howard parried a late Porto free-kick in the Champions League last 16 to prompt Jose Mourinho’s touchline dash and kickstart the Portuguese manager’s ascent to become one of Ferguson’s main foes.
After that, Howard struggled for consistent form. In 2004/05, he and Carroll auditioned for the role of United’s No. 1 but both kept fumbling their lines so the job went to Van der Sar.
Howard went to become one of the Premier League’s most reliable keepers at Everton. Perhaps if he’d gone to Everton first, he’d have been ready to take the responsibility at United later in his career.
8) Andre Onana
When it was decided that De Gea wasn’t Erik ten Hag’s type, and that United needed a more modern goalkeeper, Onana was identified as the ideal candidate. Most people agreed – indeed, the Cameroonian was expected to make a big difference to how United could build. Let’s not pretend there was any backlash to his signing.
Has Onana made a big difference to United as a unit? Nope. Is that his fault? Not entirely.
But it is his responsibility to stop the ball going in the net, and that fundamental task for any goalkeeper – traditional or modern – is what he has struggled with most. Onana has pulled off some great saves. But he’s dropped many a bollock. And such unpredictability is not a price worth paying for a playmaker in gloves. Which he’s not anyway.
As this list highlights, you need to be a big character to fill the goal at Old Trafford. And Onana certainly has the necessary ego. But too much of his confidence seems misplaced. Goalkeepers need to ooze self-belief, and they can fake it to some extent when they don’t always feel it, but that assurance needs to spread throughout the team. Onana puts everyone around him on edge, and the bravado will only heighten that uneasiness while he fails to back it up.
7) Gary Walsh
Walsh is the only homegrown keeper on this list, and were it not for injuries, he might have ranked considerably higher.
The Wigan-born stopper was given his debut in Ferguson’s sixth league game in charge at Old Trafford. Fergie inherited Chris Turner – and Gary Bailey, but by then injuries had taken their toll – but evidently preferred Walsh, despite the teenager’s inexperience.
Walsh ended Ferguson’s first season as No.1 and began the 1987/88 season with the gloves. But a serious head injury, sustained in a mid-season friendly in Bermuda in which Ferguson brought himself on as a centre-forward, ended the youngster’s campaign, at the end of which Ferguson moved for Leighton.
Walsh stuck around for seven more seasons but never threatened to regain the No.1 spot or fulfil the potential that made Fergie put an 18-year-old in his net. His final season, as one of Schemeichel’s back-ups in 1994/95, saw Walsh play the most games since his initial breakthrough, but he had to leave Old Trafford – initially for Middlesbrough then Bradford – to forge a career as a No.1.
6) Raimond Van der Gouw
Too handsome to be first-choice goalkeeper but Van der Gouw was a hugely reliable presence for Ferguson when he needed a back-up for Peter Schmeichel.
When Schmeichel left and it quickly became clear that Bosnich wasn’t up to the job of replacing the Great Dane, Van der Gouw once again stepped in with no fuss to guard United’s goal while Ferguson tried again to find a successor to Schmeichel. That was the only season in which he made enough appearances to qualify for a title winner’s medal.
Overall, in six seasons at Old Trafford, Van der Gouw managed 60 appearances. No in his 60s, he still looks like he might do a job…
5) Fabien Barthez
None of what the modern goalkeeper is doing is revolutionary. Barthez was playing as an 11th outfielder at Old Trafford 20 years ago.
Having failed with his initial attempts to replace Schmeichel, first with Bosnich then Taibi, Ferguson turned to Barthez in 2000. The France star, a World Cup and European Championship winner, was one of only three keepers Fergie felt could improve his team. The others: Oliver Kahn and Gianluigi Buffon. Hence why he paid Monaco £7.8million for the then 28-year-old.
His first season was brilliant fun. Barthez saved penalties and quite often took the p*ss out of opposition strikers. Paolo Di Canio gave it back when he knocked United out of the FA Cup while Barthez tried to pretend he had been flagged offside, but overall, the French keeper was a huge hit.
Until he wasn’t. His second season saw Barthez make more mistakes but Ferguson considered the risk to be worth the reward. In his third campaign, Fergie’s patience finally snapped and Barthez was bombed out after the defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League. Carroll came in and Barthez was packed off back to Marseille.
4) Les Sealey
Sealey wasn’t United’s No.1 for a long time, but he was determined to make it a good time…
His selection for the 1990 FA Cup final replay stunned everyone – especially Leighton – but Ferguson got the massive call right. “Was he a better keeper than Jim? No, but he thought he was, and that can sometimes be important.”
Palace wrongly thought they could rough him up at Wembley but the brash Cockney wasn’t to be intimidated by them or the job of being Fergie’s No.1 the following season. Sealey was superb and became a Stretford End favourite. As Ferguson said, the ex-Luton veteran wasn’t the most technically accomplished stopper or the finest physical specimen. But he defended United’s goal as if his life depended on it.
It almost did. In the 1991 League Cup final, Sealey received a gash to his knee that almost went to the bone. Despite being urged to come off, the keeper was having none of it. He demanded to be strapped up and allowed to continue. Later, with an infection in the wound, he collapsed in the airport on the way back to Manchester. Had he boarded the flight, it might have cost Sealey his leg or possibly his life.
Inevitably he was back, with a heavily bandaged knee, for the European Cup Winners’ Cup final against Barcelona a few weeks later, helping Ferguson to win his second trophy after playing such a huge role in the first. That summer, Schmeichel came in and Sealey departed, briefly, before Ferguson brought him back to serve as Schmeichel’s understudy.
Tragically, Sealey suffered a heart attack and died seven years after leaving United for a second time in 1994.
3) David de Gea
You might reasonably argue that De Gea merits a higher ranking. Some suggested in the wake of his departure in 2023 that he could be viewed as United’s best ever, with four Player of the Season awards presented as evidence.
It’s a compelling argument, reinforced by his longevity. Only six players have ever played more games for United than the Spaniard they signed in 2011 from Atletico Madrid. He arrived a boy, one who didn’t look likely to be around very long, but went on to become one of the world’s best goalkeepers.
But, somewhere along the line, perhaps around the time he signed that massive new deal in 2019, De Gea became outdated. He slipped from being Spain’s No.1 to being overlooked completely, while obvious flaws in his game – his struggles with high balls into his box and a lack of quality with the ball at his feet – weren’t corrected.
It came to a head in 2022/23 when it became clear that De Gea wasn’t Ten Hag’s type. Still, he made some wonderful saves – dropped a few clangers too – to the point that Ten Hag seemed to feel he would be able to make do with the 32-year-old. Until the manager changed his mind and decided that replacing De Gea had become a priority during what was a huge summer. One they made a complete bollocks of.
United should have handled his exit far better and he ought to have been given the send-off he deserved. That, and the fact it was the right call if clumsily processed, does not denigrate a stellar United career played out under six permanent managers. But this pair, perhaps helped by the fact they were fortunate to play in far better teams, make a better case for the top two spots…
2) Edwin van der Sar
Ferguson put it best in his autobiography…
‘We had a bad period trying to replace Peter Schmeichel. It’s maybe not my strong point. It wasn’t until we brought in Edwin that we got back to the level we had with Peter. Edwin was a great buy for us, absolutely brilliant. Looking back, I just wish we’d got him when Peter decided to leave.’
United signed six senior keepers in the six years between Schmeichel’s departure and Van der Sar’s arrival. Perhaps that period gave the Holland international the chance to better prepare for the demands of the role. When he finally arrived, close to turning 35, he was experienced enough to handle the pressure and, frankly, make the job that so many others struggled with look a piece of p*ss.
Despite his age, Van der Sar kept Fergie’s goal for six seasons, eventually retiring aged 40. The ex-Ajax, Juventus and Fulham keeper, with 130 caps, won four Premier League titles and played a huge role in winning the Champions League for United in 2008. Sure, it helped playing behind Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, but Van der Sar was a flawless presence and a key cog in arguably Ferguson’s best-ever side.
1) Peter Schmeichel
United’s best-ever keeper. Arguably the game’s greatest ever.
Between 1991 and 1999, Schmeichel filled United’s goal, if not by his physical bulk then by the sheer heft of his personality. The Great Dane was a force too intimidating for many strikers, with most wilting as they raced through with only Schmeichel to beat.
In those one-on-one situations, Schmeichel made mainstream the star-shaped smoother, blocking out the entire goal behind him, with arms and legs akimbo. His distribution added another new dimension to United, with an arrowed throw so long it turned opposition defences. Other aspects of his game, technically, weren’t easy on the eye but goalkeeping is an art and Schmeichel had it mastered.
He kept goal throughout United’s first title under Ferguson, their first and second doubles and, of course, the Treble, bringing down the curtain on his United career with the 1999 Champions League final. Some say he tarnished his legacy somewhat by returning to the Premier League with Villa and then Manchester City, but only the most churlish United fan would view Schmeichel’s achievements any less favourably for what came after an incredible eight-season stint making United’s goal the most secure in England.
