Ruben Amorim will be patient with Andre Onana after the Manchester United goalkeeper’s latest blunder.
Onana’s reckless back-pass cost United a goal against Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League on Thursday night, five days after he was at fault for letting in a Morgan Gibbs-White shot in the defeat to Nottingham Forest.
United recovered against Plzen to win 2-1 in the Czech Republic with two goals from substitute Rasmus Hojlund, but it raised more questions over Onana who had previously been in top form.
Amorim admitted that playing out from the back will always carry risks and vowed to keep working with the Cameroon keeper to iron out any more mistakes.
‘You have to take it like it is,’ said United’s new head coach. ‘He had already, in the past, a past situation like that. We have to work on this.
‘If you see the play, we are trying to build up a lot with the goalkeeper making the bounce (pass) with Matta (De Ligt). This time we have a disconnect a little bit during the play. And when we try this, we suffered a goal.
Andre Onana made another big mistake during Manchester United’s win over Viktoria Plzen
Ruben Amorim will be patient with Onana and reminded fans playing out from the back is risky
‘A difficult goal for us in the end of the second half. But we managed (to come back, unlike against Nottingham. We managed to help Onana, like he did in the past for us.’
Amorim was asked once again how he intends to make his players run more as he tries to turn United into a more competitive team. ‘It’s transitions,’ he replied. ‘So tell them to run and which kind of positions they must have when the ball is in our box.
‘We try to make sure there are targets during training and during games. We try to push them to press and if they don’t have time to train they can play in three games, so they can improve with that.
‘It’s about putting some small targets. Some marks on the pitch telling players where players would be when then ball is near our box.
‘I think they are improving and if you see the transitions you can see that we are improving on the speed (at which we move.) Sometimes we cannot do it, but we are training and I can feel it in the team.’
