Ten Hag's stat for rating Onana "second-best goalkeeper" makes Luton star No.1
Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag defended goalkeeper Andre Onana after he made two major errors in their 3-3 draw with Galatasaray in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Onana's mistakes led to Hakim Ziyech scoring a pair of free-kicks and leaves United's hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages in major doubt. However, Ten Hag has stuck by the 27-year-old and claimed ahead of United's clash with Newcastle on Saturday that he is the "second-best goalkeeper in the Premier League ".
In his pre-match press conference, Ten Hag was asked if he felt the reaction to Onana's performance against Galatasaray had been too harsh and the Dutchman proceeded to use Opta's 'goals prevented' metric to defend his player.
"If you analyse it well, then you see he's the second-best goalkeeper in the Premier League, based on stats," Ten Hag said. "His expected number of preventing goals is the second-best in the Premier League.
"He's doing well, but he knows that in the Champions League he has made some mistakes, but all over, in the first five months, he has done well." According to Opta, Onana has prevented 3.67 goals in the league so far this season.
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Only Luton Town's Thomas Kaminski has a better record than Onana, having prevented 6.3 goals. Onana is also tied with Crystal Palace's Sam Johnstone and Newcastle's Nick Pope for the most Premier League clean sheets with five.
Onana and Fulham's Bernd Leno have both made a total of 51 saves, with only Sheffield United's Wes Foderingham making more with 65. And Ten Hag has also insisted the Cameroon international is ready to bounce back against Newcastle.
Erik ten Hag has defended Andre Onana (Getty Images)When asked about his confidence levels, Ten Hag replied: "You know, because you have seen how he is reacting to a bad performance like in Munich - and at Burnley he was outstanding. He's a strong character, he's a personality and he will deal with it."
United currently sit sixth in the league table, just four points off the top four, having suffered just one defeat in their last six games. However, Ten Hag is expecting a difficult challenge when they take on Newcastle.
''I really respect them as it is a difficult team to play against," he explained. "It is a good challenge and I like to play against them because, in the challenge, we have to rise to the occasion. We have to be at our best against them because as I say, the way they play, I think is very good and very organised.''
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