Man Utd flop who should be "fourth choice" has been even worse than Onana

Manchester United have had a dismal season, irrespective of what happens on Wednesday night, as they are on course to finish closer to the bottom three than the top five in the Premier League.

The Red Devils, who face Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final this week, will not be playing European football next term if they fail to beat Spurs.

It is fair to say that recruitment has been a big problem for United in recent seasons, with too many flops and not enough hits, and Andre Onana is one example of that.

Why Andre Onana has been a flop for Manchester United

The Premier League giants reportedly paid a fee of £47.2m to sign the Cameroon international from Dutch side Ajax in the summer of 2023 to replace club legend David De Gea.

Unfortunately, Onana, who made his 100th appearance for the club in the defeat to Chelsea, has been far too error-prone between the sticks for the Red Devils over the past two seasons, as illustrated by the statistic below.

The 29-year-old dud has prevented 3.34 goals, based on the xG against him, which shows that he has performed fairly well as a shot-stopper overall in the Premier League, but the errors have let him down.

United cannot rely on their number one goalkeeper week-in-week-out because of how many errors he has made that have directly led to goals, which is why he has been a flop for the Red Devils.

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Onana, however, was not even the worst signing that was made in the summer of 2023, as centre-forward Rasmus Hojlund was an even worse piece of business.

Why Hojlund was a worse signing than Onana

Ahead of the 2023/24 campaign, Manchester United decided to splash the cash on a new number nine, signing the Danish attacker from Atalanta for a mammoth £72m transfer fee.

The 22-year-old centre-forward has yet to live up to his huge price tag, though, with just 14 Premier League goals to his name since the start of last season.

Hojlund, who was described as “anxious” to score by Ruben Amorim, has not done enough to get himself in high-quality scoring positions on a regular basis, as shown by the incredible statistic including Harry Maguire above.

As you can see in the table above, the Denmark international has accrued less than 13 xG in 61 Premier League appearances as a centre-forward for United and has regularly been dominated by opposition defenders in physical duels.

Earlier this week, Manchester United legend Roy Keane criticised the attacker’s position in the squad, suggesting that he should be way further down the pecking order at Old Trafford.

The former Ireland international said: “Hojlund, in his defence, I think should have been a back-up striker. Third or fourth choice, and learn his trade off some brilliant strikers. He is not good enough.”

His poor statistics in a United shirt in the Premier League suggest that the criticism is fair, but the club also paid a significant amount of money for him, and he has failed to deliver.

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Onana has, at least, been the first-choice goalkeeper and been a net-positive with his xG prevented, despite the errors, and cost £24.8m less than the striker, which is why Hojlund has been an even worse signing for the club with his struggles at the top end of the pitch.