Manchester United are trailing 1-0 in France following a 25th-minute opener from Thiago Almada.
Indeed, Olympique Lyonnais have taken a well-deserved breakthrough after flurries of early pressure towards United’s goal.
Eventually, Andre Onana, who confidently claimed the Red Devils were ‘way better’ than their opponents in the build-up to the tie, watched on as Almada’s free-kick whipped past the players in the box and trickled its way into the net – yet another dire piece of goalkeeping from the £47 million acquisition.
It’s displays like that will give any forwards confidence that they can beat the man between the sticks. Especially in Onana’s case, as tonight’s opener marked his eighth error leading to goal in all competitions since his move from Inter Milan in 2023; no other goalkeeper has made more.
Manchester World journalist Rich Fay took to X/Twitter to react to the first half and singled out two positions that are hugely letting Ruben Amorim and the rest of the squad down.
“It’s the same old story for United as of late. They’ve not played badly but are completely undermined by the fact that the goalkeeper and striker just aren’t good enough,” Fay penned.
Unsurprisingly, he’s ruing the performances of Onana and Rasmus Hojlund, the latter of which has been lacklustre yet again after being trusted to provide the goals for United up top.
He was favoured to counterpart Joshua Zirkzee this evening, but has since come under fire for wasting a crucial early chance; the Dane was teed up by Patrick Dorgu in the box before dragging his effort wide of the post without even as much as troubling Lucas Perri.
Nonetheless, it’s safe to say INEOS will be looking to reinforce both positions this summer, with both Hojlund and Onana’s signings being finalised prior to Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s partial takeover.
