Ten Hag Acknowledge Onana’s Poor Start To Life At Man Utd, Hails Masterclass Save Against Copenhagen 

Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag hailed Andre Onana for showing “personality” against Copenhagen, after acknowledging his poor start to life.

After saving Jordan Larsson’s 97th-minute penalty, the Cameroonian goalkeeper remained tall in goal to give the Red Devils their first victory in the Champions League this year. Since his summer transfer from Inter Milan, Onana has drawn criticism. He made notable mistakes in United’s opening two group stage matches against Bayern Munich and Galatasaray. Ten Hag acknowledges that the goalkeeper hasn’t regularly performed at his greatest level at Old Trafford, but he was happy with his most recent performance.

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“It is incredible, a great night, especially in the last dying seconds we concede a penalty, which should not happen,” the United boss told TNT Sports. “But then it was a brilliant save from Andre. He has shown personality, he knows the levels, he has shown before what his skills are. He did not match his skills but I think Saturday was a very good performance and today as well. Also don’t forget his save after half-time on the counter-attack. And one of his skills is that he is a very good penalty saver.”

Ten Hag complained about a few contentious officiating decisions and claimed that United should have received a penalty after Marcus Rashford was taken down despite the three points, which were earned thanks to Harry Maguire’s 72nd-minute header.

“We conceded such a soft penalty and I think we should have had a penalty on Rashford, I do not know why that is not a penalty,” he said. “But we dealt with it and that is a step up from a few weeks ago when we got out of rhythm when we had some setbacks from refereeing decisions. But now we stayed calm after a poor first half and in the second half, we stepped up and all over, we created more chances than them. And finally, the win is justified, but it was a narrow escape in the end.”

Ten Hag will be hoping his squad can take confidence into their first derby match of the season against Manchester City on Sunday after picking up their first points in the Champions League.