Another Man United star blamed for ‘costly’ Andre Onana mistake in Europa League

Another Man United star blamed for ‘costly’ Andre Onana mistake in Europa League

Another Manchester United star was blamed for Andre Onana’s embarrassing mistake in the club’s Europa League victory over Viktoria Plzen.

United went behind shortly after half-time in Thursday’s European clash at the Doosan Arena as Onana’s short pass to Matthijs de Ligt was cut out.

Pavel Sulc reacted quickly to intercept Onana’s pass and then squared the ball to Matej Vydra who was able to tap into a near-empty net from six yards out.

Viktoria Plzen have been difficult to beat in Europe but Manchester United did just that despite going behind, producing a comeback thanks to two goals from second-half substitute Rasmus Hojlund.

The embarrassing goal that United conceded was still a focal talking point after the 2-1 win and ex-Chelsea and England midfielder Karen Carney felt De Ligt was to blame more than Onana.

‘For the Viktoria Plzen goal it is a slow ball into the feet of Andre Onana by Lisandro Martinez,’ she said on TNT Sports.

‘What Onana is then saying to Matthijs de Ligt is to come short. If they do that he can bounce it out the other side and avoid the high press.

‘But De Ligt is on his back foot and he doesn’t want the ball, he is too slow to react and then it is an error.’

Former Manchester United star Owen Hargreaves, meanwhile, said both Onana and De Ligt were at ‘fault’.

‘Both Andre Onana and Matthijs de Ligt could be at fault there, but Onana a little bit more,’ he said. ‘De Ligt really didn’t want the ball. In the end, Onana plays a poor pass.

‘But Ruben Amorim wants his centre-backs to go in there and receive the ball. De Ligt is not comfortable receiving it on the half turn and Onana plays a poor ball and on the wrong side.

‘It’s difficult position for a centre-back to be in. If the manager tells you to do something, you are going to do it.’

But Robbie Savage believes Onana was to blame for the goal after his ‘terrible’ attempted pass to De Ligt.

‘The pass is not on for Andre Onana,’ he said during TNT Sports commentary. ‘He tries to play out and it is a terrible pass to De Ligt.

‘He is out of his goal and the square pass is played to Matej Vydra and he is not missing from there.’

Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes, who set up Hojlund’s late winner, attempted to play down the error that led to Viktoria Plzen’s opener.

‘It was a good performance overall,’ he said. ‘I think in the final third we could have kept the ball a bit more but the man-marking from them was difficult to get away from.

‘Sometimes you just have to pass and run to try to find the gaps in behind. In the first half we did it better than in the second half, when we let the game go a little bit in the way that they wanted, a bit more transitional.

‘Then we dealt with that and in the end we got the win. We want to play from the back and everyone knows that then we have to make the right decision on the pitch.

‘Andre [Onana] thought that Matta [De Ligt] could get on the ball but he missed it and they scored a goal.

‘It is not about Andre making the mistake, we don’t look at individuals here when something happens on the wrong side. We have huge belief in him.

‘He knows he made a mistake because he is a clever guy, he is going to help us many times and we trust his qualities on the ball