Revealing statistic from Andre Onana's Man Utd debut proves Erik ten Hag was right to ditch David de Gea

Andre Onana made his debut between the sticks for Manchester United and Erik ten Hag was impressed.

Last week United completed the £47.2million signing of goalkeeper Onana from Inter on a five-year deal with the option of a further year.

The Cameroonian was brought in to replace David de Gea, who left the club after 12 years as first-choice keeper.

Though the Spaniard won last season’s Premier League Golden Glove award, he was responsible for several errors leading to goals, while his ability with the ball at his feet was often criticised.

In contrast, Onana represents the modern goalkeeper, capable with his feet and highly mobile, which allows him to play as a ‘sweeper keeper’.

And the 27-year-old displayed his talents despite United’s 2-0 friendly defeat to Real Madrid.

Onana’s Man Utd debut

According to Sofascore, Onana had 51 touches and completed 39 passes against Los Blancos at the NRG Stadium in Houston.

Indeed, the shot-stopper’s pass completion rate was 95.1 per cent.

In comparison, in United’s 2-1 loss to Manchester City in last month's FA Cup final, De Gea had 43 touches and made 17 accurate passes.

As per Sofascore, the 32-year-old, who was playing his last game for United, only registered a pass accuracy of 48.6 per cent.

And while Onana let in two goals in his debut against the La Liga champions, Ten Hag was full of praise for the shot-stopper.

“I think he was good, solid,” said Ten Hag via the Mirror. “He made two very good saves, so he was there in the moment the team needed him, he did his job, he integrated well into our team.

“This is the first game [with Onana] and we have a lot of work to do, on the defending part. For the second goal, we were not close at the back post, and it can't be that a goal can come there.

“There are rules we have to follow, but they will come quickly in the way that we integrate them into our way of play.”