Ruben Amorim has been told to drop a 'useless' Manchester United star for the rest of the season by former Chelsea boss George Burley.
United lost their opening league game of the season as they fell to a 1-0 home loss to Arsenal and while they didn’t perform badly, it was another goalkeeper fault that cost them a result.
Riccardo Calafiori’s early goal proved the difference between the pair at Old Trafford last month with Altay Bayindir at fault for the goal.
Bayindir blunders are costing United
The Turkey international could only palm a Declan Rice corner into the path of Calafiori, and it’s not the first time Bayindir has been at fault from an opposition set-piece.
The former Fenerbahce man conceded an ‘Olympic Goal’ to Son Heung-Min in the EFL Cup as the South Korean star scored direct from a corner last December.
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United haven’t had the best of luck with goalkeepers since David De Gea was released, with Andre Onana also struggling to win fans over following his arrival from Inter.
Onana has been linked with a loan move to Trabzonspor, while United also signed youngster Senne Lammens from Royal Antwerp in the summer window to improve Amorim’s goalkeeper options.
And Amorim has been told by Burley that Bayindir should no longer be an option between the United sticks, with the Scot pointing to the goalkeeper’s weakness from set-pieces as a case in point.
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"Altay Bayindir, they can’t play him. He might be okay at shot-stopping, which is what goalkeepers are paid for, but he’s absolutely useless at dealing with balls in from set-pieces,” Burley told ESPN.
“This new lad [Lammens] needs to be able to marshal a back four, make saves and have an authority and make a statement at set-pieces.
“That’s what every team is going to do against United now, they’re going to launch balls into the box and the goalkeeper needs to be able to deal with it. He’s either going to sink or swim. We don’t really know how he’s going to handle this scenario.”
Onana has got "worse" at United
Burley was also critical of Onana, adding: "[Onana] another player who’s gone to Manchester United and got worse. He cost a lot of money but he wasn’t able to marshal a back four.
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“I thought Onana would be the real deal, it looked that way in Italy. I thought he might have a Peter Schmeichel-esque aura about him and boss about players but it hasn’t happened. If this new, youngish lad comes in and starts flapping about all over the place, it’s going to be a mess.”
Lammens is expected to come in as first choice at Old Trafford, but former Watford and England goalkeeper Ben Foster believes the 23-year-old was a “panic buy”.
On Lammens, Foster said: “I’ve watched a lot of videos of him [Lammens] on YouTube… and he looks on the eye test like he’s a competent goalkeeper. I’m yet to see what he’s like with the ball at his feet though and I think he’s a panic buy.
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“United have probably always got some sort of list of goalkeepers that they look at and they keep tabs on. There will be scouts all over the world… but I don’t think they’ve done an in-depth analysis. A deadline day goalkeeper signing tells me that your club is desperate.”
United face a tough return to domestic duties next weekend as they travel to rivals Manchester City before welcoming Chelsea the following week.
Topics: Manchester United, Andre Onana, Premier League, Football
Ben McAleer