Andre Onana has admitted it has taken him up to eight months to get to grips with life at Manchester United, but he has now reached a mental ‘turning point’.
United signed Onana from Inter last summer for an initial £43.8m transfer fee following an extremely successful one-year spell at San Siro. The Cameroonian was brought in as a long-term replacement to club legend David de Gea, but initially found life tough at Old Trafford.
Onana was criticised for a series of errors and gaffes in his first few months with the Red Devils, but has started to piece together a fine run of form recently and made several good saves in Wednesday night’s 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup.
Ahead of Sunday’s crucial derby away at Manchester City, Onana has revealed he has only recently overcome the requisite mental hurdles to put in such match-winning performances.
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“I had a turning point, but not on the pitch… more mental,” Onana told The Telegraph.
“Of course, last season I moved from Amsterdam [with Ajax] to Milan but that adaptation was quite easy. But it took me seven, eight months here. It was just time to learn and go game by game. I hope we will end on top.
“I already know the goalkeeper that I am. It took me six months or seven months not to play good just to feel good. It was a difficult time for me. Now I’m feeling a bit better. Everything was new, it was difficult for me to feel at home for so many reasons – new country…
“Now I’m feeling good. I don’t want to talk about performance because I know the goalkeeper I am. The most important thing is to be set, to be happy and I will shine.
“My teammates – they always reminded me who I am and the goalkeeper I am and why I came to this club. They told me, ‘Andre, it took some players two years, for others six months and others no time. You have that personality to turn the situation [around]’.
“They always believed in me and told me from the beginning, ‘Andre, the quality is there, it’s just a matter of time’.
“I am very happy, especially with the supporters, the fans, they were nice with me even in difficult periods and I’m very thankful. I can only thank them. Everything is behind me, now we have to move on and together a great time will come. We just have to do the right thing and the future will be brilliant for all of us.”
