Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana says he is more than happy to take criticism when things go wrong at Old Trafford amid what he termed as a rebuild at the club.
The Red Devils had a season to forget as they finished in an undesirable 8th place in the league. As a result of the club's underwhelming performances, Onana and other members of the squad faced a barrage of criticism.
However, in an interview with football pundit and former player Gary Neville on The Overlap podcast on YouTube, Onana said he was happy to take the bullets and dismissed the criticism as just part of the game.
"To be honest, I don't pay attention to it. I came to this team to take bullets because we are under construction at the moment. We are not the best, we have other teams doing better than us," said the United shot-stopper
"We have to be honest, we have to recognise that but if things are going wrong, don't go for the youngest one. I am here to take it, Bruno [Fernandes], Casemiro and Harry [Maguire] are there and we are used to it,"
The Cameroon International, who faced a total of 600 shots at goal this season — the highest of any goalkeeper — also refused to place the blame on United's shaky defence, saying such things happen in football and said he was confident things would be better next season.
“It's football. Sometimes it's just normal, we face a lot of injury crisis, and we lost a lot of important players. But of course it is not an excuse.”
“It is just a bad season for all of us and we have to stay positive as we are doing at the moment and I know everything will be all right even if is not this season, of course this season is difficult it will be the next one," Onana added.
Onana also touched on his relationship with Erik ten Hag, saying the United boss was just facing a tough situation at the club but hoped that he would be able to turn things around.
"I am not here to back him because he is big enough. Last season was fantastic for him, so it is just a bad season. Also for me last season, I was the best and this season we have a different goalkeeper. No, it is the same guy, he is just facing a difficult situation and we're big enough to accept the reality because we want to make this well we have to go front foot."
"So I think it's the same manager he is just facing a difficult situation hopefully things become good for him," Onana concluded.
IOL Sport