Andre Onana has raised eyebrows following his unusual tactics during Manchester United’s penalty shootout victory over Arsenal. The Red Devils faced off against their Premier League rivals in a friendly ahead of the 2024-25 season, and while they lost the match 2-1, Erik ten Hag’s side emerged victorious through a separate penalty shootout.
A lot of credit for that can go to the goalkeeper, who deployed some unusual tactics to get inside the heads of the Arsenal players taking spot-kicks. It worked too, with United winning the shootout 4-3 after two of Mikel Arteta’s men missed their attempts.
Onana Taunted the Arsenal Players
He pointed to where they should aim
Keepers have got to have a tough mindset when it comes to penalty shootouts. Getting inside your opponent’s head can be the difference between coming out on top and losing one of the contests. Aston Villa and Argentina number one Emiliano Martinez has proven in the past how successful you can be when you deploy mind games in a shootout – and that’s what Onana did against Arsenal. The United man taunted several of his opponents, telling them where to aim their spot-kicks before they took them.
While the effectiveness of Onana’s tactics can be questioned, Arsenal did miss two of their attempts to help the Red Devils pick up the shootout victory. It didn’t work with Gabriel Magalhaes, though, who was seen telling Onana to be quiet after putting his own attempt past the Cameroonian. Watch the clip below:
Gabriel’s penalty wasn’t enough to give his side the win, with United coming out of the shootout with a 4-3 victory. Jadon Sancho, who was on loan at Borussia Dortmund last season following a public fall-out with Erik ten Hag, converted the winning penalty. Arteta’s side will at least take solace from the fact that they won the initial match, though.
While United won the shootout, the initial match had a very different result. After Rasmus Hojlund gave Ten Hag’s men the lead inside the first 10 minutes, Gabriel Jesus equalised just over 15 minutes later. It was a tightly contested affair from that point onwards, until Gabriel Martinelli’s strike in the 81st minute put the Gunners in front.
Despite the overall victory, it was a disappointing day for United, with Hojlund and new signing Leny Yoro both being replaced during the contest after they picked up injuries. While Yoro’s doesn’t appear to be too serious, the initial reports suggest that Hojlund’s was related to his hamstring and will have the Red Devils faithful a little concerned as the new season approaches. Having recently been handed the number 9 shirt at Old Trafford, the former Atalanta man has a huge campaign ahead of him, and this isn’t the most auspicious way for things to get started.
