Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag says goalkeeper Andre Onana is the Premier League’s second-best goalkeeper “based on stats”.
Onana, 27, was at fault for two Galatasaray goals in Wednesday’s 3-3 Champions League draw which left qualification hopes in the balance.
However, the Cameroonian is tied for most clean sheets in the Premier League this season with five.
And Onana has also prevented 3.67 goals – the second most in the league.
Only Luton Town’s Thomas Kaminski is ahead of him on 6.3 goals prevented.
Those numbers come from Opta calculations, with actual goals conceded subtracted from the expected goals on target (xGOT) conceded figures, which reflect quality of chances for the opponent and shot execution.
Defending his keeper, Ten Hag said: “If you analyse it well then you see he is the second-best goalkeeper in the Premier League based on stats, so his expected defending goals is the second best in the Premier League.”
Onana was a £47.2m summer signing from Inter Milan in the summer, replacing David de Gea, who left at the end of his contract.
But in addition to the mistakes in Turkey, he also made errors in the 4-3 loss to Bayern Munich at the start of the group phase.
Ten Hag, whose team play Newcastle United in the Premier League on Saturday evening, said of Onana: “He’s doing well. Also, he knows that in the Champions League, he makes some mistakes, but all over you see the first five months he is doing particularly well.
“You have seen how he reacted to a bad performance like in Munich. At Burnley he was outstanding.
“He is a strong character, he is a personality and he will deal with it.”
United defender Tyrell Malacia has “successfully” undergone further knee surgery after suffering a setback in his recovery, the club said.
Malacia, 24, is yet to feature this season after having an initial operation in the summer.
He is back at the club to start his rehabilitation and is expected to return to action “early in the new year”.