Manchester United's goalkeeping issues showed no signs of ending on Sunday afternoon after a dismal 4-1 defeat to Newcastle United in the Premier League.
This week, the talk surrounding United has centred solely on the goalkeeper's position. After keeping a clean sheet against Manchester City in a meagre derby, Andre Onana then proceeded to make two high-profile mistakes as the Reds drew 2-2 with Lyon in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final.
Rather sensibly, Ruben Amorim chose to withdraw Onana from the spotlight and insisted that Altay Bayindir take his place for the Premier League meeting in the north east. However, the Turkish shot-stopper shipped four on his Premier League debut - including a poor error to gift Bruno Guimaraes his fourth in the top-flight.
In the meantime David De Gea, who was released by Erik ten Hag to make room for Onana, kept his 11th clean sheet of the season as Fiorentina drew with Parma in Serie A. What's more, the Italian club look set to trigger a one-year contract extension for the Spaniard to add further salt into the United wounds.
De Gea was without a club for the entirety of last season, while he spent much of his time in Greater Manchester. He trained at Altrincham to keep himself in top condition and United could have brought him back if they wanted.
Instead, Ten Hag chose to stick with his No.1 and that decision has earned criticism from many United supporters. However, the truth of the matter is that the Reds were right to let De Gea leave. Towards the end of his time at United, mistakes were starting to become regular occurrences; the FA Cup final against City was the final nail in his long-standing career at Old Trafford.
Ten Hag was not wrong to replace De Gea - he was wrong about the type of goalkeeper needed to replace him. United wanted a player who could play out from the back and Onana fitted that bill.
And yet, the Reds didn't play to his strengths and, more often than not, chose to hoof it long. When passes were played short, United did not have the centre-backs capable of playing out from the back, and caused themselves their own problems.
Amorim also favours a goalkeeper who builds from the back, but still United have struggled to do that from defence. What United would have been better off doing is signing a goalkeeper who is used to facing a high quantity of shots.
Onana has been bombarded this season, and last, and his shot stopping, which seems strange to admit, is not his key strength. It works in a team like Inter Milan where you are, more often than not, dominant but for this current United side it is simply not working.
So if Onana and De Gea were not the answer, who is? Perhaps Jordan Pickford might have been.
He's pummelled in the Everton goal, and yet has kept more clean sheets and conceded fewer goals in less Premier League appearances than Onana. Maybe he was the 'keeper that United should have tried everything to sign.
In a good side, your goalkeeper can become secondary as they are needed less often but when you are struggling, the man between the sticks needs to be relied upon. Sadly, United have not had that for a long, long time.
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