MASSIMO TAIBI has warned error-prone Manchester United keeper Andre Onana it is “one hell of task” to come back from the dead once people have written you off.
Ex-Red Devils keeper Taibi, 54, even joked the under-fire Cameroon ace should pop up with a GOAL every now and then to bury the memory of his howlers.
In two defeats this month, Onana was at fault for a Morgan Gibbs-White goal from long range for Nottingham Forest and for conceding directly from a corner kick from Wolves’ Matheus Cunha.
Taibi, infamous for letting a harmless shot from Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier squirm under his body and in at Old Trafford in 1999, said: “He can only erase a mistake from collective consciousness with ten to 15 top performances.
“If his howlers are still be a major talking point it’s because he has done nothing to wipe them away.
“A keeper sets himself apart as mentally he is normally the strongest. If a striker misses five chances he still gets acclaimed but a goalkeeper who drops a clanger will be crucified for months.
“To get out of that is possible — but it is one hell of a task. It’s normal some things stay inside Onana as he’s human. It can affect him but shouldn’t knock him down completely.
“A keeper can’t play at the top level if he doesn’t have the ability to let things wash over him — composure is crucial.”
Onana, signed in a £47.2million deal last year from Inter Milan, made a number of high-profile blunders last season.
He let a weak Leroy Sane shot beat him in a 4-3 loss to Bayern Munich, made a dreadful pass that led to a red card for team-mate Casemiro against Galatasaray, and allowed a weak Mathias Jensen shot to go under his body against Brentford.
Taibi said: “Last year he had a poor season but it looked as if he’d recovered.
“But sometimes when you get off to a bad start at a new club, even if then you play many blinders, the first mistake you make again they rub it in your face.
“At every cock-up, people will point the finger at him due to the amount of errors he made last year. The roots of this season’s problems go all the way back to last term when his stock fell.”
Taibi reckons a goal he scored with a header for Reggina in 2001 has helped fans forget his 1999 shocker.
He said: “I get remembered for the goal I scored for Reggina otherwise I’d only be remembered for my United howler. A keeper who scores is out of the ordinary, especially in the 2000s.
“Higuita is remembered for his scorpion kick and nobody remembers Chilavert for his saves but only for scoring free-kicks.
“While Zenga, the best goalkeeper in the world for many years, is often remembered for that Caniggia error at Italia 90. It’s the tough law of a goalkeeper that you cannot change.”
Onana has copped lots of flak but Taibi says he is messing up in a particular way.
The Italian explained: “We can only talk about a ‘clanger’ if you get off your line and miss the ball or when you let a long-ranger squeeze through your hands and when you drop an easy shot.
“But his are positional mistakes. For the corner, he should have stood a bit further forward.
“He may have underestimated the trajectory of the ball because it’s unlikely to put the ball where Cunha has from that position.
“And for Gibbs-White, he saw that he was getting his shot away and therefore anticipated the movement and when he saw the ball it was too late.
“This normally would not have been picked on if he had played ten to 15 great games. But given he’s under heavy scrutiny, mistakes like this are magnified.”
Onana, 28, often alternates worldie saves with his bloopers.
Taibi warned: “Pulling off a miraculous save is easier than making a routine one as it’s you who makes it look easy when you collect the ball.
“But for miraculous ones, if you succeed you’re a genius and if you don’t it’s not your fault anyway.
“Keepers sometimes underestimate the so-called ‘easy’ ones. Slipping is avoidable if you’re more careful and maybe he’d have saved it had he made a backwards step.
“It’s easier to keep out an impossible shot than being focused for 95 minutes! A split-second distraction can be fatal.”
And Taibi joked United fans would “hit” him if they were to meet.
He added: “I should never concede through my legs but I slipped while I was diving. If I hadn’t it would never have nestled through the way it has.
“I’ve never been back to Old Trafford since I left and never met Le Tissier again.
“I’d like to return one day but I don’t think the fans would recognise me. Well let’s hope so as if they do they will hit me!
“My only regret is they made me look like someone who left because he failed. I had a four-year contract and nobody pushed me out.
“I had private problems, my wife walked out on me, returning to Italy with my two kids on Christmas Eve.
“I made a rushed decision based on how lonely I was. If I had my time again I’d have faced my problems in England.
“Being branded a ‘flop’ and the worst keeper in Premier League history irks me even today as it’s a wrong assessment.
“You cannot judge a keeper on four games, of which two were good performances! I played for Manchester United, you only do so if you were a great player.”
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