Is over-arousal Andre Onana's biggest issue?

The main headlines emanating from the football pitch itself this weekend came from Old Trafford, where Ruben Amorim experienced back-to-back defeats for only the second time in his career. But unfortunately, this has occurred just fives games into his Manchester United tenure.

Other than the scoreline, the main criticism was directed at the players for individual errors, with United's number 1 goalkeeper Andre Onana on the receiving end of the brunt of the criticism.

Onana somehow let Gibbs-White's strike from just outside the area, which was seemingly going straight at him, to somehow breeze past his left foot and into the net. Goalkeeping experts have made numerous critiques of his positioning, agility etc, which I'll leave to them. Suffice to say, it wasn't Onana's finest moment.

But it wasn't over yet. For Forest's third goal, a looping header by Chris Wood seemingly by-passed Onana while his defenders, De Ligt and Martinez, experienced a combined communication and judgement error, letting the ball land inside the side-netting.

Onana, seemingly out-of-sorts following the two errors, followed this up with some poor goalkeeper distribution, giving the ball away needlessly and inviting more pressure.

The contrast here is that leading up to the Arsenal game last week, Onana was statistically the best goalkeeper in the league. He had made some tremendous saves against Ipswich to help United hold onto a point and avoid an embarrassing debut defeat for his manager. Indeed, as of December 5th 2024, Onana led the league for highest number of clean sheets (6).

Looking back on Onana's first season, the player himself was first to say it wasn't his best form and it included several high profile mistakes. So in today's article, we're going to look at one small tweak Onana could make that could potentially allow him to show his league-topping performances all year round.

And what does this come down to?

Arousal.

More specifically, psychological arousal levels.

The Inverted-U Theory, also known as the Yerkes-Dodson Law, is a psychological model proposed by Robert Yerkes and John Dodson in 1908. This theory suggests that there is an optimal level of arousal for peak performance, represented by an inverted U-shaped curve. The theory posits that as arousal levels increase, performance improves, but only up to a certain point.

Once arousal becomes too high, performance begins to decline.

If we look back on Onana's mistakes, over-arousal seems to be the common theme...

• On his debut during pre-season, Onana, seemingly wanting to impose his authority on his new defence, appeared to be excessive in his verbal instructions and nonverbal behaviour, characterised in one awkward moment when he berates Harry Maguire following a mistake. Onana was visibly over-aroused. This soon resulted in him being beaten from the half-way line early in pre-season.
• On his Premier League debut, Onana was incredibly lucky to avoid giving away an injury time penalty as he absolutely clattered Wolves striker Sasa Kaladjdzic in the dying moments after a heavy period of pressure, United were under the cosh and the tension in the stadium was palpable.
• Away at Bayern Munich in the Champion's League, a huge occasion featuring two of the biggest teams in world football, Onana made a couple of errors leading to goals.
• At home to Galatasaray in the Champions League. With United needing a win following disappointing earlier results, Onana is again too easily beaten as United again fail to win.
• Away at Galatasaray, renowned as being one of the most ferocious atmosphere's in European football, set-piece goals conceded, inviting more pressure on Onana.
• This weekend, United's players looked pumped up coming out after half-time, possibly following a motivational managerial masterclass at half-time. With the United crowd fully behind the team, willing them on to dominate and win the game, the errors creeped in once more.

A common theme with all these examples is that they occur during moments of high arousal.

But in Onana's case, it's possible his personal arousal levels have surpassed that point of optimal performance and this detrimental effect on performance is brutally revealed thourgh costly goalkeeping mistakes.

Alternate evidence for this appears in so many other United games where Onana is cool, calm and collected and able to make cracking saves and showcase his quality distribution skills.

It would be fascinating to observe what would happen if Onana was able to practice a few really simple techniques to lower his arousal levels during key moments like these, to enable him to stay at peak performance and bring the golden glove home.

Similarly, with a little support and guidance, Onana could recalibrate his arousal levels to match that of his regular performances and lock-in his best form.

It's undeniable that with a solid Onana making crucial saves and initiating United's attacks with his high quality distribution, United could see themselves shoot up the table, with Onana's increasing confidence surely transmitting to his defence and making the back-line stronger and more confident.

And all it might take is a few arousal-modifying techniques to keep Onana on the peak of the inverted U.

If this doesn't happen, be sure to watch Onana during these high-octane moments and notice what you notice.

What do you think?