Siobhan Chamberlain has her say on Andre Onana, Mauricio Pochettino and Aaron Ramsdale

In the second part of an exclusive interview with Ladbrokes, former Manchester United keeper Siobhan Chamberlain discusses Andre Onana, Mauricio Pochettino and Aaron Ramsdale.

Click on the link for part one in which the ex-England international discussed Mary Earps.

It will take time for Andre Onana’s team-mates to adjust to his style

Yeah, Andre Onana has made some mistakes, but his style of distribution has helped Manchester United start from the back. I don’t think the team as a whole have been playing anywhere near well enough for them to utilise Onana to his full potential. I think it’ll take time for the outfield players to adjust to his distribution, figure out where they need to be, and learn how to react and position themselves to maximise that part of Onana’s game.

It’s difficult when you’re brought in, and he’s said it himself. David de Gea’s shoes are big ones to fill. There’s been so much talk about his brilliant distribution, but ultimately, as a goalkeeper, you need to be good at keeping the ball out of the net first and foremost. Your bread-and-butter saves are the ones you need to focus on perfecting, then everything else comes next.

But I also think that there’s a lot that needs to improve within the club before you can necessarily get into the nitty gritty of worrying about where your goalkeeper is distributing the ball.

The ownership issues are huge. Until you can sort out those problems, it’s going to be difficult to get everyone firing on all cylinders. That’s just hanging over the club at the moment and it’s a difficult position for the club to be in. For me, I’m doing quite a bit of work for MUTV at the moment, so United are definitely one of the first results I look out for on a weekend, for sure! It makes things a lot easier doing club media bits and pieces when the team are playing well!

I’m looking forward to players being back fit. There’s been a fair amount of criticism of the squad and certain line-ups –  who has been playing and who hasn’t. But there are a lot of names out injured at the moment, so if Erik ten Hag can get those players back, and have a full squad to choose from, I think things would look very different. And then as soon as that looks different, and translates to positive performances and results on the pitch, then the whole feeling around the club changes. Football is a very fast-moving business, and it only takes a couple of good results for people to forget what’s happened previously.

Who would want Chelsea job if Pochettino is sacked?

Messy is the best word to sum up Chelsea right now. It was always going to take Mauricio Pochettino time to get everyone singing from the same hymn sheet. There are players whose names you don’t really recognise, let alone their positions, and they constantly seem to be dealing with injuries. There has been no consistency over there for a number of years now. I think that if you’re going to build something special, that only comes with consistency. You need everyone fit, you need a squad that knows itself inside out, knows how they play with each other, knows what position they even play…and it all just seems quite messy at the moment.

Pochettino is obviously a brilliant manager, but he’s not going to solve those problems overnight. It all depends on how patient the ownership group will be with him and the squad, and how patient the fans will be.

It’s ridiculous because you’re already seeing whispers of him being under pressure. You’ve got to think, if they get rid of Pochettino, who the hell wants that job? Who? I’m sure he would have had to ask himself that question a few times before taking the job, to be honest! Not many people would want it at the moment.

Raya move is tough on Aaron Ramsdale

It feels incredibly harsh on Aaron Ramsdale. He didn’t do anything ‘wrong’ as such. As an outfield player, if you’re joining a new club, you might get brought on for the last 10 or 15 minutes of games, just to feel your way into the team. But you can’t do that with goalkeepers, so it’s always going to be more difficult.

But it’s an interesting concept that Mikel Arteta is trying to bring into the game, saying ‘if I need to change the game for the last 30 minutes, say the opposition are delivering long balls into the box and I’ve got a goalkeeper that’s a foot taller, then I’m going to bring him on’. And that shouldn’t really sound like something that’s not normal, in theory.

It’s an interesting change to the concept of the use of a goalkeeper, and I completely agree with it, to be honest. If it works for you, then yes, go for it. But I think that when you’re changing your number one, or you’re saying you don’t have an out-and-out number one, it can be quite a risky process.

As an outfield player trying to get into the team, you can make yourself busy, you can run around, get involved but you can’t do that as a goalkeeper. You don’t want your goalkeeper going out there showing what he can do – you don’t want him looking for stuff to do. You want your goalkeeper to just be there, being clean and clinical with his work, and distributing well. As soon as your goalkeeper goes out there looking for things to do, coming for crosses he might not normally come for because he needs to prove himself…it’s a really difficult position you’re putting yourself in.

I do really feel for Aaron Ramsdale, especially with the position he’s in on an international level, with the Euros coming up. It’s very difficult.