Erik ten Hag should make the bold call and persist with Altay Bayindir for visit to Wolves | OneFootball

If squad statuses were set in stone, the likes of Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho would never have become first-team regulars.

To the credit of Erik ten Hag, he took the bold call of selecting these youngsters over their more established counterparts because they hadn’t even given him any reason not to.

More importantly, their more established counterparts had given the manager plenty of reasons to drop them.

The time to repeat that bold call in the goalkeeping department has arrived.

Ten Hag should persist with Altay Bayindir for the visit to Wolves on February 1 in the Premier League.

The Turkish goalkeeper didn’t set the world alight on his debut against Newport County but none of the goals conceded were his fault.

He made a great late save and although his distribution looked a bit shaky, it speaks volumes of Andre Onana’s time at the club so far that it still felt like a minor upgrade.

Talking about Onana, he’s had an absolute nightmare for three weeks, which is where the “given the manager plenty of reasons to drop them” part of the equation comes in.

It can be argued that Onana is the single most influential reason why United are out of the Champions League.

He is a mentality player, someone who thrives on confidence and enters a virtuous cycle.

Unfortunately, that cycle works both ways and right now, he’s stuck in a vicious one.

His AFCON travel was an unmitigated disaster, as he missed the first game due to arriving late because of his unnecessary United commitments.

Then, he had a torrid time for his first, and Cameroon’s second game, before being sensationally dropped for their remaining games.

Adding insult to injury, Fabrice Ondoa, who is the backup goalkeeper for French third-division side Nimes, was the player preferred over him.

Looking through this rubble, Bayindir may be forgiven for thinking that he deserves a chance to stake his own claim for the No. 1 spot.

Football is ultimately a squad game and the status of an undisputed starter, if felt unearned, has the potential to create disharmony in the squad.

Onana’s felt like that before he went for AFCON but after his return, it feels criminal for Cameroon’s backup goalkeeper to come straight back between the posts for United.

Amid the many question marks over the attitude of the squad, led by the latest encroachment over professional standards by Marcus Rashford, it is time for Ten Hag to drop Onana and let Bayindir stake his claim for the first-choice spot.

It sends a message to the group that the manager’s backing is not unconditional while making fringe players believe that they actually have a chance to make it to the first team and have something to aspire towards.

That’s the sign of a healthy team environment, something which this club has sorely lacked.