Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana told to keep berating defenders in wake of Harry Maguire telling off

Lisandro Martinez has told new Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana to keep making fun of his defenders.

Harry Maguire scored many goals from Onana in the second half of United’s 3-2 friendly loss to Borussia Dortmund on Monday in Las Vegas.

Onana worked his way through Maguire after the England defender mishandled the ball following a mistake by Scott McTominay, which resulted in the Cameroonian goalkeeper saving to prevent Sebastien Haller.

Onana has only been at United for two weeks after signing from Inter Milan for £47million, but David de Gea’s replacement in goal has already shown he’s not afraid to give orders to his team-mates and use them when necessary to scold.

Martinez played under Onana at Ajax and says United have built a lot of character by encouraging the goalkeeper to talk.

“It’s better for that,” said the Argentina centre-back. “If you are focused, you can even fight with your teammates. You have to make sure everyone is really smart, but nothing happened. That’s part of football.”

“He has a great personality. He can play football, he can handle pressure. He’s very positive, he’s a leader. That’s Manchester United’s style.” Maguire was sacked as United captain by Erik ten Hag in the summer and replaced by Bruno Fernandes, and Martinez – the club’s first centre-back alongside Raphael Varane – said it was important that the decision of the United coach will be respected.

“It’s the coach’s decision and we have to respect it. He’s the boss,” Martinez said. “If he makes a decision, we have to move forward as players. Bruno is a good leader and a good person.

He’s very positive in the dressing room and I think he deserves it.” Martinez missed the last 12 games of last season with a broken metatarsal in the 2-2 Europa League draw against Sevilla.

He has shown no signs of slowing down since his return to pre-season, having been booked for painful encounters with Bukayo Saka and Jude Bellingham in games against Arsenal and Real Madrid in the United States.

“When I play football, I give everything,” he said. “I play like this – with passion – because when I look at the badge, I represent this club and it’s amazing.

“All I can give is my body and my heart and everything. I represent this club with my all and I hope all the players do as well.

“I feel stronger than last season and I think also the team wants to show something different when the league starts so we are fully positive and feel really strong.”

Some United fans have wondered if the team would have had a better finish to last season had Martinez not succumbed to injury, with United losing the FA Cup final to Manchester City and crashing out of the Europa League embarrassingly.

Martinez is too humble to suggest as much but says United must become more clinical in front of goal, stop the sudden collapses they have experienced and improve their disappointing away record next term.

“For sure, it’s really hard when you are out, when you can’t help the team, but it is what it is and things happen for a reason,” he said.

“Now we need to learn. We need to improve many things. It’s part of the process and I think this club will make a lot of success.

“I think we need to score more goals and also our away games – we need to win more away games. I think we need to read the games better. We need to read the situation well, we need to be ready and we need to be strong in the mind because football is mental.

“When you are losing, sometimes – in one second – you can concede many goals in the Premier League. You can’t sleep, but we want to show something different this season.”