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Manchester United goalkeeper Radek Vitek put in a stunning display as he helped his new loan side FC Blau-Weiß Linz to a 3-0 win over Rapid Wien on his debut in the Austrian Football Bundesliga.
Vitek has arrived to Austria with a big reputation after winning the FA Cup Youth Cup in 2022 with United and being likened to legendary keepers Peter Schmeichel and Oliver Kahn.
Of course he has much to do to get anywhere near those two but he impressed on loan at Accrington Stanley last year and made some wonderful stops in his only game of pre-season for United last month as he kept Rosenborg at bay until the final kick of the match with a string of world-class stops.
Against the Vienna side, Linz had much less of the ball, keeping only 27% possession, and had nine shots in comparison to their much more famous opponent’s 16. But they managed to keep a clean sheet, largely due to the United shot stopper.
The Czech keeper was awarded an impressive score of 8 on Sofascore as he has clearly maintained his pre-season form.
Vitek made four stops in the entire match with all of his saves coming from shots inside the box.
He made one successful clearance and won 100% of his ground duels.
The giant keeper also won 100% of his aerial battles, showing off the impressive physical nature of his goalkeeping style.
As can be seen from his new side’s possession statistics, he did not get much chance to get on the ball as he only touched it 19 times.
As a result, he could only complete 42% of his passes from five of 12 attempts.
Having finished ninth out of 12 teams last season, Vitek’s new side are unlikely to dominate many matches this season despite their fine win.
This will mean that he probably won’t have much chance to work on his game in possession but will clearly face a lot of shots this season to hone this part of his skillset.
Vitek will be hoping to maintain his high standard of play as with Altay Baynidir’s long-term future in doubt, he may see next season as the perfect opportunity to be United’s second keeper and put pressure on current number one Andre Onana.
He could be in action once again on Wednesday when BW Linz travel to HOGO Wels in the second round of the cup.
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2024-08-26 08:00:25
