Manchester United

Manchester United

Premier League • England

Man Utd: Senne Lammens hailed for transformative debut and gets Thibaut Courtois’ approval

Man Utd goalkeeper Senne Lammens

Lammens enjoyed an impressive Man Utd debut

After spending three matches on the bench, Senne Lammens made his long-awaited Manchester United debut in their 2-0 win over Sunderland.

Lammens joined United from Royal Antwerp on transfer deadline day in a deal worth an initial £18.2million and another £3.5million in potential add-ons.

Despite his arrival, Ruben Amorim opted to keep his faith in Altay Bayındir for the games against Manchester City, Chelsea and Brentford.

Amorim changed his team against Sunderland and we’ve taken a look at how Lammens performed at Old Trafford and the overall reaction to his Manchester United debut.

His performance

Lammens had a very quiet first 30 minutes at Old Trafford and watched on as Mason Mount and Benjamin Sesko scored to put United 2-0 up.

But he stopped a Bertrand Traore header in the 33rd minute and made a diving save to keep out a fierce strike from Granit Xhaka on the stroke of half-time.

The 23-year-old secured his clean sheet by blocking Chemsdine Talbi’s attempt with his legs in the closing stages. It’s United’s first clean sheet since their 2-0 win over Aston Villa on the final day of last season.

He’s now kept as many Premier League clean sheets as Bayindir, who has made 10 appearances in the competition.

Fans at the Stretford End were heard singing a rendition of “are you [Peter] Schmeichel in disguise?” and he was picked by supporters as the Man of the Match.

Overall, he prevented 0.94 XG with his three saves against Sunderland. For context, that’s more than Bayindir or Andre Onana managed in any of United’s opening seven games of the season.

The Belgian was also a commanding presence in goal and made two high claims, which were both met with loud cheers from the Old Trafford crowd.

While he only completed 18 of his 44 passes (40.9%) against Sunderland, United had a very direct approach and Lammens hit 33 long passes to try and get the ball towards Benjamin Sesko.

Since the start of last season, no other United goalkeeper has attempted that many long passes in a Premier League game.

Admittedly, there was one hairy moment in the 56th minute when the Lammens chased out of his goal to try and get to the ball before Bertrand Traore.

Traore went down just outside the penalty area, but the contact was minimal and the United fans breathed a sigh of relief when referee Stuart Atwell booked the winger for diving.

Reaction

“We didn’t play well all the game, but we had our moments and we defended well,” Amorim said after the game. “I think Senne did a great job and gave us confidence.”

Matthijs de Ligt and Harry Maguire were straight over to give the goalkeeper a hug at the full-time whistle, and he also got praise from Mount.

“It’s crucial in the Premier League keeping clean sheets, you have opportunities to score and then to maintain the clean sheet in the second half was so vital,” Mount said.

“He [Lammens] was solid, when we were under pressure, the option was Ben [Sesko] and we worked off that. Buzzing for him, everyone was around him today, it can be tough making your first start we want to be together and I felt that today so we keep moving forward.”

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois reacted to his post on Instagram, while former United striker Wayne Rooney gave his verdict on the debutant.

“It’s difficult to be the goalkeeper at Manchester United but I thought he did really well for the majority of the game,” Rooney said on Match of the Day. “I think you see early on, nothing crazy, getting rid of the ball and putting Manchester United on the attack.”

Fan reaction

A number of United fans on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, reacted to Lammens’ display.

One fan posted: “Lammens was organising his backline and communicating all through. He only needed one chance to prove himself, and now he’s sealed the No. 1 spot.”

Another said: “Don’t want to overdo it but I already feel so much more confident with Lammens in goal. Brings a sense of calmness, dives like a natural keeper, can catch a ball.”

A third said: It’s obviously extremely early, but Lammens looked assured in goal. Good with his feet and didn’t take unnecessary risks. Came for the high balls and was confident when doing so.”

Somebody else tweeted: “Lammens was commanding — the last time I saw that kind of presence was with Edwin van der Sar.”

Next up

Lammens will now travel to Belgium after being named in his country’s senior squad for their upcoming World Cup qualifiers. The Red Devils will host North Macedonia in Ghent on 10th October before travelling to Cardiff to take on Wales three days later.

The goalkeeper will hope to earn his first international cap but is currently behind Courtois and Matz Sels in the pecking order.

When he returns, United make the journey to Anfield to face Liverpool in the Premier League and Lammens is expected to keep his place in the team.

Despite Liverpool’s poor form in recent weeks, it’ll still be a much bigger test for the 23-year-old and United have conceded 13 goals across their last four visits to Anfield.

READ MORE: The EIGHTEEN Man Utd players that have brutally dropped in value since Ruben Amorim took charge

Manchester United Senne Lammens

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