United’s goalkeeping woes over the past couple of seasons have been well documented. Andre Onana was meant to be the man to replace David de Gea, but a string of more than shaky performances saw almost everyone involved with the club lose faith.
Amorim’s side signed Senne Lammens, 23, from Royal Antwerp for a reported fee of around £21 million, and Onana was shipped out on loan to Turkish side Trabzonspor. Still, Lammens was forced to wait for his debut.
The Belgian was finally handed his first appearance against Sunderland in the Premier League at Old Trafford on Saturday (October4), so, how did he do?
Big moments and good numbers
United were fairly comfortable throughout the game against Sunderland, but that’s not to say Lammens wasn’t called into action once or twice. He can now head into the international break knowing he played a crucial role in United’s first clean sheet of the season.
His first big moment came when Granit Xhaka’s long range that looked like it would just about sneak in forced a low stop from the Belgian just before half time, having had very little to do up until that point.
For the second, he stood tall before ever so slightly closing Sunderland forward Chemsdine Talbi down after some nice play from Eliezer Mayenda caught Matthijs de Ligt lacking and found the Moroccan in acres of space.
Earlier in the game Bertrand Traore though he should have had a penalty when Lammens came rushing out to clear the ball, but the United shot stopper was nowhere near him, and the Sunderland man was booked for simulation instead.
Perhaps the moment that summed up United’s recent goalkeeping troubles, however, was when a relatively simple high claim earned cheers from the Old Trafford faithful. By the time the game ended, chants of "are you Schmeichel in disguise?" bellowed from the Stretford End.The numbers were also very solid.
Lammens made three saves having faced a xGOT of 0.94. He also made two high claims, 11 recoveries, and won 100% of his aerial duels, arguably the biggest thing that has been missing from recent United ‘keepers.
For the sake of a fair and balanced argument, his distribution wasn’t fantastic. Lammens had a 39% pass accuracy rate with just 17 of his 44 passes reaching their intended target. His long ball accuracy was even worse, completing just 11 of his 38 with an accuracy of 29%.
What was the reaction to Lammens’ performance?
Lammens conducted himself really well, showing a calmness and competence that they have lacked since De Gea was unceremoniously shown the door, with several pundits and his own manager seemingly agreeing.
After the game, Amorim praised his performance, saying: "First of all, when Senne arrived here, Altay was playing. Then you could feel it, he needed to adapt. It was a new country, new training.
"The pressure you guys (the media) put on the goalkeeper is massive, so it was a little preparation for him to be ready to start his first game. But it is just one game and he needs to work. He needs to be prepared (because) in our club things are really hard.
"He did well and was comfortable during the game. That's a really good sign."
Schmeichel, the man United fans were comparing Lammens to (yes, we know it was a half joke), offered positivity and support for the debutant, a rare moment from any former United player turned pundit.
Speaking on the Monday Night Club, Schmeichel remarked: “You think about the goalkeepers that we’ve had over these last couple of years and how many goals we’ve conceded from errors – nine already this season – it’s too much. My instruction when I played was to save the team 10 points a season, not give them away. It’s nice to see a clean sheet and a solid performance because that’s something we’ve not seen for a while.”
He continued: “This young lad (Lammens) didn’t have much to do for a long time, but he did well when called upon. You could see his confidence grow after that first save and the defenders reacted well. It’s far too early to judge him though — he’s young, hardly played any competitive football, and the pressure at Manchester United can be relentless.”
Schmeichel concluded: “He did well, it was clean and positive, things we haven’t been used to. But we’ll really see what kind of goalkeeper he is when he makes mistakes and has to respond to them. That’s when we’ll know how good he can be.”
Verdict
It’s obviously very early days, and the amount of pressure that comes with playing in goal for Man United should not be forgotten, but Lammens showed a lot of qualities that they have been missing for some time.
It’s now up to Amorim and co to make sure that he has a stable back three ahead of him that he can build a rapport with. Let’s just hope it’s not the hope that kills United fans… again.