Senne Lammens has spoken about his debut after his Deadline Day transfer to Manchester United in the summer transfer window.
Ever since David de Gea’s departure, the goalkeeping position has been the subject of many headlines about Manchester United.
Andre Onana arrived at Old Trafford after a spectacular stint with Inter Milan; however, what the Stretford End saw was a shadow of the Cameroonian’s former self. Even before he left for Turkey, his blunder against Grimsby Town epitomised his time at the club.
Altay Bayindir arrived as the understudy to Onana, but soon became the number one towards the end of last season and the start of this season. It never truly felt as though the entire defence was entirely confident with him in goal, similar to Onana, due to his own high-profile errors.
After being heavily linked with Aston Villa’s Emiliano Martinez, on deadline day, United announced the signing of the young and relatively unknown Belgian, Senne Lammens.
Lammens opens up on needing to adapt
At 23 years of age, there was a lot of pressure on Lammens when he arrived to be the number one at the club and essentially save the club from the blunders of his two predecessors.
However, to the surprise of many, he was not immediately thrust into the side and was made to bide his time before getting his opportunity against Sunderland in the 2-0 win and keeping a clean sheet on his debut.
Despite not keeping a clean sheet since, he has impressed with his ice cool nature, shot stopping and calmness on the ball, especially away at Anfield.
After speaking on the latest episode of Inside Carrington, the shot-stopper said: “I think clearly the quality is way better, everything goes a tick faster, every guy is a tick stronger, and the ball goes a little bit faster.
“So the first couple of weeks I was getting used to it, to be honest, so that is why I think the way that I was brought in was also a positive, to give me the time and those first couple of weeks, which I needed, to adjust to training and get my level up to the guys.”
Having the time to adjust was something that benefited him.
“In the games after it was easier because I was already used to it after a couple of weeks of training with the first team,” he said.
Time to fix other problems
The signing of Lammens has so far undoubtedly put some ease in the minds of all those around United when it comes to the goalkeeping position. Instead of being on edge every time the ball goes near the keeper, there is some sort of calmness, and that is a testament to the Belgian.
However, after fixing one of the key issues, the focus in the January window needs to be on the midfield and depth up front.
While no outfield player could really come away with any positives from the loss to Everton, the need for robustness and more athleticism in the midfield was clear to see. So many times the Toffees had swamped the two in midfield.
The drop in quality when Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko were not playing up front was evident and should be a warning sign for United that if anything more serious were to happen to the pair, Ruben Amorim’s side could be in trouble.
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