Senne Lammens is not a player Ruben Amorim wanted to sign in the summer, and the goalkeeper might just have told him that he was making the Man Utd job harder than it is.
Michael Carrick has come in like a breath of fresh air and managed to run the most daunting gauntlet in English football right now with perfection.
Senne Lammens has helped, particularly against Arsenal, where his performance was in sharp contrast to Altay Bayindir’s nervous energy in the reverse fixture at Old Trafford.
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MUTV pundit David May praising Senne Lammens vs Arsenal
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Buoyed after the win, Lammens was asked to take Man Utd fans behind the transformation engineered by Carrick, and he might just have thrown a subtle dig at Ruben Amorim in the process.
Ruben Amorim on the touchline against Everton
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Senne Lammens’ verdict is an indirect dig at Ruben Amorim
Amorim might not have wanted to sign Lammens last summer, but he can thank the Belgian for being in the job even as long as he was.
Lammens constantly saved the team’s blushes when they were put under pressure, largely because Amorim refused to adapt.
In contrast, Carrick named an unchanged team in both games, but the style of play had a few tweaks, which already speaks to adaptability.
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More importantly, he has empowered the players to do what they do best, while managing to hide their weaknesses in a compact setup.
Lammens credited the team’s improvement to just keeping it simple and going back to basics, something that fans won’t ever take for granted after all the “system” talk under Amorim.
He said: “To be honest, there aren’t many special things he [Carrick] did. It’s just like sticking to the BASICS.
“Football is basics. If you do the basics well, then the QUALITY of us comes out, and I think we have players with the quality that can make the difference.”
Lammens’ stress on bringing the game back to basics might just be a subtle dig at Amorim, who was determined to make everything as complex as possible in the name of a philosophy.
Amorim made it hard for himself at Man Utd
Carrick’s impact has been immense, but part of that is only because, as Lammens said, the team had strayed away from the basics.
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The formation, the principles, the philosophy, and the idea are all good, but ultimately, playing players in their natural position and letting them do what they are best at is the first rule of football.
Everything builds from that foundation, and Amorim ripped that foundation up from the very first day.
When he realised it wasn’t working as intended, he doubled down instead of being flexible, if only to buy some time before he could mould the team in his own image.
Instead, he put square pegs in round holes, complained relentlessly when they didn’t fit, and blew it all up when he was told he won’t be getting new pegs.
Carrick rebuilt that foundation in two games, and the results are clear to see, regardless of what happens going forward.
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