Manchester United were sucker-punched by Leeds at Old Trafford and Senne Lammens’ weakness was also exposed in the process.
The 2-1 loss to fierce rivals Leeds United ensured Michael Carrick had a nightmare return to club action with Man Utd at Old Trafford.
The storylines from the game were plenty, from Lisandro Martinez’s sending off to Kobbie Mainoo’s injury, leaving Manuel Ugarte like a fish out of water.
Senne Lammens is hardly a chief storyline, but he had an interesting game as well, as he cemented his status at the club despite his main weakness emerging.
Manchester United's Belgian goalkeeper #31 Senne Lammens
Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP via Getty Images
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Manchester United v Leeds United - Premier League
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Senne Lammens’ distribution under the scanner vs Leeds
Since arriving at Man Utd, Lammens has been a breath of fresh air, largely because of his throwback style of goalkeeping.
He masters the basics, keeps the ball out of the net, and inspires confidence in his defence with his command of the area.
As it stands, Lammens is far from the finished product, which is a tantalising prospect because he’s already so good, but he had one weakness even before he arrived at the club.
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He is two-footed, but he’s not the best at receiving the ball under pressure and acting as an extra man during the buildup when the opposition presses high.
He does his best work when he kicks it long, but against Leeds, he was caught in the middle of an intense press by Leeds.
His distribution came under the scanner repeatedly, as he made lax passes which put his defence under pressure, and looked hurried by the speed of the press.
It was clear that he’d rather kick it long, away from his area, but Leeds camped in United’s half to start the game, and it made Lammens uncomfortable.
However, despite this main weakness emerging, he was one of the players to emerge from the game with his reputation intact.
Lammens is extremely good at his strengths
If the goalkeeper is not very good with his feet, then he needs to be amazing at the traditional goalkeeping skill set to be elite.
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However, the vice versa is not true, because keeping the ball out of the net has to be the prime objective of a goalkeeper.
Fortunately for Lammens, he more than made up for his distribution weakness by being amazing as usual at shot-stopping.
Be it his command of the area on set-pieces or point-blank saves, he saved United’s blushes in a frantic first half when the outfield players had forgotten that the game had kicked off.
Most encouragingly, he didn’t let his mistakes on the ball lead him into a negative spiral, going about his business of shot-stopping with confidence.
Therefore, not only did he showcase his mental fortitude, he also proved that even if he never develops his game with the ball – which is extremely unlikely – he will still be an elite Premier League goalkeeper on the basis of his traditional goalkeeping alone.
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