Opinions, analysis and commentary
Ferguson called Lammens outstanding after watching him for only three or four games, and Scholes says the jury is still out after seven goals conceded in four matches this season with zero clean sheets. Both men are reacting to the same goalkeeper, just at different points in a season that started brilliantly and has dipped hard since. The numbers so far side more with Scholes than with United’s greatest ever manager. Neither view is wrong yet. Both are describing a young keeper still working out where his level actually sits.
Lammens has started all four Premier League games this season without a single clean sheet, conceding seven goals and making ten saves from roughly seventeen shots on target, a save percentage just under fifty-nine. His average match rating across those four games sits at six point six seven.
That is a sharp fall from his debut campaign, when he started thirty-two of United’s league games, kept eight clean sheets, and saved just under sixty-seven percent of shots he faced on his way to being named the league’s signing of the season.
Those numbers put him mid-table among Premier League goalkeepers for shot-stopping so far, a steep comedown given the hype and club-record fee that brought him from Belgium.
Ferguson made his comments after only a handful of appearances last season, praising the goalkeeper specifically alongside the impact of new signings Mbeumo and Cunha, and adding that he simply hoped the new manager could deliver success given the demands that come with the job.
Scholes made his remarks far more recently, on a podcast the day before Manchester City ended United’s unbeaten run despite finishing the match with only nine outfield players, and his framing was less about criticism and more about historical pattern. Every recent title winner, he argued, has had a genuinely elite goalkeeper behind a settled back four.
Scholes named names to make his point, pointing to Alisson at Liverpool, Raya at Arsenal, and United’s own history with Peter Schmeichel and Edwin van der Sar, all goalkeepers a title-winning defence was built around. His argument was never that Lammens cannot become that, only that three or four good games do not prove it yet.
He also pointed to Arsenal’s own recent rebuild as the model, a team that started from a rock-solid back four and goalkeeper before the trophies followed, and suggested United manager Ruben Amorim may simply need patience while his goalkeeper grows into the role. Lammens only became United’s undisputed first choice in October last year, waiting behind Altay Bayindir before a start against Sunderland changed everything.
Hull City exposed him first, a two-nil defeat in his season opener where he looked shaky and was later described as visibly shocked by the pace of the game. Everton and Manchester City both found a way past him too, even though the City game featured United’s opponents playing over an hour with ten men.
Ipswich Town was the exception, a five-two win where he made three saves but shipped two goals, proof that even United’s more comfortable afternoons this season have not been clean at the back.
| Gameweek | Result | Saves | Goals Conceded |
| GW1 vs Hull City | 0-2 loss | 2 | 2 |
| GW2 vs Ipswich Town | 5-2 win | 3 | 2 |
| GW3 vs Everton | 2-2 draw | 4 | 2 |
| GW4 vs Man City | 0-1 loss | 1 | 1 |
United face Fulham away on the twentieth before a run that includes Tottenham, Leeds, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Arsenal between October and December, a genuine examination of whether Lammens can turn saves into clean sheets against the division’s better attacks. Tonight’s EFL Cup tie against Brighton does not count toward any of these league numbers.
His long-term contract, running through 2030, means United have committed to seeing this through regardless of how the next few months go.
United paid close to twenty-one million euros for him just over a year ago, and every save or mistake from here gets read against that price tag. This early stretch of Senne Lammens’ Premier League 2026 goalkeeper form will not settle Ferguson and Scholes’s disagreement on its own, but it will shape which one looks right by Christmas.
Is Scholes right that United cannot win the league without an elite goalkeeper, or is Lammens already becoming one? Have your say.
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Who is Manchester United’s new starting goalkeeper this season?
Senne Lammens, a twenty-four-year-old Belgian shot-stopper signed from Royal Antwerp. United paid around eighteen million pounds for him in September last year, a club-record fee then.
How much did Manchester United pay for Senne Lammens?
Around eighteen million pounds, or roughly twenty-one million euros with add-ons. The deal, completed on transfer deadline day 2025, was a record sale for Royal Antwerp.
Is Senne Lammens Manchester United’s first-choice goalkeeper?
Yes, he has started every Premier League game for United this season. He also started every available match after taking over from Altay Bayindir in October last year.
What did Paul Scholes say about Senne Lammens?
Scholes said the jury is still out on whether he is title-winning quality. He compared Lammens to proven Premier League winners like Alisson, Raya, and Edwin van der Sar.
What did Sir Alex Ferguson say about Senne Lammens?
Ferguson called him outstanding after watching just three or four games. He made the comment in a Raceday interview alongside praise for signings Mbeumo and Cunha.
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