Senne Lammens: Manchester United's New Goalkeeper Star
Edwin van der Sar has seen just about everything a goalkeeper can face at Old Trafford. Title races, Champions League finals, the pressure of replacing legends and the grind of keeping standards impossibly high. So when he pauses to praise a new Manchester United No 1, it carries real weight.
This time, the admiration is aimed squarely at Senne Lammens.
Signed late last summer from Royal Antwerp for an initial £18.1 million, the 23-year-old arrived in England as a relative unknown outside Belgium. A tall, imposing shot-stopper from the Belgian Pro League, dropped into a club that had spent years wrestling with its own identity. It looked like a gamble.
It hasn’t felt like one.
Under Ruben Amorim, Lammens has not only won the battle for the gloves, he has taken ownership of them. With Andre Onana sent out on loan in 2025, the Belgian has stepped into the void and refused to blink. Thirty appearances across all competitions in the 2025-26 campaign, six clean sheets, and something less tangible but just as important: calm.
Van der Sar, speaking on Ben Foster’s Fozcast podcast, laid out exactly what has impressed him.
“I think I saw a few games when he played in Belgium, at Antwerp,” he said. “But to come to one of the best, the best league in the world, to a club that is in difficulty, United the last couple of years, it’s chop and change, managers, players, all kinds of things.
“And I think he steadied the ship when he came in, made the saves that he needed to make, was brave coming out, played with his feet also, a calm, composed figure.”
That phrase — “steadied the ship” — is not one used lightly about this United side. The last few seasons have been marked by turbulence: tactical overhauls, managerial changes, a revolving door of big-name signings and high-profile exits. Goalkeeper has been one of the most scrutinised positions of all.
Lammens has walked straight into that storm and given United something they have craved: reliability. He doesn’t just block shots; he slows pulses. His willingness to come off his line, to claim crosses, to play with his feet under pressure has allowed Amorim’s side to hold a higher line and take more risks up the pitch.
For a 23-year-old in his first season in England, that is no small achievement.
The financial side of the deal looks increasingly shrewd as well. United’s £18.1m outlay on the Belgium international is already being talked about as one of the bargains of the season, a sentiment echoed by supporters who have voted him Signing of the Season on TalkingPoints. In a market where elite goalkeepers routinely command far higher fees, Lammens has offered top-level performances at a fraction of the usual cost.
Van der Sar knows exactly what it means to arrive at Old Trafford and instantly be judged against the highest standards. When Sir Alex Ferguson brought him in from Fulham in 2005, he was 34, already a Champions League winner with Ajax and a veteran of Juventus. He still had to prove he could be the long-term answer after United’s post–Peter Schmeichel uncertainty.
By the time he retired in 2011, he had four Premier League titles, two League Cups and a Champions League crown in United colours. His view on Lammens, then, comes from a place of hard-earned authority.
“I think comparable, let’s say, to how I played, but I came there at 34,” Van der Sar said. “So, in that way, he’s doing tremendously well.”
Comparable. From Van der Sar, that is almost the highest praise a goalkeeper can receive at Old Trafford.
The Dutchman’s words frame Lammens’ debut season in a different light. This is not just a young keeper making a promising start; this is a player whose presence has altered the mood around United’s back line. Where there was anxiety, there is now assurance. Where there was doubt, there is growing conviction that the club may finally have found a long-term No 1 to build around.
Lammens’ story at United is still in its early chapters. He has yet to feel the weight of a title run-in or the white heat of a Champions League knockout tie in red. But with Van der Sar already seeing echoes of his own time at Old Trafford, the question is no longer whether the Belgian belongs at this level.
It’s how far he can push the standards of the position for the next decade.
