Senne Lammens has been a breath of fresh air at Manchester United, and his recent quotes make it clear why his predecessor, Andre Onana, was bound to fail at the club.
The case of Senne Lammens vs Andre Onana at Man Utd is the perfect case study of why talent and pedigree alone don’t make a successful United goalkeeper.
Lammens arrived as an unknown from Belgium with one bona fide good season in his bag, while Onana came after being a star performer in the Champions League final the season before.
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However, their spells at Old Trafford couldn’t be going more differently, and Lammens’ recent quote perfectly explains why.
Senne Lammens indirectly diagnoses Andre Onana’s issue
Lammens recently earned himself a long-overdue clean sheet with a backs-to-the-wall performance against Newcastle in the 1-0 win on Boxing Day.
He will hope to continue that trend when United welcome sorry Wolves to Old Trafford up next, but his time at United has already been positive.
His calmness and the ability to do the simple things well in an understated manner set him apart, with the Belgian striking the perfect balance between being proactive and letting the game come to him.
Speaking to Play Sport FR after the Newcastle game, he was asked how he balanced coming out of the box and doing traditional goalkeeping.
He said: “In Belgium, to be honest, it’s a bit easier to come out, because they can block you much less, physically as well. Here, you really have to take your chances when you get them, but also not overdo it. That’s sometimes the problem, I think, here with goalkeepers in England.
“You get used to it quickly here; you have to protect yourself and rely on your teammates. And when you do get the chance to come out, it’s important to help your team and give them some calm.”
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Onana was too eager to impress for his own good
The narrative on Onana has been rewritten to cast him aside as some sort of gimmicky player who didn’t know what he was doing, which is simply untrue.
What Paul Scholes said about Senne Lammens before he made his Man Utd debut
“What’s the price? 20 million Euros, that tells me he’s not a top goalkeeper.”
Paul Scholes in September 2025
You don’t star in a Champions League final without being world-class, but what Lammens says about the goalkeeper overdoing it was exactly Onana’s problem.
Man Utd fans still look back with frustration on his remarks, where he talked a big game, saying how fans needed to be ready for danger because he was going to take big risks.
It always felt like the reputation of being a sweeper-keeper was too much for him to withstand, so he would go to the other extreme and be too eager to impress.
That, in turn, led to a vicious cycle where one mistake snowballed into another, and soon, Onana looked like a shell of his former self.
Ultimately, while trying to become an attacking goalkeeper, he got stuck in the middle of nowhere, who didn’t have the confidence to come out, and who lacked the tools to excel traditionally.
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