Manchester United goalkeeper Senne Lammens has exceeded all expectations since he signed from Royal Antwerp in his native Belgium in September 2025.
He was brought in to be United’s No 2 goalkeeper with the intention of becoming No 1 over a season or two. He managed to do it once he’d started playing on October 4, performing well enough against Sunderland and after to keep his spot. And all for a bargain £18 million plus extras.
Lammens leads the Premier League in goals prevented, with a statistic of 5.5 more goals saved than the average goalkeeper based on shot quality since his debut. No other keeper matches this performance.
On Wednesday, he met journalists at Partington Central Academy Primary School, just west of Manchester, as part of World Book Day. He also surprised a group of children by turning up and taking part in a Q&A and joining in playground games.
The visit was organised by United’s charitable Foundation which aims to develop and improve the well-being and life skills of children aged 5-11.
Two days before, he’d spent the night dealing with corners as Everton bombarded his goal. “Physically it was a big battle, a big game, so I'm still recovering from that,” he said before answering questions.
Question: When the Belgium press came over in late October, you likened playing in England and dealing with corners to a war. Has it become more intense, more physical, having played a few more games?
Answer: It's been all season like this. It is a Premier League. It's also physicality and, like you say, a bit of war. It's also one of my strengths, so sometimes I like the challenge as well. Everyone must deal with it.
It's not that only one team does it or it's just everyone in general and as a goalkeeper, you must get used to that and train on it as well and then get better at it and, yeah, I think I've been doing a good job at it so I'll continue to do that.
Have you been a bit surprised by this type of football in the Premier League?
Not really. They always said to me that it was the most physical and it's the best league, but especially the physicality is the biggest difference. Everyone's trying to get as many goals as they can, so they try new stuff and think it's been also positive and getting goals from it.
I mean, we do it as well sometimes, making it hard for the goalkeeper. We’ve scored lots of goals from it as well, so I understand fully why we do it. You just must deal with it.
You said it's one of your strengths. Did you prepare before you came over here? More time in the gym?
It's always been a bit of my strength, even in Belgium which is less physical but the principles are all the same. The technique is the same. Now it's a little bit more bodies in front of you, but my teammates help me out as well with blocking the guys away from me.
You must be kind of big and not easy to be pushed around. Strength-wise you always want to be on top and be the best as possible so. My physical features are positive for those kinds of situations.
How do you feel now you've settled in Manchester and the Premier League?
Pretty good. I couldn't really imagine it going any better. But also I don't really want to look too much to the past. I mean, it's been great but I still must prove myself every week. So I'm more looking towards the present than the future. Just keep on going, not being satisfied by it, being happy that it went well but it's not the end so I just have to keep going now.
Has the interest in you and United surprised you?
They warned me a little bit before. They warned me that Manchester United is a different animal, especially social media wise. They warned me that it is one of the biggest clubs, if not the biggest club.
Do you pay attention to social media?
A little bit, yeah, of course it's difficult not to in this time. I'm still 23 years old. It is always on social media. It's all positive now, but I know sometimes it can get negative fast so I don't really want to be looking towards it too much. It is just like people next to me, my teammates and my coaches, are the biggest influence on me. That's the most important thing.
Back on the set pieces, you’re spending a lot of time in the gym at Carrington. Are you trying to change your physique to get bigger and stronger to deal with that kind of situation?
Change is a big word. The physical demands are quite big, so you're trying to get yourself ready for that. But naturally I've always been a bit bigger, a bit more weight wise. So I think it's also a positive thing for me the way the Premier League is.
Also that's why Manchester United also were interested in me because they knew how it was going to be. So fitness wise is one thing, but also in training, just visualising the things and all those bodies next to you trying to navigate.
And you seem like you kind of enjoy maybe the physical side of it a little bit. You’re smiling. There was talk after Everton game that maybe the referees at some stage are going to have to change the rules, maybe look at the rules about the stuff that's going on in the penalty area.
Of course there'd have to be certain rules. It can't get to the point where it's too much. But I enjoy it as well getting out of my comfort zone a little bit and dealing with those situations because now even though there were a lot of bodies next to me, I still came for crosses so that also gives me a good feeling that I'm doing well and doing those things well. If it continues like this, just the physicality in general and those corners, I sometimes even like it as well.
There have been lots of comparisons with you and great Man United goalkeepers, but are there any goalkeepers that you watched growing up? Any goalkeepers that you take inspiration from?
My biggest idol so to say as a goalkeeper was probably [Manuel] Neuer. I take pride in being an all-around goalkeeper and that's also why I was such a big fan of his because he didn't really have a working point or something that was clearly not the best thing in his game.
I'm also Belgian, so Thibaut Courtois is always a big thing when I was growing up as well. And just his qualities and saving the ball is just world class. So try to learn something from everyone because everyone has his own strong points, but I would say probably Neuer in his all-round game.
Gary Neville said several years ago that when he was playing in front of Fabien Barthez it worried him because Barthez wanted to get involved. He'd come out of this area, get on the ball. You've got a lot of praise for pretty much being the opposite to that. Has that just developed naturally or have you made a conscious choice there? Because United have had a lot of goalkeepers who have been quite erratic, but their personalities have been big personalities.
Yeah, a little bit of both. It's natural for taking pride in being all round, not really having any flaws. But also not really forcing errors or like not really trying to chase the game.
I spoke a lot about it with [fellow goalkeeper] Tom Heaton as well, who's helping me in my time here as well. He's talking about not really giving things away and keeping your team in the game and sometimes it's not giving your game away.
You don't always have the biggest things to do or the biggest work to do, but it's also like staying focused and not giving anything to the opponent, not easy things at least.
Your move came quite very late in the transfer window, in terms of it happening on deadline day. Was there ever a point previously in your career, maybe earlier in the summer, where you could have come to England?
You hear and read some stuff everywhere, but to be honest, the only real interest was probably from Manchester United. In the end, a couple of teams had a call or like were asking about me, but for me, it was always in my mind that United was number one.
I had to wait for a little bit, but I trusted in the move and in myself and even if it didn't work out I was I was happy with it. I wouldn't have minded being longer in Antwerp, but United was always my number one option in my head and I was happy on the last day it came through.
Who was the person at the club or who was the point of contact? Was there anyone you spoke to at the club when it was progressing?
I've had quite a while contacts with United. I think former goalkeeper Tony Coton was probably one of the biggest ones. I had a good relationship and with from the beginning and especially my agent was always on a good relationship with him so he was always honest with me and everything he said has come true.
What were your expectations when you came? Did you expect to be No 1 this early?
There wasn't really a clear path for me. It was a little bit like ‘trust myself’. I needed a little bit time to get used to it and adapt, especially to this league and this quality. So I think when I came, those first weeks were vital and me trying to get better and get used to the level.
It wasn't really spoken when I was going have my chance, I needed to prove myself in training. But I knew the chance was going to be there, if it was in the league or in the cups. The way it went was probably ideal for me and I got my chance and I took it and since then I haven't really looked back.
You made most saves in Europe last year, but praise here is coming from doing all the other stuff. Does that make praise more pleasing, that you are being this all-rounder?
The first thing as a goalkeeper you must make saves, that's the most important thing, but I take a lot of pride in doing the other things well. Maybe not always the box office stuff or the things people look at first.
If you know a little bit about goalkeeping, that's probably sometimes even as important for your teammates to trust in you and to help the team.
Sometimes for United, I don't really have a to do a lot of saves, a different kind of goalkeeping, but it's also sometimes the most difficult, when there are only one or two saves to be made, but you must make them.
Was the Sunderland game an odd feeling with fans cheering for you catching a cross?
It was nice, getting the support from the fans and from my teammates was probably the biggest and the best feeling there was in the beginning. And they also gave me even more confidence to keep going and to make the steps I did after that.
What you do away from football?
I don't really watch a lot of football because daily you're doing a lot with football. Everything is almost revolved around football and at the club, so you almost want to switch off a little bit mentally.
I am a big sports guy. I love watching other sports and other athletes do their thing. Especially how they prepare the game and how they think about their game because it's a lot of different insights, but also sometimes you can learn a lot of stuff from their mentality and their way of thinking. With NBA and with, for example, with Kobe, Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, who we also can learn a lot from.
When I have a really good book or when I have a book I'm interested in, I read quite a lot. But it's also getting started in a new book is always difficult. It's reading about other athletes, for example, about mentality and there are lots of good books about dealing with adversity, dealing with stress or stuff like that, which can also help in this kind of industry.
I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but you seem just like a normal guy. Do you think you'll ever lose that?
I hope not. I think that's also something I try to show the world that I'm just, or for example, these children here, I'm just a normal guy as well, that everyone can make it. I don't only want to be looked at as a football player, but also just a normal person with his own beliefs and stuff to do next to it.
How has it been working under coach Michael Carrick? It's been about six or seven weeks now, going very well, unbeaten.
Really good. The general feeling in the dressing room has been really good. Winning those four games and the first two against like City and Arsenal was a big step and a big momentum booster.
This last game [Everton] was important to get that momentum back because we had two weeks where we didn't have a game. And especially after West Ham, where we didn't have our best game or best result. So yeah, now it's getting back into that winning feeling, which we did.
It's been good. Michael makes it as easy as it can be for us from his experiences in the past, so you can see the way he talks about stuff that he has also experienced all the things we've been going through. Can't praise him enough.
