How good is new Man Utd keeper Lammens?

Meet Manchester United’s final signing of the summer, Senne Lammens, a goalkeeper signed from Royal Antwerp on the last day of the transfer window over Aston Villa’s Emiliano Martinez.

The big question is, just how good is he now?

And could he become good enough to make the position as United’s first-choice keeper his own for years to come?

When looking at the data, Lammens stands out, with club sources at United citing key metrics like claimed crosses, shot stopping, and a lack of errors leading to goals as particularly impressive.

Most notably, his shot-stopping numbers are chart-topping. Of all goalkeepers in Europe’s top 10 leagues last season, Lammens ranked first for total saves made (173) with a 77.4% save percentage.

Using xG, he was expected to concede 66.4 goals but only let in 48 (excluding own goals) placing him second in Europe for goals prevented, having statistically stopped 18.4 total goals.

As with all data, however, it is important to analyse the footage to put it in context.

Let’s focus on his shot stopping to begin with.

It is important to differentiate between short and long 1v1s when analysing keepers.

In long 1v1s, a player running unopposed towards goal starts further away from goal, giving both the attacker and keeper more time. This poses its own challenges when compared to short distance 1v1s.

Lammens’ rationale for how he approaches 1v1s is intelligent – albeit with a few small flaws.

Lammens has the speed to come out quickly and opts to come out partially to narrow the angle once an attacker enters the box. After rushing out, he tends to stop and hold his position making himself big, forcing the attacker to make a decision.

One downside, however, is that in coming out to narrow the angle, if attackers take their shot early there is space either side of Lammens, resulting in what looks like a surprisingly easy finish. This can happen too if Lammens is slower to rush out in the first instance, getting caught in-between his two positions.

In short 1v1 situations, Lammens closes the angle down quickly, not committing greatly to one particular side, preventing strikers from having a clear side to aim at. He doesn’t look to smother and collect the ball with his hands in a sliding fashion. Instead he stands fairly square, with his arms outstretched wide, spreading his legs in a long-barrier fashion, as seen in cricket.

A large proportion of the shots Lammens faced last season were from further out or with a bank of defenders in front of him. In these situations, Lammens is again fairly assured, albeit against players of a lower quality than he’d expect to face in the Premier League.

On occasion he takes a slightly advanced position, not standing on his line but a few yards ahead. This has the added benefit of reducing the angle opponents can aim at, positioning the keeper where they have a chance of stopping the ball closer to the centre of the goal.

If a keeper was standing on his line, a shot set for the top corner might be fairly un-saveable but in stepping a few yards forward, in theory, this could be more easily saved before it was too far out of reach.

If he does take up this slightly advanced position, one downside is against shots taken early or through a crowd of bodies, he gives himself less time to make a reaction save.

Club sources mention Lammens’ ability to stop crosses as something that stands out in the data – and they’re right. He ranked first of all keepers in Europe’s top 10 leagues last season for crosses stopped (13.2%).

United have been targeted over their inability to defend corners well at the start of the season, so they will be hoping that the aforementioned stat will bear fruit for them.

Watching him, however, reveals why these numbers are so impressive without being an immediate fix to their corner weaknesses.

Lammens is extremely proactive in coming for crosses. He leaves his line to catch most 50-50 aerial balls. In the Belgian Pro League, he faced numerous crosses in-between the defensive line and his goalline that were fairly uncontested, so it was easy for him to come off his line and confidently catch these, especially as he is 6ft 4in. This partly helps explain the high percentage of crosses stopped.

The discrepancy in his strong crosses-stopped numbers and what is seen when watching him at corners is made clearer knowing he conceded eight goals from 85 corners faced last season, according to Opta.

Conceding 9% of all corners faced, when compared to all Premier League keepers who faced more than 20 corners last season, places 15 keepers as having a better percentage and 12 as having worse.

Interestingly, Aston Villa’s Martinez ranked second best, only conceding two goals from corners having faced 60. Lammens’ 9%, however, is a big improvement on United’s first-choice keeper last season, Andre Onana, who conceded 17.2%.

It is key to note these numbers are influenced by the quality of the league, opposition faced, and the defending team’s ability to defend corners. United’s team-wide defending of corners has been questionable at times and the Premier League’s physicality, inventive corner routines and use of individuals to apply physical contact on keepers, may cause Lammens’ numbers to become slightly worse as he learns to adapt to the league.

The 23-year-old has shown a proficiency with both feet and is not afraid to control and pass the ball with either, despite being primarily right footed.

In short build-up play, when the left centre-back passes the ball to him, he uses his left foot to usher it to the right centre-back with one touch, which leads to a smoother, quicker build-up. He doesn’t need to take a touch to move it to his right foot and this increases the speed the ball gets to the other side.

When passing long with his right foot, he is more accurate passing across his body towards the left flank. He is less accurate passing towards the right side of the pitch.

He faced less direct pressing pressure in the Belgian Pro League compared to what he will encounter in the Premier League. Based on the few clips in which he was pressed, he often opted to launch it long and these passes weren’t directly to team-mates but rather into general zones up the pitch, leading to contested duels and turnovers.

Another top-flight side in Europe recently passed on him over his ball-playing ability, likely not wanting a greater number of turnovers from situations in which the keeper was pressed by the opposition.

The data flags Lammens as immediately impressive but closer video analysis helps to explain why some of those stats might need to be interpreted in a slightly more measured fashion.

The new United keeper is tall, confident, calm, proactive and imposing. As a pure shot stopper, he has shown quality from distance and in one against ones. This is reassuring.