Instability has plagued Manchester United in a post-Sir Alex Ferguson landscape, and that has been keenly felt at the goalkeeper position in recent years.
They once had one of the world’s best in David de Gea, but his demise meant few batted an eye when the club moved on in 2023. The future was André Onana, a signing met with widespread acclaim, but the Cameroonian, like so many who have opted for pastures new at Old Trafford, has struggled to meet expectations.
Onana’s two years at Man Utd have been plagued by inconsistency, and some would argue he hasn’t yet recovered from a shaky start. As a result, United entered 2025–26 with further questions between the posts, although it’s evident that the fallible Altay Bayındır is no Onana usurper.
The club are set to add another to their ranks in the form of 23-year-old Belgian Senne Lammens, known by very few before the United links emerged. There’s a sense that the Red Devils are merely taking a punt, but there’s reason to believe Lammens could perhaps provide stiff competition for Onana.
Here’s how the two goalkeepers compare in several key areas.
Shot-Stopping
Onana started poorly at Man Utd, but he turned things around during his debut season, eventually finishing with nine clean sheets, a figure he matched last season.
He also finished 2023–24 with the fifth most goals prevented in the Premier League (2.7), per FBRef.
Onana, overall, is an athletic and explosive goalkeeper who is capable of pulling off the spectacular, as he proved with a pair of double saves at the start of last season against Crystal Palace and Fenerbahçe. He can be a great shot-stopper, but an oscillation in confidence has allowed for routine errors to creep into his game.
The Cameroonian has struggled for consistency in Manchester, and last season, he ranked 18th in the Premier League with just 1.0 goals prevented. His save percentage also dipped from 74.9% to 68.9%.
Lammens, meanwhile, had an excellent 2024–25 campaign for a Royal Antwerp side that finished fifth in the Belgian Pro League. The 23-year-old ended the season with an 81.4% save percentage and a staggering 14.5 goals prevented. No goalkeeper made more saves than Lammens in Belgium last season, and he’s already been earmarked as Thibaut Courtois’s successor in the national team.
As a shot-stopper, Lammens has stood out during his young senior career.
Aerial Ability
The 6’6 Bayındır is a great example of height not equating to aerial dominance. At 6’4, Lammens is an imposing presence and three inches taller than Onana. The data also points towards an assured goalkeeper when the ball is delivered into his box.
Over the past year, Lammens ranks in the 99th percentile of all goalkeepers competing outside of Europe’s top five leagues (and in the next best 14) by stopping 13.2% of crosses that enter the penalty area. Onana, on the contrary, has stopped barely over 5%.
Since 2018–19, the Cameroonian has never stopped more than 9.3% of crosses faced in a single season.
Lammens will undoubtedly be tested more by the rough and tumble of the Premier League, but the raw data suggests he’s comfortably superior to Onana in this regard.
Distribution
Onana has long been defined as the archetypal ’modern-day goalkeeper’, who’s comfortable off his line and operating as an extra outfielder when his team have the ball. However, the very best of Onana that manifested in Amsterdam and Milan has seldom come to pass in Manchester.
The Cameroonian is very good with the ball at his feet, and an improvement upon David de Gea, but he certainly hasn’t revolutionised Man Utd’s build-up play, which continues to look stodgy under Amorim.
Onana certainly hasn’t been helped by having nervy ball-players ahead of him, and a forward line that rarely takes advantage of his ability to play over long distances accurately. He’s recorded the two poorest seasons of his senior career on the pass completion front at United.
Lammens bettered Onana’s pass completion rate by 3.6% last season, but averaged 2.4 fewer attempts per 90 minutes. Belgian football expert Bart Tamsyn (via Transfermarkt.com) says the 23-year-old, “is comfortable with both his right and left foot,” but suggested that playing out from the back is an area which could be improved.
Thus, while we haven’t seen the best of Onana as a distributor at United, he looks more natural and comfortable in possession than Lammens, who’s far from a disaster, but could be unnerved by the sophisticated pressing schemes the Premier League beholds.
Senne Lammens vs. André Onana Club Career Records
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as How Senne Lammens Compares to Man Utd Goalkeeper Andre Onana.
