Paul Scholes isn't ready to crown Senne Lammens just yet. The Manchester United legend says the "jury is still out" on the club's Belgian goalkeeper, even after an impressive debut season at Old Trafford and public praise from Sir Alex Ferguson.
Goalkeeping has been a sore spot for United since David de Gea's decline in his final years as No. 1. The club brought in André Onana in 2023 after his Champions League run to the final with Inter Milan, but the Cameroonian never gave United the stability they needed across two seasons as starter. Onana is now in his second season on loan at Trabzonspor and looks unlikely to play for the Red Devils again.
United turned to the relatively unknown Lammens instead, signing him from Royal Antwerp at the end of the 2025 summer transfer window for $24.5 million. He quickly took over as first-choice goalkeeper and got through his debut campaign without any real questions over his place in the side.
Scholes Still Has Doubts
Lammens has talked about wanting to "leave a legacy" at Old Trafford, name-checking Peter Schmeichel and Edwin van der Sar as the United goalkeepers he'd love to be mentioned alongside one day. But reaching that company would mean United getting back among the game's biggest prizes, something they haven't done since winning the Premier League in 2013, and haven't looked close to since Pep Guardiola's Barcelona beat them in the 2011 Champions League final.
That's the context behind Scholes' skepticism. Speaking on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast alongside co-host Nicky Butt, Scholes asked: "What team have you seen win the Premier League without a top-class goalkeeper?"
"Lammens might be that; I don't know; I think the jury's probably still out on that," he added.
That's a notably more cautious take than the one offered by Ferguson last November, who was clearly taken with what he'd seen from the Belgian early on. "The goalkeeper has been outstanding. He's only played three or four games and he's looking really good," Ferguson said at the time.
How Lammens Stacks Up
Scholes pointed to Liverpool's Alisson and Arsenal's David Raya as the kind of elite shot-stoppers who have helped their teams to Premier League titles in recent seasons. Statistically, though, Lammens arguably had the better of both last season. According to FotMob, he conceded more goals than either of them but 'prevented' more shots than expected than both. Only Manchester City's Gianluigi Donnarumma was more effective as a shot-stopper in the league, preventing 5.8 goals compared to Lammens' 4.4.
Elsewhere, the picture was more mixed. Lammens' save percentage of 66.9% ranked just 14th in the Premier League last season, and ten goalkeepers recorded more clean sheets than his tally of eight.
His numbers have dipped further this season. His save percentage has fallen to 58.8% through the opening weeks of the 2026-27 campaign, and he's actually underperformed as a shot-stopper, preventing -0.5 goals through four matches, meaning he's conceded more than expected given the quality of shots faced.
Lammens may not yet belong among the Premier League's elite goalkeepers, but after a deflating defeat in the Manchester derby, he's hardly top of the list of problems United need to solve.
