Senne Lammens' Man United mission: Inside his rapid rise, why he trains in midfield, scoring goals past Real Madrid, 'power programme' that brought out his 'fire', 1am gym sessions, economics and his long list of pre-match superstitions

More than a quarter of a century has passed since Massimo Taibi marked his Manchester United debut with a man of the match performance against Liverpool at Anfield. 

‘It was fantastic,’ Taibi tells Daily Mail Sport, admitting to surprise that many fans also remember his role in a 3-2 win, given what came shortly after. ‘Playing in Liverpool was difficult but fascinating. I made three or four really beautiful saves.’

The good times didn’t last long for United’s erratic Italian goalkeeper though; two weeks later a tame effort from Southampton’s Matt Le Tissier squirmed agonisingly under his body and through his legs. Harshly dubbed 'The Blind Venetian' by one tabloid, he only played one more game for the club.

United’s latest No 1 will head to Anfield for his first away game on Sunday hoping the excitement over his debut doesn’t turn sour quite so quickly.

After a commanding performance in the 2-0 win over Sunderland at Old Trafford a fortnight ago, the United fans serenaded Senne Lammens with a chorus of ‘Are you Schmeichel in disguise?’.

A clean sheet at home to one of the newly promoted clubs really shouldn’t be a cause for celebration at United, but it was the manner of Lammens’ shutout that has created optimism.

The Belgian quietly demonstrated the skills that persuaded United to abandon a move for Aston Villa's World Cup winner Emi Martinez and sign Lammens from Royal Antwerp: a superb shot-stopper who is good with both feet, bold at coming out to claim high balls, and remarkably cool for a man of 23.

After the unpredictability of Andre Onana and Altay Bayindir, here was the goalkeeping equivalent of doing what it said on the tin.

It has been quite a rise for the boy from Zottegem, East Flanders who only became Antwerp’s first-choice last season and has yet to win a Belgium senior cap. Last season he made 173 saves, more than any other goalkeeper in Europe’s 10 leagues, a joint-top four penalty saves, and the most progressive passes of any keeper under the age of 23.

Peter Schmeichel, for his part, admitted he had never heard of him, and warned against putting too much stock by statistics achieved in the Belgian top flight. The Dane would have preferred United to have signed Martinez or Gianluigi Donnarumma, who went to Manchester City for £26million.

As it was, United juggled Martinez and Lammens up until deadline day when the latter got the nod and jumped on a private jet from Antwerp to complete a deal worth an initial £18.2m.

After Onana was shipped out on loan to Trabzonspor and Bayindir started the first six league games, a carefully planned debut thrust Lammens into the limelight. It appears he is now United’s No 1.

‘I want a goalkeeper to have presence, commanding with authority,' former United defender Phil Jones tells Daily Mail Sport. 'He absolutely oozed all of that against Sunderland. You look at him and think, “how are they getting past him?”.

‘You talk about Anfield, but to play for United in your first game at Old Trafford is not easy, no matter who you’re playing against. There are no concerns from what I’ve seen.’

At United, they are impressed by how calmly Lammens is taking it all in stride. He has settled well and moved into a new house after several weeks in a city centre hotel.

Lammens has asked to come into Carrington on days off for extra sessions, and takes detailed notes after games and training. Those traits are familiar to those who've helped shape his career at Antwerp and Club Brugge.

Brian Vandenbussche, his goalkeeper coach at Antwerp, recalls Lammens being on the bench for an away game and hitting the gym as soon as he got back to the club at 1am.

‘It wasn’t even the first-team fitness centre, it was the youth team,’ says Vandenbussche. ‘That’s Senne. He is a very nice guy but sometimes he needs his own time. He was really disappointed that he didn’t play - Senne had a mission to succeed.’

Rik De Mil, his assistant manager at Club Brugge and previously his youth-team coach there, has a similar story about sleeping at the training ground one night and seeing Lammens going into the gym just before midnight.

‘He is incredibly motivated and ambitious,’ says De Mil. ‘He worked day and night to achieve his goals. The Premier League was his dream, but we also had a lot of conversations about balance.

‘Sometimes he wanted to take the steps too fast, and he was a bit afraid that it wouldn’t happen as fast as he thought it would.’

Both men are well accustomed to Lammens’ superstitious nature. As well as a meticulous pre-match preparation, it includes forbidding anyone from mentioning a clean sheet.

‘According to him, that brings bad luck,’ says his older brother Tom, a striker in the Belgian third division. ‘I don't send anything to Senne before the match about clean sheets.’

Vandenbussche, a former goalkeeper himself, agrees. ‘I didn’t like it either. You jinx it,’ he says. 'I know it’s superstition, but don’t do it. Senne has things he does in a specific order before his warm-up. He always wanted me to stand ready before he went out. He did a fist bump with the other two goalkeepers and with me, that was important to him.

‘Also before the game, he went back to the bench because he needed me to give the drink bottles to him. He did it for me to give him the last couple of words of advice.’

De Mil encountered similar at Brugge. ‘He had a thing with his water bottle being on the same side of the goal. He's superstitious. He prepares always the same way. He also really wants to know everything about the opponent; the strikers, the corners, free-kicks, penalties, how many times an opponent shoots with his left or right foot.’

It’s a dedication to his craft that has convinced De Mil it’s only a matter of time before Lammens succeeds Thibaut Courtois as Belgium’s No 1.

‘There's no doubt,' says De Mil. 'He has made a huge step now at Manchester United at a young age. If he can handle the pressure, which I think he will, there will be a moment that Courtois gets a bit older and then Lammens will be ready.’

Lammens started out as a striker in junior football with RC Bambrugge and FCV Dender before going in goal at the age of 10. Two years later, he was signed up by Brugge, but never lost his ability with the ball at his feet – or on his head for that matter, venturing upfield to nod a late equaliser against Real Madrid in the UEFA Youth League in 2019.

‘He is incredible with his feet. He can put the ball wherever he wants,’ says De Mil, now in charge of Sporting Charleroi in the top flight. ‘You cannot press him on his left or right because he is so two-footed.

‘He loved playing possession games in training. Sometimes he played in midfield. There are a lot of players who don’t have the feet he has, and there were moments when he played better than some academy players.

‘As for his goalkeeper skills, the way he makes saves is good. But it is more the proactive side. He plays very far out of his goal. He takes crosses and long balls and it looks so easy, but it’s because of his starting position.’

Most of all, De Mil admired Lammens’ down-to-earth character and strong mentality as he fought for a youth-team spot and was then restricted to just four senior appearances behind former Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet. They are qualities De Mil believes Lammens inherited from his parents.

‘Absolutely. Two hard-working, great people. Very normal and humble,’ he recalls. ‘We live in a world of agents where they put players under pressure, and the parents get nervous. If Senne didn’t play, they were always respectful, asking what he could do better, not being negative of the club or coaches.

‘In the academy at Brugge, you see a lot of talent but the difference then is mentality. Somebody eager to work, wanting to improve. When you have skills like he has and the mentality to work, then you have a really big talent.

‘When he was behind Mignolet, he had moments of doubt which is normal for a young talent. When he made a mistake, he put more pressure on himself. Over the years he developed into somebody who can handle this pressure. When he makes a mistake, he just continues. He has grown a lot in this.

‘A big strength is that outside the pitch he's calm. He doesn’t do stupid things. He’s an atypical footballer. Feet on the ground.’

Lammens doesn't watch much football in his spare time, preferring US sports like the NFL and NBA and is a big fan of LA Lakers and LeBron James. ‘Sometimes footballers are in their own bubble but he's interested in life,' says De Mil. 'We used to talk about economics. He's devoted to football but he likes to talk about other things.’

Having grown frustrated at seeing his path blocked by Mignolet at Brugge, Lammens moved to Antwerp on a free in 2023 but found himself stuck as No 2 again when Jean Butez stayed at the club unexpectedly, despite Lammens having been signed as his replacement. Vandenbussche felt the new boy was too quiet and needed to develop a more dominant personality. He got to work ‘bringing the fire’ out.

‘We knew Senne was 6ft 4in and 15st and enormously explosive for his height,’ says Vandenbussche. ‘But he was calm. I didn’t know if this was a quality or something to work on. In the end it was both. In the beginning, I was like, “come on, Senne show me personality”.

‘I had to push him: “How far do you want to go? Do you want to go to the Premier League?” He was so calm. I told him to bring the fire in training. To be vocal. He became more of a leader. 

'He was opening his mouth in the locker room... and we saw the guy we wanted to. His face when he stopped his first penalty for Antwerp last season, he made this beast expression, like he was a monster. I said, “Senne, we have to see this guy at every training and every game”.'

Vandenbussche put Lammens through a power programme; boxing, using a reactionary light board for his reflexes, a co-ordination ladder to improve his footwork, long hours in the gym working on his strength and agility.

‘You saw him changing,’ says Vandenbussche. ‘After one year, Manchester United were interested and now he’s theirs. Fantastic. Even when he knew United were interested, he just kept doing his thing.

'Now it’s time to perform at United - just let him go. I sent him a message saying, "I had a feeling you were was going to play against Sunderland, and he replied, “yes, I’m going to start”.

‘It’s not the way he made fantastic saves in his first game, I have seen him make saves twice as hard 10 times. It’s the way he dominated, that's the biggest compliment I can give. He is 23 but looks like he's been in goal there for two years.’

Still, Anfield is a far cry from Antwerp, and Liverpool are a different proposition to Lokeren. There isn’t a tougher environment for a United keeper.

Twenty-six years on, Taibi speaks from experience. ‘He is a reactive goalkeeper,' says the 55-year-old, now director of football at Pistoiese in Italy's Serie D. 'He seems very calm and this is an important quality.’

‘He is a strong goalkeeper, so don’t try to prove yourself or overdo it. My advice is to be yourself and try to do things simply.’