Manchester United began their league campaign with a disappointing 1–0 defeat at home to Arsenal. Continue Reading
Despite a decent overall performance, another costly error from the goalkeeper proved decisive.
The match’s only goal came early courtesy of Riccardo Calafiori, who capitalized on a mistake by Altay Bayindir.
The Turkish keeper failed to properly deal with a corner from Declan Rice, merely deflecting it into Calafiori’s path for a simple finish.
Bayindir’s vulnerability on set pieces has become a recurring issue. Back in December, he allowed Son Heung-Min to score directly from a corner in the EFL Cup—a rare and embarrassing ‘Olympic Goal’ that raised eyebrows.
Since parting ways with long-time number one David De Gea, United have struggled to find stability between the posts.
Andre Onana, brought in from Inter Milan, has yet to convince fans and is now rumored to be heading to Trabzonspor on loan.
In an effort to strengthen their goalkeeping department, United added young talent Senne Lammens from Royal Antwerp during the summer.
However, former Chelsea manager George Burley has advised current boss Ruben Amorim to drop Bayindir entirely, citing his repeated errors from dead-ball situations as a major liability.
“Altay Bayindir, they can’t play him. He might be okay at shot-stopping, which is what goalkeepers are paid for, but he’s absolutely useless at dealing with balls in from set-pieces,” Burley told ESPN.
“This new lad [Lammens] needs to be able to marshal a back four, make saves and have an authority and make a statement at set-pieces.
“That’s what every team is going to do against United now, they’re going to launch balls into the box and the goalkeeper needs to be able to deal with it. He’s either going to sink or swim. We don’t really know how he’s going to handle this scenario.”
Burley was also critical of Onana, adding: “[Onana] another player who’s gone to Manchester United and got worse. He cost a lot of money but he wasn’t able to marshal a back four.
“I thought Onana would be the real deal, it looked that way in Italy. I thought he might have a Peter Schmeichel-esque aura about him and boss about players but it hasn’t happened. If this new, youngish lad comes in and starts flapping about all over the place, it’s going to be a mess.”
Lammens is expected to come in as first choice at the theatre of dreams, but former Watford and England goalkeeper Ben Foster believes the 23-year-old was a “panic buy”.
On Lammens, Foster said: “I’ve watched a lot of videos of him [Lammens] on YouTube… and he looks on the eye test like he’s a competent goalkeeper. I’m yet to see what he’s like with the ball at his feet though and I think he’s a panic buy.
“United have probably always got some sort of list of goalkeepers that they look at and they keep tabs on. There will be scouts all over the world… but I don’t think they’ve done an in-depth analysis. A deadline day goalkeeper signing tells me that your club is desperate.”
Man United face a tough return to domestic duties next weekend as they travel to rivals Manchester City before welcoming Chelsea the following week.
