The Red Devils have acquired a player who could be a major asset this campaign – assuming his statistical measurements are accurate.
Sporting Lisbon acquired four prominent players during the recent transfer window, including attackers Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo, Benjamin Sesko, and Senne Lammens, indicating that Manchester United aimed to strengthen key areas of the squad.
Cunha and Mbeumo have made promising starts, while Sesko is adapting to the team, as Amorim hopes to improve the team’s performance after they finished in the bottom half of the league last season.
Did Manchester United err in signing Senne Lammens?
Given Andre Onana’s inconsistent displays in goal, United opted for the young Belgian talent, Senne Lammens, as a potential upgrade – and, at just 23 years old, Lammens is clearly seen as a prospect for the future.
Lammens has been highly regarded by data analysts, with analyst Spencer Mossman stating on X (formerly Twitter) earlier this month that, despite Lammens’ limited playing time at the highest level, his statistics for stopping shots and crosses were among the best in Europe.
However, as highlighted in a recent video by TalkBall, there were “peculiarities” observed in certain metrics within the Belgian Pro League last year.
The Belgian top division recorded a Post-Shot Expected Goals minus Goals Allowed (PSxG-GA) value of +95.80 last season – approximately three times greater than the next highest performing division among Europe’s top nine leagues. In fact, the combined PSxG-GA for the other eight leagues totaled -137.3.
While some may contend that Expected Goals is an unreliable metric and that players’ value should not be solely based on statistics, FourFourTwo might agree… but what about Manchester United?
The concern is that United may have signed Lammens based on data that might be, in Mossman’s words, “questionable.”
Of course, United will have thoroughly assessed Lammens – but given the questions surrounding the data, it will be interesting to see how the young player performs when he eventually gets the opportunity to play in goal under Amorim.
United will resume Premier League play this weekend with a match against Brentford.
