SENNE LAMMENS has praised Ruben Amorim for shielding the Manchester United players from the pressure they have been under this season.
United recorded their first win at Liverpool in nearly ten years and their first back-to-back Premier League wins in a single season since May 2024 on Sunday.
Amorim endured a torrid first couple of months of the season as United suffered three league defeats and were embarrassingly eliminated from the League Cup by fourth-tier Grimsby Town.
But a first victory at Anfield since January 2016 has restored belief and deadline day goalkeeper signing Lammens, whose promotion to the starting XI has coincided with successive triumphs, is grateful to Amorim for how he has managed the club’s crises.
“For me he’s always the same,” Lammens said of Amorim. “I haven’t been here as long, so maybe it’s different for other guys.
“But for me as a coach he gets a lot of pressure, you can feel it from the outside, you can read it, you can hear it.
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“But I think he does his best, and he does really good, tries to keep the pressure on him and not on the team.
“He takes a lot of the pressure from us, and that’s also what the great managers do.
“I try my hardest [to shut out the noise]. I think I’m quite okay at this, trying to keep the noise out from outside.”
Liverpool manager Arne Slot again bemoaned United’s “long balls”, having complained about the tactic after the sides drew 2-2 at Anfield in January.
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Amorim hinted United would opt for a direct approach at his pre-match press conference but sprung a surprise by benching in-form Benjamin Sesko for Matheus Cunha, who had started only once in seven weeks.
The switch worked as United scored through Bryan Mbeumo inside two minutes and had chances to be further ahead at half-time.
“We know how they press, they’re gonna go man-v-man,” Lammens explained. “So I think being realistic, coming into Anfield, it’s quite difficult to build up.
“From the beginning with the defenders, I think I made the decision that we should get more of a long ball and do it with the second ball, even though we didn’t really have a target striker.
“But I think even though we didn’t have one, the second ball we did quite good, so that’s how we could still push them away.
“And how we also scored the first one, I think, it was because of the long ball, second ball and then a counter.
“The coach [and his staff] try to give you as much information as they can, but you have to be realistic as well, especially in the beginning of the game.
“If it really works like this, then you should just stay with this tactic, and I think today it worked out.
“With the game plan we did, I think we executed it quite well. So we knew before the game it was going to be really difficult and we had to defend with 11 people.”
Lammens’ victory celebration
Lammens planned to celebrate United’s victory by spending the evening with one of his best friends who had flown over from Belgium.
The 23-year-old revealed his social media had “exploded” since his £18.2million transfer from Royal Antwerp last month and that he has settled into his Manchester apartment.
Belgium international Lammens is now eager for United to continue their momentum on Saturday at home against Brighton, who have won on their last three visits to Old Trafford.
“Two [wins] in a row is also something we’ve been looking forward to, to get the momentum going,” he added.
“I think that was a big part of what the coach showed us this season, to get the momentum going.
“And there have been quite some disappointments this season, some games that we wanted to take momentum but we couldn’t.
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“And I think today could be a start of a good momentum, and we should next week at home as well.
“So with the fans behind us we should try to win that game as well.”
