Michael Carrick told £18m signing is ‘not good enough’ to start for Manchester United

Rene Meulensteen believes Senne Lammens is ‘not good enough’ to be Manchester United’s first-choice goalkeeper.

United opted to replace Andre Onana last summer and signed Lammens in an initial £18 million deal from Belgian side Royal Antwerp in the closing stages of the transfer window.

Lammens had made just 52 appearances in the Belgian Pro League before his move to United, but the 23-year-old has impressed in his first few months at Old Trafford and even received praise from Sir Alex Ferguson.

Meulensteen, however, feels Lammens is ‘potentially a really good goalkeeper’ and is ‘not ready’ to be United’s No.1.

‘I do think that United have quite a few individuals in the squad who, in my opinion, are not good enough for Man United,’ Meulensteen said on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast.

‘They concede far too many goals, defensively they’re not solid, and every team analyses that, and every team that has the quality and the courage, you’re going to create things.

‘I think if you look at the top, top teams, look at Arsenal, they’ve got a really good goalkeeper, Liverpool good goalkeeper, City, United it’s not good enough, the goalkeepers are not good enough.

‘This Lammens boy is potentially a really good goalkeeper. I don’t think at this moment in time he’s ready, and he’s not good enough, for this moment in time, that’s my opinion.

‘For instance, even Aston Villa with [Emiliano] Martinez, that type, these goalkeepers win games for you.’

Meulensteen also believes Michael Carrick, who has been appointed as United’s interim head coach until the end of the season, needs to prioritise the team’s defensive issues.

‘I rate him, I rated him highly as a player and he was a very intelligent player, I think he did a really good job at Middlesbrough, obviously I know a little bit more about it because my son worked there for a year as an analyst,’ said Meulensteen.

‘I think he’ll know what to do, but he has to go in there and be really, really clear to the players.

‘He has to work in certain aspects, coaching on that pitch is going to be vital because they need to start getting clean sheets. That transition going from that system of Amorim into a 4-2-3-1, or a 4-3-3, however you want to defend, your shape has to be coached.

‘What I saw in both of the games [under Darren Fletcher], there’s gaps all over the place and opposition will exploit that. He has to come in, especially in the games against City and Arsenal coming up, and make sure that’s sorted.

‘I trust him in his football ability and intelligence to get that right. I don’t think it’s too difficult to fix, in my opinion. If all the players are available I wouldn’t know exactly what my best line-up would be because you would have to work with players and see what the best connections are at the back, we talked about the goalkeeper issue, in the midfield there’s issues there, but front wise, there’s plenty of power in terms of creating and scoring goals.’

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