Manchester United star is pushing new Premier League rule to the absolute limit

Manchester United goalkeeper Senne Lammens is making the most of one key new Premier League rule.

The summer signing has impressed since his arrival from Royal Antwerp in an £18.1million transfer.

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Who is Senne Lammens?

Since replacing Andre Onana and Altay Bayindir, the Belgian has been a steadying presence between the sticks.

His predecessors were both erratic and made multiple errors leading to goals, which cost the world-famous club.

The 23-year-old took until October to make his debut after signing and kept his – and Manchester United‘s – first clean sheet of the season in that 2-0 win against Sunderland.

Lammens has made 23 appearances in the English top-flight and only conceded 25 goals.

In that time he’s kept five clean sheets in total as he attempts to help Manchester United return to the Champions League with a top five finish.

And he’s not been afraid to dip into the dark arts as he does so.

What Premier League rule is Senne Lammens exploiting?

In the summer the Premier League introduced a new rule where goalkeepers could only hold onto the ball for eight seconds, up from six.

However, if they did hold onto the ball this long, they would now incur a punishment.

Should a shot-stopper hold onto it for eight or more seconds they will give away a corner kick – a lethal proposition against the wrong opponent.

It’s not been used much, but did happen on the opening day of the season when Burnley lost to Tottenham Hotspur.

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Early on in the match, Clarets keeper Martin Dubravka made the mistake and referee Michael Oliver stepped in.

Spurs, like most of the season, failed to capitalise on the mistake of their opponent.

What is Senne Lammens doing?

One goalkeeper who is using the rule to its fullest extent is Lammens.

Statistics obtained by The Athletic show the glovesman holds onto the ball for an average of 7.68 seconds.

That’s just 0.32 away from the eight-second limit, which suggests he may well have breached it on an occasion or two without punishment.

His average is just over one second more than the next longest goalkeeper.

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Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen holds onto it for an average of 6.52 seconds, just ahead of Jordan Pickford‘s 6.50 seconds.

Many might consider Arsenal the kings of the dark arts this season, however the stats show their shot-stopper David Raya takes only 3.96 seconds to release the ball – the third quickest amount of time.

Lammens’ role in Manchester United’s renaissance has widely been praised.

What has been said about Senne Lammens?

And when asked about similarities between the player and Old Trafford legend Edwin van der Sar, Carrick replied: “I’ll be careful what I say.

“I definitely see the similarities, yeah, without comparing them.

“I don’t want to be comparing them because I don’t think it’s fair to Senne. But there’s definitely similarities.

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“I think for me, a goalkeeper has to be reliable, to be trustworthy and instead of creating a chaos, you want him to take the chaos away and calm things down. 

“I think Senne is that. He’s quite quiet at times and unassuming, but he’s got a real steeliness.

“And it’s a big, big role for some and all this talking there about coping and just being comfortable in your environment. 

“Sometimes it takes time, sometimes not, but how he’s gone about it at the moment, that calmness, that composure, I think it does help those in front of an awful lot. 

“A major part of it is the character, the personality, and that is a major attribute to have, especially playing here.”