{"id":812852,"date":"2026-03-08T19:29:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/812852\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T19:29:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:29:16","slug":"manchester-united-star-is-pushing-new-premier-league-rule-to-the-absolute-limit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/812852\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester United star is pushing new Premier League rule to the absolute limit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manchester United goalkeeper Senne Lammens is making the most of one key new Premier League rule.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The summer signing has impressed since his arrival from Royal Antwerp in an \u00a318.1million transfer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Manchester<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Lammens has been an excellent signing for Manchester United this seasonCredit: GettyWho is Senne Lammens?<\/p>\n

Since replacing Andre Onana<\/a> and Altay Bayindir, the Belgian has been a steadying presence between the sticks.<\/p>\n

His predecessors were both erratic and made multiple errors leading to goals, which cost the world-famous club.<\/p>\n

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

Lammens has made 23 appearances in the English top-flight and only conceded 25 goals.<\/p>\n

READ MORE ON MANCHESTER UNITED<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

And he’s not been afraid to dip into the dark arts as he does so.<\/p>\n

What Premier League rule is Senne Lammens exploiting?<\/p>\n

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

However, if they did hold onto the ball this long, they would now incur a punishment.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It’s not been used much, but did happen on the opening day of the season when Burnley lost to Tottenham Hotspur<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Senne<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Lammens was Player of the Match against Everton recentlyCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Early on in the match, Clarets keeper Martin Dubravka made the mistake and referee Michael Oliver stepped in.<\/p>\n

Spurs, like most of the season, failed to capitalise on the mistake of their opponent.<\/p>\n

What is Senne Lammens doing?<\/p>\n

One goalkeeper who is using the rule to its fullest extent is Lammens.<\/p>\n

Statistics obtained by The Athletic show the glovesman holds onto the ball for an average of 7.68 seconds.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

His average is just over one second more than the next longest goalkeeper.<\/p>\n

\"Arsenal<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Raya holds onto the ball for Arsenal – but not for as long as you might thinkCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen holds onto it for an average of 6.52 seconds, just ahead of Jordan Pickford’s 6.50 seconds.<\/p>\n

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

Lammens’ role in Manchester United’s renaissance has widely been praised.<\/p>\n

What has been said about Senne Lammens?<\/p>\n

And when asked about similarities between the player and Old Trafford legend Edwin van der Sar, Carrick replied: \u201cI\u2019ll be careful what I say.<\/p>\n

“I definitely see the similarities, yeah, without comparing them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be comparing them because I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair to Senne. But there\u2019s definitely similarities.<\/p>\n

\"Manchester<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Lammens is making the most of his time at Manchester United in more ways than oneCredit: Getty\"Michael<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Like Lammens, interim boss Michael Carrick has made a very positive start in his roleCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Senne is that. He\u2019s quite quiet at times and unassuming, but he\u2019s got a real steeliness.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s a big, big role for some and all this talking there about coping and just being comfortable in your environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read More on talkSPORT<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it takes time, sometimes not, but how he\u2019s gone about it at the moment, that calmness, that composure, I think it does help those in front of an awful lot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA major part of it is the character, the personality, and that is a major attribute to have, especially playing here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester United goalkeeper Senne Lammens is making the most of one key new Premier League rule. The summer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,30567,24500,2465,98,234572,101,67364,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-812852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-man-united","12":"tag-man-utd","13":"tag-manchester","14":"tag-manchester-united","15":"tag-new-rule","16":"tag-premier-league","17":"tag-senne-lammens","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116195216999575524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}