Heaton confident Lammens will return to Man Utd stronger after World Cup error

Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.

Tom Heaton expects Senne Lammens to bounce back from his goalkeeping error at the World Cup and return to Manchester United stronger than ever.

Lammens came off the bench for the injured Thibaut Courtois in Belgium’s 2-1 quarter-final loss to Spain, and spilled a Pau Cubarsi shot that was pounced on by Mikel Merino, who turned in the winner.

It was Lammens’ only appearance at the tournament as he got just 19 minutes of game time.

Last season, he joined United and nailed down the number one spot, providing some much-needed stability to the goalkeeper position.

And having worked closely alongside him and spoken to him in the aftermath of the World Cup, Heaton is confident Lammens will not be dwelling on it when he returns to United.

“It was obviously a challenging moment for him, but I think that’s the life of a goalkeeper,” Heaton said.

“As soon as you put the gloves on and go between the sticks, you have to be ready to deal with that. He certainly is. I actually think he’ll be stronger for it.

“I think his personality is fantastic for a goalkeeper, so no issues there. It’s obviously disappointing for him, but I do honestly think it can help him in the long run.”

Lammens made 32 Premier League appearances and kept eight clean sheets, and he made just one error leading to a goal throughout the 2025-26 campaign.

Excluding penalties and own goals, the 24-year-old conceded 33 goals from 110 shots on target. According to Opta’s expected goals on target (xGoT) model, he prevented 7.1 goals for the club.

“I’ve certainly seen that from him as a young goalkeeper coming into Manchester United and dealing with that unbelievably well,” Heaton added.

“I highly doubt he’ll be going into [the next match] with fear or worrying about what may happen.

“It’s more about what you want to go and achieve, whilst also accepting that if it happens, you can deal with it.”

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