Manchester United’s Altay Bayindir to continue in goal, says Ruben Amorim

Ruben Amorim, the Manchester United manager, has revealed that Altay Bayindir will start in goal for Sunday’s Manchester derby in preference to new recruit Senne Lammens.

Amorim said Turkey international Bayindir, who has started each of United’s three Premier League fixtures this season, would retain the gloves despite committing high-profile blunders against Arsenal and Fulham.

The club’s goalkeeping situation has come under close scrutiny in the early weeks of the season, with Bayindir selected ahead of André Onana, United’s first-choice stopper for the past two seasons, before the arrival of Lammens, an £18.1m deadline-day signing from Royal Antwerp, added a fresh layer of intrigue.

Onana lost his place after picking up a hamstring injury in pre-season training and never regained it, completing a season-long loan move to Turkish side Trabzonspor on Thursday.

Amorim has said that Bayindir and Lammens, 23, will now compete for a starting place once the Belgian stopper has acclimatised to his new surroundings.

‘For me it’s clear that Altay Bayindir will start’

“Altay is going to continue,” said Amorim. “It’s a different league, it’s a different country, different training, different ball. So they will fight for the position. For this game, [though], for me it’s clear that Altay will start.”

Amorim said Onana’s move to Turkey would help the 29-year-old to recover the form that persuaded United to pay £47.2m for his services two summers ago.

In what would prove his final outing for the club this term, Onana gifted Grimsby Town a goal and saved only one of 13 penalties as United suffered a humbling League Cup defeat to the League Two side last month. Amorim intimated that the Cameroonian struggled to come to terms with the pressure of being United’s No 1.

“We saw André had a very, very good season in Inter,” said the Portuguese. “The quality is there, but we are in the club: sometimes, in the moment, things are getting harder and harder. You can be really experienced, but in this club the pressure sometimes is so hard on every detail. Sometimes you need a change.

‘André Onana needed a change’

“We understood that he needed a change, and sometimes it’s hard to point [to] why. It’s the performance, the moments. The bad luck in some moments was hard on him, was hard on us. Our thinking is to have a change in the goalkeepers, but I wish the best to André. He was really good at working, trying to help the players. 

“You can have all the quality in the world, but sometimes you need to change the environment to return to your level, and I think that was the feeling not just for us, but from André as well.” 

Amorim said the decision to play Bayindir was about meeting the needs of the present while confident in the knowledge that, in Lammens, United have a player with potential to become a first-choice pick for years to come.

“We are in the moment when the goalkeeper needs to be really strong and have a lot of experience,” said Amorim. “But we are also in a moment when we have to look at the present, also with a focus on the future. So it’s a little bit both. A guy with a great potential to be our goalkeeper for a lot of years.

“We believe a lot in our goalkeepers, I believe in Altay – he is ready to play and he’s going to play.”

The same cannot be said of injured trio Matheus Cunha, Mason Mount and Diogo Dalot, all of whom are set to miss Sunday’s afternoon’s trip to the Etihad.