Lammens tells United defenders to stop passing him the ball during first-half Spurs struggle

Senne Lammens visibly urged his Manchester United team-mates to stop playing the ball back to him during a troubled first half against Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford, with Gary Neville catching the goalkeeper’s message on commentary.

The Belgian shot-stopper came under repeated pressure in the opening period as United repeatedly looked to him for an outlet in possession. Lammens struggled to provide it, most notably when a wayward pass allowed Lucas Bergvall to find Dominic Solanke in a dangerous position. The keeper recovered to make a strong save, but the incident underlined the discomfort he was experiencing.

Neville, commentating on the match, said he believed he had lip-read Lammens telling his defenders in no uncertain terms to look elsewhere. “Senne Lammens, that ball is getting back to him too much by the way, number one,” Neville said. “But number two, when it comes back to him, he’s looking like it’s a struggle in his mind. ‘I don’t want it’ he’s just said — I’m not a lip reader but there was a little f [swear word] in there as well.”

Neville also suggested interim manager Michael Carrick would have been far from satisfied with what he had seen. “Man Utd just need to get into half-time,” he said. “I’m not sure what Michael Carrick’s first words will be. Maybe, ‘What was that?’. He’ll have expected so much more.”

Pundit Jamie Redknapp echoed those concerns, arguing that United were compounding their own difficulties. “Michael Carrick will be thinking, ‘How are we going to get a foothold in this game?’” Redknapp said. “They’ve got no idea how to play out, no real structure. They are so spread out that they’ve not got the ball up to the top area well enough.”

Redknapp was equally complimentary about the visitors. “Spurs have been excellent in that first half. They’ve controlled the game, they’ve been aggressive. The chances they’ve had — certainly the first with Dominic Solanke — they’ve pressed really well. But Man Utd are also causing their own problems as well.”