Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim has confirmed that Altay Bayindir will retain his place in goal for this weekend’s Manchester derby.
Bayindir has been the first-choice goalkeeper this season, pushing last season’s first choice Andre Onana to the bench before Onana left the club on loan, but the Turkish international has still made errors in each of his league games. That prompted United to move for Belgian Senne Lammens, but with Lammens being just 22 years old, Amorim has confirmed that he is reluctant to give him his debut in such a high-profile game.
“It’s the same thing I do with different positions, Altay is going to continue,” Amorim said in his pre-match press conference. “Because it’s a different league (for Lammens), it’s a different country, different training, different ball, so we’ll try to maintain that. They will fight for that position. For this game it is clear that Altay will start.”
Asked if it was a show of faith in Bayindir, Amorim responded with a general point about the pressure and spotlight that has been on United’s goalkeepers since he became manager. “I think sometimes, even with Andre, Andre had a really really good season with Inter,” he explained. “In the moment, in this club, things are getting harder and harder. You can be really experienced but sometimes in this club, the pressure is so hard you need a change.”
“We believe a lot in our goalkeepers, I believe in Altay, he’s ready to play and he’s going to play.”
Amorim also confirmed that Matheus Cunha, Mason Mount and Diogo Dalot will miss the derby, though stopped short of confirming how long he expects the trio to be out for. Cunha pulled a hamstring in the win over Burnley and it has been speculated that he will miss a further few weeks but the United boss refused to comment on that.
United face City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday at 4.30pm.
