Manchester United: Coach Ten Hag strengthens van de Beek’s back

Criticism after EL appearance

Midfielder Donny van de Beek has played 598 minutes in the Premier League for Manchester United. The summer transfer from 2020, which cost 39 million euros, has not lived up to expectations since then, was unable to hold its own with the “Red Devils” even after being loaned to Everton FC and received the stamp of one of the most expensive reservists in the world. Although the Dutchman has only made three short appearances in the league this season under the direction of his compatriot Erik ten Hag, the coach has by no means written him off, he confirmed before the away game at Aston Villa (Sunday, from 4 p.m. in TM -Live ticker).

In the 1-0 away win in the Europa League against Real Sociedad, ten Hag had substituted the 25-year-old for Marcus Rashford in the 59th minute on Thursday evening. To date, van de Beek has only touched the ball 19 times, and the English media spoke on Friday of “a below-average performance” by the 19-time Dutch international.

Ten Hag, under whose aegis van de Beek scored 32 goals and played 29 more in 110 games for Ajax Amsterdam between 2017 and 2020, still has faith in his protégé. When asked if there could be a point in time at Manchester United in the future when they would accept that Van de Beek was a bad buy, the coach said in the “Timesquoted: “Yeah, but it can’t be now because he’s had a pretty good pre-season. He was injured, now he’s back and I think he played very well. (…) It was a decent performance. I know he can do better because I know him very well, but he delivered what I expected in terms of positioning and pressing. But I think he can do more and that’s his greatest quality – he can be an even greater threat to the opponent’s goal.”

Ten Hag on van de Beek: “Did a good performance in my time here”

Van de Beek’s market value had fallen by more than half during his time in the Premier League, from €44m at the time of his move to €20m now. His contract with United runs until 2025, and Leicester City are said to have recently shown interest in a possible commitment. When asked about the possible reasons for his drop in performance, ten Hag said: “I don’t know why it hasn’t worked out for him so far. I can only speak about my time here. In my time here he has performed well in the playing time we gave him.”

Against the “Villans” van de Beek could already make the next starting eleven on Sunday given these words, since Bruno Fernandes has to pause for a game due to his 5th yellow card. Ten Hag’s other options include Christian Eriksen or Rashford.

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