Can Donny van de Beek save his Manchester United career?
By Oli Dickson-Jefford
In the aftermath of Manchester United’s 2-2 draw against Aston Villa, the club’s official Twitter account shared a post celebrating Donny van de Beek making his 50th appearance for the Red Devils.
As you would expect, the post received a rather mixed response.
Van de Beek’s time in Manchester has not gone well; though he has played in 50 matches, his combined minutes are equivalent to just 20 full matches in total.
The Dutchman joined for around £40m in August 2020 amid much hype and excitement from Man Utd fans, though he has failed to secure a regular starting XI spot.
What has gone wrong?
The main issue here is that no one is quite sure why the former Ajax ace has not been able to force his way into the starting line-up.
At Ajax, the 24-year-old largely played as a central midfielder and there should be opportunities for him in this position at Old Trafford.
Competition comes from Fred, Nemanja Matic and Scott McTominay, and considering how mixed their displays have been it’s surprising that the Dutchman has not had more opportunities.
Man Utd are easily overrun in the middle, as displayed at Villa Park on Saturday, and something certainly needs to change - but apparently van de Beek isn’t the answer.
A few months ago, many people thought that he would feature more when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked with the Norwegian reportedly not a fan of the midfielder.
However things have not changed under Ralf Rangnick, with van de Beek’s playing time just as limited as before.
He didn’t even get the chance to start in the side’s FA Cup third round clash against Villa a week ago, while he was not brought on until the 89th minute in the league this weekend - by which time Man Utd had lost their two-goal lead.
Man Utd fans are incredibly frustrated by the lack of playing time and neither Solskjaer or Rangnick have provided a definitive answer as to why he features so little.
It would seem that there is potentially an issue within the training ground, and that perhaps he is fairly unimpressive when training alongside the likes of McTominay, Fred and Matic.
That would be slightly surprising, considering he has looked bright in his limited playing time, though it is one possible explanation as to why he’s largely been sidelined.
Unfortunately for van de Beek, it doesn’t look like he'll be able to salvage his time in Manchester.
With his opportunities to play still not there under Rangnick, it would not be a surprise to see the Dutchman move elsewhere this summer.
There are rumours that he’ll even be sent out on loan for the remainder of the season, a strong sign that he is not significantly featuring in plans for the rest of the campaign.
With Borussia Dortmund among those reportedly interested in signing him at the end of the season, it would probably be best for both van de Beek and Man Utd to part ways.