Will Donny van de Beek return to his best this season with Erik Ten Hag?
The arrival of his former manager at Ajax will be enough to revive his career at Manchester United?
Donny van de Beek was part of the great Ajax of Erik Ten Hag that fell short in the Champions League, where it looked like they were on the verge of reaching another final after many years. But, as we all know, they lost in that memorable match against Tottenham in the then-called Amsterdam Arena.
After receiving the attention from clubs all over the world, Ajax would be dismantled after selling most of their promising young stars. And, one of them was Donny van de Beek who landed on Manchester United in 2020 after a successful spell with the team from Amsterdam.
Everything looked perfect for Donny and the Red Devils, especially at the beginning, because he scored in his first match against Crystal Palace. But, that season ended up being difficult for him, since he didn’t play many matches after that.
In total, he started in just four of the 34 games he was available, and featured in a lot of matches with less than ten minutes on the pitch, to be precise, he was subbed in on 15 occasions but he played 10 minutes or less in 7 of those matches, garbage minutes basically.
Fundamentally, the competition in the midfield impeded him from being a starter with the likes of Paul Pogba, Bruno Fernandes who arrived the previous season, Fred, and the youngster who made his debut under Jose Mourinho, Scott Mctominay. All of them were very important for the manager at that time, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, so it was difficult for van de Beek to have space in the starting eleven, so we can say that this was his adaptation period, right? Well, not exactly…
New season, same history
With the return of Jesse Lingard after his positive loan spell with West Ham for the second half of the past season and the addition of new players like Jadon Sancho, the opportunities for Donny vanished even more. Despite the sacking of Ole and the arrival of Ralf Rangnick, his situation didn’t change.
He was available in 22 matches in the Premier League and got to play in only two of them, (he actually played eight, but in six of them he played less than 10 minutes). Looking for a change, he accepted the proposal of Everton in the Winter Transfer Window to leave on loan and get the chance to have more minutes with Frank Lampard’s team.
And, finally, he got the consistency that he was looking for, he played six consecutive matches for Everton and four from the start. We saw sparkles of that Donny van de Beek from Ajax, that box-to-box midfielder who stood out for his ability to be associative, and be offensive but also very good at tackling and reading the game defensively, and especially with Everton he had the opportunity to highlight those attributes.
But, if it’s not one thing it’s the other, he suffered an injury that deprived him of playing more matches, he missed a total of eight games with The Toffees and reappeared in the last match of the season against Arsenal in the Emirates Stadium scoring a goal in his ‘last dance’ as a Toffee. So, in one way or another, he couldn’t take full advantage of his loan, but now the story is different.
A new beginning with a familiar face
Manchester United confirmed the arrival of Erik Ten Hag for the 2022-23 season, the manager that was key in the development of van de Beek at Ajax. And, with the confirmation by Fabrizio Romano that Erik Ten Hag trusts him to be important for the team, and doesn’t want him to leave, this means that he will have a manager that knows his qualities and strengths and will give him the opportunity to showcase them.
Also, with the departures of ‘rivals’ in the midfield like Paul Pogba and Nemanja Matic, he will have more space in the team. So, is now up to him to give his best and prove that he still got it and can be an important player for Manchester United.
Does this mean that Donny will be a starter? It’s difficult to tell, especially with the Summer Transfer Window still open, so maybe the arrival of his former teammate at the Dutch National Team and Ajax, Frenkie de Jong, could change the plans, but for now, the panorama is clear and he will have his well-deserved chance, so hopefully, it will turn out well for him after a difficult couple of seasons.
So, what do you think? Do you think that Erik Ten Hag will get the best out of Donny this season or not?
Thank you for reading! Below, I leave you other stories that I have written in case you may be interested:
