Did Manchester United break Donny van de Beek
Manchester United swooping for Donny van de Beek in last summer’s transfer window was a solid thumbs up. The type of transfer that looked smart. A young player who was crafted at the hands of Europe’s greatest football factory, a young player who had a wealth of experience, a league title to his name and a place in the famous Oranje midfield.
Donny van de Beek is highly regarded in the Netherlands as being one of their smartest footballers. He is a complete midfielder that can be used anywhere, but shouldn’t be. As he signed for a club trying to re-build, it felt like a step in the right direction for both parties. Yes, United have Bruno Fernandes who thrives in centre-park and a World Cup winner in Paul Pogba, but in van de Beek they were getting the future in the form of the present.
23 years young, but the wisdom of a player 10 years his senior. He is an accurate passer of the ball who simply knows where every player is at any given moment. Take a look at his dummy that brought Manchester United back on level terms in the FA Cup Quarter final against Leicester. It’s subtle, it’s brilliant and well, it’s all very Dutch. He faded in that game and sadly you can see that time outside the first team is wearing him down. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is not only using him sparingly, but almost not at all and van de Beek’s international career is also taking a hit. He was not involved as Turkey rolled over the Dutch 4-2 in the first World Cup Qualifier and you can immediately see what the Netherlands lacked. That team was crying for someone to step in and take control of the game. They needed a calm presence with an eye for a killer pass, a guy who can keep the ball and a player who might even grab a goal himself. They needed peak van de Beek, but we’ve sadly not seen that in a long while.
Ajax’s brilliant academy is responsible for most of this problem. This football factory rolls out the next generation, packages them and sells them to Europe’s elite. Often this happens when the player is too young and too inexperienced. They are moulded at Ajax to play the Dutch way. Totaalvoetbal is in their DNA up there and when a player joins a team which has not established their own philosophy they often struggle. We saw this with Davy Klaassen who struggled so badly at Everton, Danny Blind at Manchester United and also with Justin Kluivert. The first two on the list simply found life outside Ajax’s brilliant way too different and returned back to Amsterdam and, importantly, back to their national team’s starting line ups too. When a player joins a team that shares the same philosophy, as with Frankie de Jong’s place, it’s less of a problem, but fractured teams break these types of talents.
Ajax’s stars of tomorrow, famously tagged #ForTheFuture by their own marketing team, need to think seriously about when it is the right time to leave the Eredivisie. Yes, as a league it can not sustain a Champions League winning outfit, but when they leave the nursery too soon, the little pups are struggling. The players struggle to find their identity in another club, the club fails to trust them and ultimately the national team takes a huge hit. The once brilliant Dutch team is a far cry of what it once was, and even though they qualified for Euro 2020, expectations are close to zero.
Manchester United are partly to blame for van de Beeks significant drop in confidence. You don’t simply pay £35 million to leave a player rot on the sidelines. He is rotting away, and he would have been far better off staying in Amsterdam. Afterall it was while there that he reached a Champions League semi final and made the 30-man shortlist for the Ballon d’Or.
There is a raw gem collecting dust in Manchester, but United have a talent they can build the team around. Him partnered with Bruno Fernandes would make an attack-minded side, just imagine what they would look like if they made a marquee signing like Erling Braut Haaland.
It’s not too late for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to build this player up, give him a run of games and help him cement his place at Old Trafford. We all know Pogba’s agent puts him one bad week away from a transfer request, and United’s struggles are plain to see. They rely too heavily on Bruno Fernandes, don’t know when to make that lazer-guided pass and often lack killer instinct. Add a confident, happy Donny van de Beek to the mix, and you’ve got yourself a decent side that can cause problems. Afterall, if the likes of Marco van Basten mention you in their autobiography, you can’t be that bad!
