A latest look at the Dutchman.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 I'm here with Michael Plante of Manchester World to discuss all things Man United and City going into this festive period.
00:08 Michael, let's start with a player at Man United, Donny van de Beek. Obviously, quite a strange time for him at the club.
00:16 How do you assess his time at the club and where can you see him going in the future?
00:22 We know more or less where he is going next and that's a loan move to Eintracht Frankfurt in January.
00:30 A loan that will time over to the end of the season and then I think a fee of up to £12 million potentially being agreed to sign the player next summer.
00:40 No obligation on that, it's an option. It may be an option that Frankfurt choose not to take.
00:45 Obviously, we'll have to see in the summer. In terms of his time at Manchester United, I just think it's such a shame for everyone really.
00:52 Mainly the player that he has, through various reasons, just struggled so much to play.
00:57 When he came to the club, I think he's always struggled a little bit.
01:02 He's been a Manchester United player for three and a half years and I'm still not really sure what his best position is or what he's really supposed to bring to the team.
01:12 But I think he is an attacking, creative midfielder.
01:15 One of the problems he's always had is that he's been behind Bruno Fernandes in the pecking order and he's struggled to get game time as a result of that.
01:22 He's never, I don't think, ever played a run of five or six matches in the team.
01:28 He hasn't ever played a run of those sorts of games in the team.
01:31 He's never got any consistency to his game, built up any momentum in his performances.
01:35 And look, ultimately his performances haven't been good enough.
01:37 I think the player himself would probably admit that.
01:40 He hasn't adapted to the Premier League, to the physicality, to the pace of it.
01:44 He always just looks a bit short a little bit in a number of areas.
01:50 His decisions on the pitch have always infuriated fans.
01:56 But he's also been unlucky. Injuries have been a big issue for him.
02:00 I think last year United had that midfield injury crisis and of course Van de Beek had to pick up that awful knee injury against Bournemouth.
02:07 If it wasn't for that, he probably would have got a run of games to try and implement himself and the team a little bit.
02:14 But fundamentally it hasn't worked. It hasn't worked.
02:16 Of course, three or four managers now, obviously Alisson Solskjaer, who from day one just never seemed to fancy.
02:23 I remember within a couple of games it was a big topic.
02:25 When's Van de Beek going to get his chance? And I suppose here we are three and a half years later still asking that question to a certain extent.
02:31 But it just hasn't worked.
02:33 I mean, Rangnick obviously went on loan to Everton.
02:38 He came back. We thought Ten Hag, he was going to get his chance.
02:40 A manager he'd played under before and it just didn't work out.
02:43 So I think, look, this isn't officially the end of the moment.
02:47 But I think it looks very likely that it's certainly the end of his time.
02:52 Will either Frankfurt take up the offer? I don't know.
02:55 But I just can't see him playing again.
02:57 He's played 21 minutes this season under Ten Hag.
03:01 Ten Hag's admitted he needs to go somewhere else and play.
03:03 You just can't see him ever forcing his way back into the United set-up.
03:07 And yeah, just a shame for everyone really, I think, how that transfer has panned out.