Former Manchester United midfielder Luke Chadwick has spoken out on Donny van de Beek’s surprise struggles for playing time since moving to Old Trafford.
The Netherlands international looked an exciting purchase earlier this summer as he joined Man Utd from Ajax, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has mostly been reluctant to give him much playing time so far.
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Van de Beek has had to make do with a place on the bench for United, but Chadwick expects he’ll start to feature more regularly in the starting XI before long.
Speaking to CaughtOffside, Chadwick expressed the view that Van de Beek won’t have joined United just to be a squad player, and that the poor start made by the rest of the Red Devils squad could present him and other backup players with opportunities soon.
“I don’t imagine Donny van de Beek would’ve been happy to sign for the club knowing he was a squad player,” Chadwick said. “I’m sure he thought he would play straight away.
“After the performance (against Tottenham) hopefully he’ll start the next game and give the team a bit of a lift. He obviously scored on his debut, and played quite well in the Carabao Cup.
“A lot of those players in the shadow squad will be looking at the Premier League games and thinking they’ve got a chance to play. One of United’s best players this season has probably been Juan Mata but he looks a million miles away from getting on the pitch in a Premier League game. It might take upsetting a few of the big hitters to get results on the board.”
Along with Mata, Chadwick suggested there might also be room in Solskjaer’s XI for Scott McTominay – another player who has looked rather unlucky to be snubbed from the starting line up so far.
“Nemanja Matic has been one of United’s better players, you need someone in there to shore things up, but McTominay’s younger and has fantastic energy,” Chadwick said. “He’s maybe not as composed on the ball but he’s certainly one for the future and the sort of character that you need in the team at the moment.
“He covers ground, he’s got huge passion for the club and that looked like something that was missing against Spurs.”
FOR ME I WOULD LIKE OLE TO FIX HIM
AS FIRST TEAM OF ALL TIMES..DONNY IS A BRAVE GUY