Judging by how long he stayed on the pitch, Donny van de Beek’s 73 minutes against West Ham United in the FA Cup might have signalled an improved display from the Dutchman. It was, after all, only the fifth time this season that he’d managed 70+ minutes in a domestic fixture for United.
Yet the realities of his performance were much difference, and despite his patience up until that point, with the scoreline still in the balance, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was reluctantly forced to again turn to his maverick creator Bruno Fernandes to try to turn the match in his side’s favour.
United went on to secure progression to the quarter-finals with an extra-time strike courtesy of Scott McTominay. However, a lot of the talk post-match was dominated by another unremarkable display by United’s costliest summer recruit.
Solskjaer defended the 23-year-old in his post-match conference: “I thought in the first-half we and Donny played really well. We created spaces, there were one or two where he was part of that. He did his job neat and tidy, he had a half-chance when Alex [Telles] pulled it back to him.”
That ‘half-chance’ proved to be Van de Beek’s only shot of the game.
The United boss wasn’t wrong to recognise the neat and tidy aspects of the midfielder’s game because ultimately, his movements were good, he was rarely dispossessed and he finished the match with a pass success rate of 88 per cent.
Yet the problem was on the night, he was playing as the attacking midfielder in a 4-2-3-1 and therefore was tasked with being United’s chief creator. In this role, you’re expected to take calculated risks, attempt ball carries, dribbles, shots and key passes.
Van de Beek, though, attempted just one dribble - which was unsuccessful - and made no progressive runs and no passes leading directly to a shot on goal.
Rather than demanding the ball and taking responsibility, he preferred to release it just as quick as he was receiving it. This point is highlighted in the below graphic, which highlights how many touches Van de Beek made per each attempted pass or dribble.
On the night, 90 per cent of his actions were completed within two touches.
Two-touch football isn’t necessarily a bad thing and can be good for quick tempo possession play. Yet overdoing it, particularly when it’s not the team's primary tactic, can indicate a reluctance to take on attacking responsibility.
Take the below grab from the match as an example. Van de Beek finds a nice area of space in between the West Ham midfield and defence in order to receive the ball into feet.
Rather than turning towards the goal with the ball, he opted to lay it off quickly with his first touch into the feet of Fred, leaving the deep-lying midfielder with the responsibility of implementing the next phase of the attack.
Van de Beek’s replacement Fernandes played nearly 20 minutes fewer than the Dutchman, yet in that time he received more passes, attempted more passes and made more progressive runs.
Furthermore, his fortitude to have a greater impact on the team’s attack is highlighted by the fact that only 61 per cent of his actions were attempted within two touches, with a greater desire to hold onto the ball and assess the best attacking options around him, rather than handing that responsibility to someone else.
At this stage, it is only fair to acknowledge that Van de Beek’s confidence is no doubt low, which will inevitably impact both his desire to get on the ball and belief that he can make notable attacking contributions when he does.
It has been suggested that his United future might lie in a deeper-lying midfield role, and that may well be true, but he’ll need to show more to Solskjaer if he wants to earn his manager's trust, wherever he's deployed.
