HOW DOES DONNY VAN DE BEEK FIT IN AT UNITED??

-By Varun Sangwan

Donny Van de Beek became Manchester United's first signing of the summer transfer window with hopefully more to follow in a reported £35 million deal. The former Ajax midfielder is only 23 years old and has the best of his career in-front of him and we take a look at what he brings to United and what he brings to the Red Devils..

1. HE STRENGTHENS OUR MIDFIELD

Donny Van de Beek without a shadow of a doubt is going to add more strength to our midfield, that consists of the likes of Matic, Pogba, Fernandes, McTominay and Fred. He may be the final piece in our midfield as he can literally play in any position in the centre of the park - be it a defensive midfielder, a box-to-box midfielder or even an attacking midfielder. An excellent dribbler of the ball, Van de Beek knows how to progress the ball quickly in midfield, something which fits right into Solskjaer's system and can be a more than capable substitute for any position in the center of the park.

2. WHERE DOES HE FIT IN??

As mentioned above, Van De Beek can play in any position in the midfield and his versatile nature will be of great use to The Red Devils as they look to realize their ambitions of winning a trophy next season. United will look to utilise that as he can be a useful squad player throughout the season and can act as cover if any of our main players gets injured. He'll get plenty of game time as United have four competitions in which they are competing. 

He can be used in the double pivot along with Pogba whenever Matic needs to be rested as he is a very capable tackler and can play killer passes when the team is building up a counter-attack. In the case of teams who need to be broken down, he can be extremely useful as him, Pogba and Fernandes will prove to be too much for any defense to deal with.

He can be utilised in a double pivot along with Pogba

He can also be utilised in a 4 - 4 - 2 diamond system, should Solskjaer feel the need to go down that route - with a midfield composed of Matic as the base, Pogba and de Beek in front of him and Bruno in the number 10/ false 9 role.

This is probably the best formation to play Van de Beek... 

3. HE HAS A DECENT GOAL OUTPUT

Van de Beek, even if he plays in the midfield has a very good goal output, with him scoring 8 and assisting 5 in the Eredevisie last season as Ajax went on win it, even if the campaign was cut short due to the Corona-virus pandemic. His season tally reflected 14 goals and 7 assists in 34 matches played in all competitions. Always looking to improve, Van de Beek could take his game to another level at United as he could contribute even more and would be a handy option on the bench when we are chasing the game. 

Can he continue this in the Premier League?? Guess we'll find out..

4. HE IS STILL VERY YOUNG

Van de Beek is only 23 and has a glowing career in front of him. Coming from the Ajax youth academy, he has shown that he has what it takes to play at the highest level as he was instrumental in taking Ajax to the Europa League final in 2017 which they lost against the Red Devils and their remarkable Champions League run in 2018-19 season which won the hearts of the world. We have got a very dynamic player at our hands and we need to utilise him properly.

Many Dutch players have enjoyed successful carrers at The Theater Of Dreams.. Does he have what it takes???

5. IMPRESSIVE WORK-RATE AND DEFENSIVE CAPABILITIES

Van de Beek can literally play in any position in the midfield with him not specializing in any particular area and has the stats to back them up. Keen on the tackle, he is physically strong to hold down attackers and fast enough to make recovery runs. Honestly there is probably not an area where he isn't good and now it is up to him to better himself in all those areas. He has excellent body positioning and is always looking to pass forward in an attempt to build up attacks. He averages 2.1 tackles per 90 and 0.9 interceptions per 90 making him the ideal fit for a high pressing system. 

These stats show that he always puts a shift in...

VERDICT

According to me, Donny Van de Beek is the signing that completes our midfield. Him along with Pogba, Bruno , McTominay , Matic and Fred should be our 6 players for that position and Jesse Lingard and Andreas Periera need to be moved on as they failed to make their chances count. We however are not the finished article yet. We still need 2-3 signings in this transfer window - preferably a center back, a backup Left Back and a right winger. Overall it can prove to be a really good signing as it addresses a key issue - depth in our squad. Comment below on what you think about our newest signing.