Donny van de Beek looks a lost cause: Neil Humphreys
Poor Dutchman just does not fit in Solskjaer's Manchester United set-up
With every ineffectual performance, Donny van de Beek is beginning to represent that expensive sports car bought in a mid-life crisis.
At some point, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer must contemplate his irrational spending. Like a middle-aged man staring at an impractical Porsche, the Manchester United manager may wonder how it got there. Why did he buy something so unsuitable?
Whether the Porsche comparison works will depend on your view of United's latest polarising player. To some, van de Beek is a baby Bentley expected to trundle along with buses. To others, he's an unrefined engine lacking polish.
Either way, his face doesn't fit. His skill set doesn't match Solskjaer's vision. Or Solskjaer's vision doesn't suit van de Beek's slower game. It's all gone a bit chicken and egg since the £34.7 million (S$63.7m) signing arrived, with no resolution in sight.
When his number inevitably came up in the 73rd minute against West Ham United, van de Beek looked a broken talent. An intelligent midfielder, the Dutchman didn't need to see the subs' board to know he'd had a stinker.
An FA Cup tie was a rare opportunity for Solskjaer to rest Bruno Fernandes and give van de Beek another chance to demonstrate his potential. The United manager has no incentive to do either again, for all sorts of theories.
Club legend Mark Hughes insisted that van de Beek's teammates do not trust him, an opinion that comes with a degree of statistical support.
According to Football365, the Red Devils try to find Fernandes 72 times per English Premier League match.
With van de Beek, that figure drops to 60.9.
In the commentary box, Jermaine Jenas suggested that the Dutchman was "playing with fear" and not showing for the ball, which only underlines the bizarre chicken and egg conundrum.
Which came first, van de Beek's willingness to make runs for colleagues not on the same wavelength or the Red Devils' frustration at the Dutchman's inability to read their explosive game?
Clearly, something is off.
For Ajax Amsterdam and Holland, van de Beek dominated in a No.10 role that has gone to a different kind of player in a different attacking set-up at United.
SUITED TO FERNANDES
Solskjaer's quicker, scruffier transitions, which place greater emphasis on springing sudden attacks, suits Fernandes.
His bursts of energy, his fondness for a David Beckham-esque "Hollywood" pass and his bustling runs into the box are the personification of United's style of play.
And, for the most part, it works.
But van de Beek doesn't play this way. The 23-year-old has rarely shown an inclination to move away from the patient, precise approach that runs through the Ajax academy.
He's a safer player than Fernandes behind the ball, reluctant to remove the handbrake until he's inside the opponents' box - a position he rarely reaches in a Solskjaer line-up because it's already filled.
So he gets shunted to the left wing. Or he babysits the back four. Or he occasionally finds himself as a No.10, his natural position and the one he covets, but in a style and formation that doesn't play to his strengths.
After six months, van de Beek still hasn't enjoyed the consistency, authority and trust that he took for granted at Ajax (and often gets with Holland).
It's easy to see why his confidence might be shattered and even easier to see why Marco van Basten believed his countryman was making a mistake, swopping Ajax for United at such a pivotal stage of his development.
Of course, van de Beek has hardly helped his own cause. Against West Ham, his baffling reluctance to press the Hammers to retrieve possession was almost as exasperating as his failure to do anything with the ball when he had it.
Dealing with different positions and styles takes time, but United should expect more from one of the most promising young midfielders in Europe than one goal and one assist in 25 appearances.
Van de Beek needs a run of games in his preferred position to improve those statistics, but those statistics do not deserve a run of games, which brings us back to the chicken and the egg dilemma.
Only in this case, Fernandes came first.
And there's no prizes for coming second.
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