Donny Van De Beek

Pointless opportunistic signing , showing just how little input into spending, Ole had last season.

Probably a bit nervous thinking if he £#%&!s up he might not see the pitch again for another 2 months. Can’t blame him tbh.

I watched him in the first half making some nice runs forward, unfortunately our creative vacuum of a central midfield was so intent on stroking the ball sideways and backwards at a snail's pace that nobody bothered to look up and find him.

We missed Pogba today. Badly.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLFwAGjhp-G/?igshid=nfot3ytcn9sk

Originally Posted by Bunker Buster

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLFwAGjh...d=nfot3ytcn9sk

not often you see Noble looking that rattled, v v good to see.

Originally Posted by saffers

If this was a thing i'd change my avatar to Ole.

Trying too hard

Not good if we're being honest about it. Still way too risk averse. If he's playing that position he needs to drop more, demand the ball and do something with it. Running along the West Ham defensive line was a bit pointless.

Of course he's not a bad player and not a bad signing, but we'd all be lying if we said we didn't expect more.

He's obviously used to lending people the ball but at United he lends it out but mostly doesn't get it back.

Originally Posted by armchair

He's obviously used to lending people the ball but at United he lends it out but mostly doesn't get it back.

Yeah playing on a very good Ajax team for a few years and then playing with Fred and Matic must be gutting for him.

Originally Posted by Stickman

It looks like a stupid signing to me tbh, the very last thing we needed was to spend money on Bruno's backup. We had way more pressing needs.

Pretty much this.

One of the most pointless and unnecessary signings I can remember.

Clearly wasn't an Ole signing.

Originally Posted by armchair

He's obviously used to lending people the ball but at United he lends it out but mostly doesn't get it back.

Reminds me of that kid at school trying to desperately hard to impress at lunchtime. Passes the ball five yards to the best player on the pitch, runs forward hoping to get a return ball and doesn't even get a second thought from his team mate who is looking to pass to the other 'good' players.

Was sad to see happen to a grown man on a professional field.

It's not pointless at all. He brings quality into the team. The problem is the Fifa boys thought he'd be an immediate hit and that's not been the case. But that's understandable for a young player switching from a system he's been playing since he was a kid. He needs to adapt better and we also need to adapt to his skill set. Same as how we've upped the crosses into the box since Cavani arrived.

It's taking more time than I thought it would, but he'll fit in soon enough imo.

Originally Posted by shenwen

It's not pointless at all. He brings quality into the team. The problem is the Fifa boys thought he'd be an immediate hit and that's not been the case. But that's understandable for a young player switching from a system he's been playing since he was a kid. He needs to adapt better and we also need to adapt to his skill set. Same as how we've upped the crosses into the box since Cavani arrived.

It's taking more time than I thought it would, but he'll fit in soon enough imo.

It wasn't needed. As others have said, more pressing areas around the pitch.

Originally Posted by shenwen

It's not pointless at all. He brings quality into the team. The problem is the Fifa boys thought he'd be an immediate hit and that's not been the case. But that's understandable for a young player switching from a system he's been playing since he was a kid. He needs to adapt better and we also need to adapt to his skill set. Same as how we've upped the crosses into the box since Cavani arrived.

It's taking more time than I thought it would, but he'll fit in soon enough imo.

Yup.

The thing is, if we end up selling Pogba at the end of the season and next season VDB starts playing most weeks and performing well after having a season to settle in, then the transfer will look like a master stroke.

Obviously I'm not 100% convinced by him, but no way I'm going to judge him based on this season alone.

Originally Posted by windy waffles

Reminds me of that kid at school trying to desperately hard to impress at lunchtime. Passes the ball five yards to the best player on the pitch, runs forward hoping to get a return ball and doesn't even get a second thought from his team mate who is looking to pass to the other 'good' players.

Was sad to see happen to a grown man on a professional field.

None of this happened....

Originally Posted by Bunker Buster

None of this happened....

It did. Even big JJ picked up on it...

needs to step up, if only to salvage bunks' reputation as our chief dutch scout.

Originally Posted by windy waffles

It did. Even big JJ picked up on it...

That's the only reason you have brought this to the thread....

You're basically Jermaine Jenas levels of football understanding.....

Which is a worry....

The Beeb had it in then to complete deride Donny all night, oooooo his face says he won't be happy to be subbed, numbers up, doesn't do a lot.....

Originally Posted by Bunker Buster

That's the only reason you have brought this to the thread....

You're basically Jermaine Jenas levels of football understanding.....

Which is a worry....

The Beeb had it in then to complete deride Donny all night, oooooo his face says he won't be happy to be subbed, numbers up, doesn't do a lot.....

So worthy of being a co-commentator on the BBC?

I'll take that.

Originally Posted by armchair

He's obviously used to lending people the ball but at United he lends it out but mostly doesn't get it back.

Very succinct.

It must be a bit demoralising to pass, move & look for patterns of play only to see the ball land with Fred & go to the least worthwhile option on the pitch next (or into touch / the stands or most likely back to the opposition for us to have to chase back to our own goal )

The decision making in our midfield is chaos. Matic uses it with a decent amount of care - albeit too slowly, Fred thinks it's a grenade & has to get rid at any cost regardless of the outcome & Beekingtons seems to want to perform the Barca carousel of cycling the ball around to move the oppo around. No one else is on his wavelength though, the whole side is geared toward individual moments of quality rather than any explicit footballing blueprint. I don't see that changing, so he will need to adapt his game & that takes a lot of time on both the training ground & the pitch. He's not getting enough game time to know if he'll adapt and get a starting spot next season, but it's clear to me he needs to play in a midfield 3, Bruno ahead & someone better than Matic or Fred behind that can cover a lot more ground & be quicker with their passing.

Not to mention whether Pogba stays - if he does, it's basically a squad spot for the lad which feels like a waste of his abilities.

Good player, no idea why we spent £40m on him with the deficiencies we have in the rest of the squad right now.

Originally Posted by Bunker Buster

That's the only reason you have brought this to the thread....

You're basically Jermaine Jenas levels of football understanding.....

Which is a worry....

The Beeb had it in then to complete deride Donny all night, oooooo his face says he won't be happy to be subbed, numbers up, doesn't do a lot.....

I agree with Hirahito on this

Why is everyone so quick to pile on DvB?

Why do we want him to fail?

It’s not as if he’s costing us points on his own

Work in Progress

DvB - WiP