Donny van de Beek will bring Dutch style to Manchester United

Over the past few days, a picture has been doing the round on social media of three supremely talented players in their late teens and early twenties, all standing proud and resplendent in the red and white of Ajax. It was these starlets who provided the spine of the outstanding Ajax team that made it to the semi-finals of the Champions League. Two midfielders and a defender, all Dutch, all brought up at Ajax and all, ultimately, always set for bigger and better things.

Last summer, it was Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie De Jong, the more widely renowned and arguably talented of the three, who were taken off the endlessly churning conveyor belt of Ajax talent. This year, it is Donny Van de Beek, whose move to Manchester United confirmed the deletion of the final vital piece of the 2018-19 Ajax team, triggering the start of a new era in Amsterdam.

For some reason, despite being the oldest of the three, it always seemed that this summer had been earmarked for Van de Beek’s departure, and that is perhaps emblematic of the enigma that has grown around him in recent years.

It was never questioned that Van de Beek had the talent to prosper

In comparison to other talents that have come through the Ajax youth system, Van de Beek has been something of a late bloomer, never really becoming a regular in the side until the summer of 2018. This was largely because more experienced players kept him out of the side, but also because the Ajax coaching staff could never quite work out his best position.

It was never questioned that Van de Beek had the talent to prosper. Indeed, when Dennis Bergkamp was the assistant manager to Peter Bosz during the club’s 2017 run to the Europa League final, it was he who advocated the promotion of Van de Beek to the first team. In Van de Beek, he saw a player that could, with a bit more development, follow in his own footsteps and become the elegant, goalscoring number ten that graced the Premier League for so many years.

However, when Erik Ten Hag, the manager who later became the catalyst for Van de Beek’s ascent, arrived at the club in 2017, he seemed to disagree. Indeed, in the year when Van de Beek presumed that he was meant to become of the club’s key players, at the age of 21, he was played as a deep-lying central midfielder. At the start of 2018, Van de Beek found himself out of favour and seriously considered leaving the club.

The reason for Ten Hag’s initial repositioning of Van de Beek was that he does not have anywhere near the level talent on the ball of a Dennis Bergkamp. If you were lazily watching a game in which Van de Beek was involved, unless he scored a goal, you would not think that he was particularly involved.

The passes the Dutchman does play create spaces for his teammates to run in

However, if you watch closely, his intelligence on the ball is up there with the best in the world. Although he very rarely plays a 60-yard howitzer to the opposite flank, the passes the Dutchman does play create spaces for his teammates to run in, while also making sure, first and foremost, that his team keeps the ball.

At the start of 2018, however, Ten Hag, realising that this amazing young footballer was slipping from his grasp, started to experiment with Van de Beek, playing him as a number 10, and it steadily became clear to him, and the rest of the world, where Van de Beek’s strength lay.

What makes Van de Beek such a special footballer is his intelligence not only with the ball but without it. His ability to find impossible spaces between the midfield and defensive lines is, in my opinion, only paralleled by Thomas Muller in world football.

Often, when Ajax were patiently building an attack, with there seeming little threat of any immediate danger, suddenly Van de Beek appeared in acres of space and was ready either to finish off a chance or slide in a teammate. He was a crucial cog in the beautiful football of that Ajax side. Watch the highlights of Ajax’s second leg against Juventus, and the first leg against Tottenham and this intelligence will become clear in Van de Beek’s two goals.

These two qualities are what have earned him his move to Manchester United

This ability explains Van de Beek’s goal and assist return in the past couple of seasons—he secured 10 goals and 11 assists before COVID-19—something aided his outstanding finishing. This, coupled with his already evident intelligent passing, made him the perfect Ajax number ten. These two qualities, his intelligence with and without the ball, are what have earned him his move to Manchester United.

Van de Beek’s stationing at United is a concern. His primary skill is his ability to find space as a number 10, where he can score or assist goals, but Manchester United already have that player, in Bruno Fernandes, who is unlikely to be ousted any time soon.

The British media has attempted to type-cast the Ajax product as a ‘box-to-box midfielder’ or a ‘playmaker’, but, at his best, he is neither of these things. They have also attempted to highlight his tackling ability, something that makes proponents of Dutch football laugh out loud, as tackling has never been a part of Van de Beek’s game.

He will undoubtedly be criticized for ‘not doing enough’ during games

His failure to become a regular for the Dutch national team is because he doesn’t fit these positions—Marten De Roon, a less talented player but a tough tackler, is constantly preferred to him.

We can but hope that Ole Gunnar Solksjaer moulds him to play the role he sees him playing and that he gets a chance to prove his worth. He has invested a lot of money in him– £40 million—and fans will therefore expect results.

He will undoubtedly be criticized for ‘not doing enough’ during games but fans who say this will simply fail to see the worth of Van de Beek. You should not expect incredible passes, goals, or any skills on the ball whatsoever. Instead, if you watch closely, you will see perhaps the most intelligent footballer in the game grace the hallowed pitch at the Theatre of Dreams.