Reader Mailbag: Donny van de Beek
Answering a reader question on where United's Dutch midfielder should play and more specifically - with whom?
Last week a reader DM’d me with the following question:
First of all, thanks to @Kushoto_kun for the question. I thought it was a really good question and since I’ve always flirted with the idea of doing a reader mailbag I thought, “why answer this question privately when I can answer it publicly?” So here we are!
With anything Donny van de Beek, we’re dealing with an extremely small sample size. His great outing against Watford was great, but it was only 45 minutes. Don’t worry, there was also the really good five minute cameo at the end of the Atalanta which moves the sample size from extremellllllllly small to merely extremellllly small.
As such we can’t conclude that anything here is even remotely definitive, merely just the idea of why things may or may not work based on players skill sets. Anyway, let’s get to it.
Positives
Simply put, Nemanja Matic is Manchester United’s best and only pure defensive midfielder. He’s the most patient with the ball, doesn’t panic, takes what the defense gives him, and plays line breaking passes. All of which help him effectively distribute the ball to United’s playmakers. It also has the obvious benefit of getting another attack minded-creative player onto the pitch for a United attack that is usually either devoid of creativity or overly reliant on Bruno Fernandes to essentially be the sole creator.
What’s important to note here is that this has to be a three man midfield for it to work.
Against Watford Van de Beek replaced Scott McTominay at halftime but he didn’t go into a pivot as United shifted from their usual 4-2-3-1 to more of a 4-3-3 with Bruno Fernandes taking the mantle of the being the more deeper of the two number 8’s.
Sometimes United would end up with more of a flat midfield and when that happened it was Bruno sitting in line next to Matic.
This was a role Bruno took very seriously as we even saw him dropping into the back line as a left center back to create space for Matic in midfield(and still hilariously calling for the ball).
This allowed Van de Beek to play in his most natural position - the most advanced of a three man midfield. That’s where he belongs. He’s not a pivot player because he’s not a direct enough passer and that’s what United need from their pivot1. Van de Beek’s best attribute is making runs into the box. His next best attribute is finding space to receive passes. Playing him further up the pitch puts him in a position to utilize these two qualities.
It also allows him to be close to Jadon Sancho, which is important because the two of them have games that compliment each other tremendously. They’re both very good at making quick passes and movements, finding space, and getting the ball there. Remember, United signed Van de Beek thinking that Sancho was following him through the door2.
It didn’t take long for this configuration and Van de Beek’s best quality3 to lead to a goal, and while United still had 11 men, they very much looked like they were going to find another one.
The key to making all this work is Bruno Fernandes dropping deeper, which gives United a direct passer and ball progresser in midfield. That’s important.
Three days later Van de Beek started in place of Fernandes against Villarreal with Scott McTominay and Fred in midfield. In that match United played more of a hybrid 4-4-2 off the ball/4-3-3 when in possession with Fred pushing a bit higher up the pitch than McTominay.
Despite playing next to Sancho, Van de Beek was completely ineffective for the 65 minutes he was on the pitch. This isn’t surprising in the least bit because Van de Beek is always ineffective when he plays instead of Bruno4.
As already mentioned, one of Van de Beek’s best attributes is his ability to find pockets of space to receive passes. That’s all well and good as long as you have someone that can actually pass the ball to him. If you play him in front of McTominay and Fred - two players who can’t pick out passes - it’s a completely useless skill.
Thus that brings you to the Matic-Bruno-Van de Beek midfield. You get the positional balance and awareness of Matic sitting in front of the defense. You get the direct and progressive passing to move the ball from the back to the front that United need in midfield, and you get a creative attacking player playing in his best position who’s skillset matches the players around him.
Of course everything with this United team is currently give and take so when something gives, something is going to take too.
Negatives
Again we’ll start with the obvious. Nemanja Matic’s legs. Matic isn’t the most mobile of players and given how attack minded Fernandes and Van de Beek are, he can easily be forced into situations where he has to cover far too much ground.
Defense in general is a concern. Neither Bruno nor Donny are exceptional defenders. Bruno may work hard and run around a lot defensively, but he’s not particularly good at it which can be exposed when he’s in a deeper position. Van de Beek marks more of the space than the man, and overall is a much more passive defender than Bruno. There’s a reason that Fred and McTominay started winning the ball back a lot more - and United started taking over control of the game - against Villarreal after Bruno replaced Van de Beek5. If Matic, Bruno, and Van de Beek aren’t holding possession and controlling the match, it could get ugly quick.
There’s also the question over ‘how flexible can this structure be?’ Matic can no longer play more than once a week, so even if this turned out to be United’s best midfield you’d still need to switch it basically every other game. Can a McTominay or Fred simply slot in for Matic? McTominay lacks the on the ball patience and passing of Matic as well as the positional awareness. Fred also lacks for passing as well as physicality. He’s a very good presser but it’s clear - at least for Michael Carrick - that he prefers him slightly higher up the pitch with someone else behind him. Who knows? That may change under Ralf Rangnick.
The other negative is that you’re taking Bruno out of his best position and dropping him deeper. Bruno is at his best in the number 10 role where he operates almost as a second striker. You want him on the ball in and around the box.
This one though is sort of mitigated by recent form. Since the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo, Fernandes hasn’t been all that effective in the number 10 role. He’s still managing to get assists but he’s now gone 15 games without a goal - his longest drought since he was playing in Serie B.
Part of the reason for that is the same reason Van de Beek struggles to make an impact when playing ahead of McTominay and Fred; United simply struggle to get the ball to Bruno in dangerous areas. As a result, we’ll often see Bruno dropping deeper and deeper to try and get on the ball more, something that has drastically increased over the past two months
Suffice to say, if Bruno is dropping deeper anyway, than it wouldn’t hurt to just put him deeper to begin so you’re not taking a player out of the attack and thus that would create another forward option for Bruno to distribute the ball.
Perhaps we’ll see that under Ralf Rangnick. Or perhaps he’ll institute a completely different system that requires different pieces to play in different spots. I don’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see.
He’s also not great defensively and lacks the physicality to play in central midfield. So he’s not a defensive upgrade over any of United’s other pivot options, while he also doesn’t provide an attacking upgrade from that position either - as we saw in his cameo against Manchester City and from nearly every match he’s played in the pivot for United.
It’s not a surprise that Van de Beek struggled in his first season when Sancho wasn’t there and he was playing with Mason Greenwood, Anthony Martial, and Marcus Rashford, all players who want the ball played to them and then aren’t looking to pick out your quick run after you make the pass.
Making said runs into the box
Van de Beek’s two best games in a United shirt have been the second half against Watford, and Southampton away in 2019-20. That match started with Donny playing on the left of a diamond with Bruno up top for the first half. Not surprisingly, he didn’t do anything. In the second half United switched to a 4-2-3-1 with Van de Beek on the left wing - next to Bruno and Cavani - while Bruno also dropped back into midfield (at times) to help with progression. What a coincidence.
A similar thing happened in the 5-0 win over RB Leipzig