It was a night at Old Trafford that was all about Bruno Fernandes. Except maybe it wasn’t.
Fernandes took his tally to nine goals in 13 games this season with a couple at the opposite end of the aesthetic spectrum against Istanbul Basaksehir: the first was a sumptuous piledriver from the edge of the box from a corner; the second a simple tap-in following a goalkeeping clanger from Mert Gunok.
The Portuguese No10 was presented a golden opportunity to complete a 35 minute hat-trick when Marcus Rashford was felled in the penalty area by Celtic loanee Boli Bolingoli but rather charitably allowed his teammate to convert the spot-kick himself. Albeit through gritted teeth.
It was a third Champions League evening out of four in which Manchester United‘s attackers enjoyed themselves with Fernandes, Rashford, Edinson Cavani and even the goal-shy Anthony Martial buzzing menacingly around Basaksehir’s distinctly ‘Premier League Years’ backline consisting of Martin Skrtel and United old-boy Rafael da Silva.
However, it was also a game that offered a glimpse into Donny van de Beek’s potential role in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s starting XI with the Dutchman impressing in a double pivot alongside Fred in United’s engine room. With Fernandes in such supreme form in the attacking third, the Dutchman’s best hope of securing a regular starting berth appears to be in that spot.
The £40m summer signing from Ajax is yet to start a Premier League game and his six substitute appearances have totalled 88 minutes, roughly ten per cent of United’s minutes in the competition. Compared to United’s ‘Van’s’ of yesteryear – Ruud van Nistelrooy, Edwin van der Sar and Robin van Persie – Van de Beek has had an inauspicious start at Old Trafford.
If there is one area in Solskjaer’s favoured 4-2-3-1 system that is most up for grabs, though, it is in that central compartment where nobody has really been able to lay down a marker. Perhaps that elusive first Premier League start might not evade Van de Beek for too much longer given his encouraging display against an admittedly second-rate opponent.
It was an unfussy display from Van de Beek, but it was most certainly an effective one. The Dutchman seamlessly linked United’s midfield to its attack with crisply executed passes delivered punctually. He fired off 64 passes over the course of 90 energy-boosting minutes, at a success rate of 87.5 per cent – the third-highest of United’s starters.
And for a player who has had so little on-pitch time, Van de Beek’s ability to read where his teammates were moving to on either side of the pitch caught the eye. The Dutchman possesses that invaluable knack of scanning the pitch before he receives the ball, enabling him to – more often than not – know exactly where to distribute it. He has his head on a swivel, to borrow some real football men parlance.
As Paul Pogba – left out of the squad due to an ankle injury – has found to his cost in recent weeks, though, being able to play pretty passes doesn’t necessarily mean auto-selection from Solskjaer: work off the ball is equally imperative.
Van de Beek performed ok in that regard, winning one tackle and making three possession gains, although, in truth, it was largely left to Fred to carry out the unfashionable jobs, the Brazilian making a team-high five tackles.
Basaksehir’s surprising late rally, meanwhile, resulted in Solskjaer tweaking his midfield with Nemanja Matic introduced alongside Fred and the Dutchman pushing into the advanced midfield slot behind Cavani, a move that perhaps indicates that Van de Beek still has more to do to convince his manager of his positional discipline.
Nevertheless, for Van de Beek and United’s team as a whole, this was a largely excellent 70 minute showing, followed by a rather less impressive final 20.
Despite United’s late collapse, which looked less worrisome when Daniel James put a late gloss on the scoreline, Van de Beek did enough to suggest that he warrants more than ten minute cameos in the Premier League.
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