Dinghy
Full Member
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2010
- Messages
- 2,567
Another one of those who needs everyone else to make it happen for him.
Another one of those who needs everyone else to make it happen for him.
He made a noticeable difference when he came on. Shame Ole doesn’t know what to do with him. At least we know that Poch is a big fan
He’s far harder working, physical, and well-rounded than all of those players.He's giving me strong Kagawa/Mata/Mkhitaryan vibes
Really really good technical player, but ultimately missing 'something'
He's giving me strong Kagawa/Mata/Mkhitaryan vibes
Really really good technical player, but ultimately missing 'something'
One of those "team" players, essentially. Quite a useful thing to have in a team sport
Nothing.What does he actually do?
He’s far harder working, physical, and well-rounded than all of those players.
Not even half the player that Mata was at his age.He’s far harder working, physical, and well-rounded than all of those players.
Appears to be a completely different player tbfNot even half the player that Mata was at his age.
Nothing.
He is a weak athlete with little quality on the ball. He doesn't influence the game with his passing, his dribbling, or his athleticism.
Not particularly strong in the air, doesn't offer much defensively, doesn't create too many, doesn't try to take control, slow to get across the pitch, indisciplined. He is neither a a good forward, a good midfielder nor a good defender.
When he plays, he is......just there. He is quick to get rid of the ball everytime he gets on it. A nothing player if I ever saw one.
He looks pretty wank. Needs to learn to run with the ball, it's allowed you know. All he does is get the ball, pass it 5 yards away. It might work for Ajax in the dutch league when you dominate possession, but it does nothing at the top level when you're supposed to be an attacking midfielder.
Someone like Ndombele, you can excuse having a poor period, because you can see that technically he's excellent on the ball. With VDB, I've just seen nothing that suggests he's actually any good at anything.
Don't hold back, tell us what you really think.
What? With the exception of today perhaps, he's been quite good whenever he's featured.
Annoying how Ole sees him as an AM.
Personally would have started with Pogba but VDB would have been my 2nd choice at CM so if you insist not starting Pogba, then start VDB.
He is useless as an AM. Never in a million years does he have necessary qualities, talent and attributes to play an advanced role.
However there is absolutely a player there in the central midfield.
1) Donny is a very good in combinations in tight spaces. In this he is a typical Ajax youth product, who is comfortable receiving the ball with little room, finding a close open man with one touch and moving immediately away again to receive the ball somewhere else and making room for other players. I read a couple times above that he was looking for 1-2's a lot and this is recognizable for me. His technique is not spectacular on the eye, but very effective and solid. Thats why I get the link with other technical gifted players close to him in the pitch, like Mata, and thats why I think he could play really well together with Bruno.
2) Donny finds spaces behind the opponents defense. When is isnt directly involved in the combination where the attack is being built up, he is a very good ball receiving midfielder. Somehow he is always 'there' and always 'open' in the final phase of an attack, whether to finish it of himself or to give the final pass to a teammate. Thats why with Ajax he worked extremely well with Tadic as a false number 9 who involved himself in the play and left spaces for Donny to dive into.
3) Donny gives you goals. He is not only good at finding spaces on the pitch and behind defenders, but when he receives it there he is very clinical. The goal against Palace was a good example of that. I think he has a very high conversion rate for changes in the box.
Donny is NOT a player who finds the creative solutions himself, with a pass between the lines (at Ajax that were Ziyech, Tadic, Promes, Neres) or by picking up the ball from defense and bringing it forward (at Ajax that were Frenkie, Blind, Schone). He is just not going to be that player for you.. You need other on your midfield to do so... So therefore seeing he was paired with Matic and Fred yesterday, I can understand is was very hard on the eyes, because you have no one to create creativity from midfield for you.. Ole should know this and not expect Donny to play like this..
If you start expecting Donny to be the creative brain in your team, United have completely wasted their money. However when used in his strenghts, I think he can be a very very good player for a world class team.
With Ajax this fit perfectly, because you had other players around him who did the things he's not world class in - finding the open spaces in creative manners - but he was used in his strenghts by Ajax playing combination football with other players comfortable on the ball and therewith creating spaces with quick combination football, ánd diving into the deep spaces left by Ziyech, Tadic and Neres in the attacking line.
Of course not in terms of technical or overall ability, but my point was that VdB is far more capable of performing traditional midfielder duties than Mata or others. He is not a pure number 10 like Mata is/was.Not even half the player that Mata was at his age.
It depends.. At Ajax he was brilliant as AM... But it depends how the rest of the midfield set up. You seem to reason from the old-fashioned standpoint that the AM is the #10 and the creative brain in the team. That vd Beek certainly isnt no, absolutely correct. But at Ajax for example the creative brilliance came from the wings (Ziyech), the LCD (Blind) and the CDM (Frenkie). In that setup he excelled being the link between midfield and attack. However, at United there are no reall ball players with any creativity behind the ball at the 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 position, so if you play Donny at AM in such a setup.. Yes he will be very mediocre and things will be expected of him he just doesnt have the capabilites for.
Below is what I wrote about him a couple months ago... I stilld hold for me..
Worked very hard, always showed for the ball and his movement helped create space for Bruno and the other forwards.
Just like how Lingard used to get praised for doing similar, his off the ball work clearly goes unnoticed by the masses.
It's no coincidence that we played a lot better the minute he was on the pitch. He was stuck on the left wing too which didn't really help him, but I thought he had a good half.
People are being very unfair if they describe that as a bad performance.
I wonder who's at fault for that...Doesn't seem to know where he is meant to be playing or what he is meant to be doing.
You could say that about thr whole team.Doesn't seem to know where he is meant to be playing or what he is meant to be doing.
VdB isn’t anywhere near what Mata used to be, and so far he hasn’t reached the levels of Kagawa or Mhiki either - especially not the versions for Dortmund, not even United (when they had a few good games). Saying that, he can develop, and if he played for Klopp he would probably look as good as Kagawa or Mhiki in five minutes.
We also need to stop thinking every player from Ajax is world-class, the league sucks and there is a reason why VdB was snapped up as last pick from that gold edition of two years ago. He has a lot, but he doesn’t have «it». Yet. Or ever.