The [non] use of Van de Beek - Ole's player?

Mr PG

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Like against Istanbul? He’s not going to suddenly fix anything in that position any more than Pogba could.
Very smart player who can adapt but you gotta give him more than one game no?.
 

RedRonaldo

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We paid +45m for a bench option? That's a little bit crazy when we needed the money to strengthen main positions in the squad like RW.
Yes. That's what we did. Abit too expensive in this market, but that's the way it is, otherwise we may have to stick with Lingard/Pereira as backup AM.
 

el3mel

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Yes. That's what we did. Abit too expensive in this market, but that's the way it is, otherwise we may have to stick with Lingard/Pereira as backup AM.
But this is crazy. We spent the entire summer no being able to fund Sancho, because we decided to splash 45m on a bench option who is going to play 10-15 minutes a game at best. We could have either spent all the budget on Sancho and bought any cheap midfielder from a PL team, or, hell, just splashed 80m on Grealish who was going to play as a starter here, unlike VDB.

This is simply a big waste of money. We needed the damn money for main starting lineup positions.
 

TheGame

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Like against Istanbul? He’s not going to suddenly fix anything in that position any more than Pogba could.
He was playing well in that game and no idea why he was taken off. Having an odd game here and there is not going to show anything. He needs more games in that position to show what he can do and against defensive teams that should be an option. He is also flexible enough to play in a more advanced position so we have a great asset which has not been utilised properly to date.
 

RedRonaldo

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But this is crazy. We spent the entire summer no being able to fund Sancho, because we decided to splash 45m on a bench option who is going to play 10-15 minutes a game at best. We could have either spent all the budget on Sancho and bought any cheap midfielder from a PL team, or, hell, just splashed 80m on Grealish who was going to play as a starter here, unlike VDB.

This is simply a big waste of money. We needed the damn money for main starting lineup positions.
For some reason I think we are never going to pay extra full amount for Sancho (105m pounds up front) and give up all the other buys.

In fact, we have only spend around 80m up front in this summer:

VDB - 35m (+5m adds on)
Diallo - 20m (+20m adds on)
Telles - 15m
Pellistri - 10m
Cavani - free
(total 80m up front, +25m adds on)

Perhaps you would prefer Sancho rather than those 4-5 players. But even so, Dortmund may not sell Sancho to us for 80m +25m adds on.

Another thing is, Sancho hasn't been performing well so far this season. If there is one player we have to splash big money from Dortmund, it has to be Haaland.
 

DomesticTadpole

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For some reason I think we are never going to pay extra full amount for Sancho (105m pounds up front) and give up all the other buys.

In fact, we have only spend around 80m up front in this summer:

VDB - 35m (+5m adds on)
Diallo - 20m (+20m adds on)
Telles - 15m
Pellistri - 10m
Cavani - free
(total 80m up front, +25m adds on)

Perhaps you would prefer Sancho rather than those 4-5 players. But even so, Dortmund may not sell Sancho to us for 80m +25m adds on.

Another thing is, Sancho hasn't been performing well so far this season. If there is one player we have to splash big money from Dortmund, it has to be Haaland.
Sancho didn't even come off the bench yesterday and they scored five goals without him. He is having real problems with form. Not sure If I were him and would want to risk my career even more to be coached by Ole and Co. Dortmund were stupid not selling him as unless his form gets better there is no chance they will get that money again for him.

Donny should definitely be getting more game time, he is an intelligent lad and we cannot keep hoping that somebody gets us a penalty to get goals.
 

Dan_F

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Why did we invest in him then, if he's not better than any other option we have in midfield? Did we pay 45m for him to be a bench option for 10 minutes a game in the league, because if so it's a waste of money.
We spent the whole of the second half of last season moaning that there wasn’t enough squad depth and everyone looked shattered. Now we have it, everyone is losing their shit about players not playing.

Ole needs to do a better job of rotating, today was a perfect opportunity to rest Bruno for example, but we’re too shit to do it. Also, it was more like £35 million and looks as if we’ve basically bought a Pogba squad replacement in advance.
 

Borys

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Sancho didn't even come off the bench yesterday and they scored five goals without him. He is having real problems with form. Not sure If I were him and would want to risk my career even more to be coached by Ole and Co. Dortmund were stupid not selling him as unless his form gets better there is no chance they will get that money again for him.

Donny should definitely be getting more game time, he is an intelligent lad and we cannot keep hoping that somebody gets us a penalty to get goals.
Well we certainly shouldn't expect our strikers to start scoring easy chances, so might as well play Donny up front.

We spent the whole of the second half of last season moaning that there wasn’t enough squad depth and everyone looked shattered. Now we have it, everyone is losing their shit about players not playing.


Ole needs to do a better job of rotating, today was a perfect opportunity to rest Bruno for example, but we’re too shit to do it. Also, it was more like £35 million and looks as if we’ve basically bought a Pogba squad replacement in advance.
My thinking as well.
 

Dan_F

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He was playing well in that game and no idea why he was taken off. Having an odd game here and there is not going to show anything. He needs more games in that position to show what he can do and against defensive teams that should be an option. He is also flexible enough to play in a more advanced position so we have a great asset which has not been utilised properly to date.
I know. Ole clearly doesn’t trust the team to perform without Bruno, who is the main player he’s competing with. I’ve never really been him play off the right, but he might be an option there if Greenwood isn’t playing.
 

Mo Caine

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For some reason I think we are never going to pay extra full amount for Sancho (105m pounds up front) and give up all the other buys.

In fact, we have only spend around 80m up front in this summer:

VDB - 35m (+5m adds on)
Diallo - 20m (+20m adds on)
Telles - 15m
Pellistri - 10m
Cavani - free
(total 80m up front, +25m adds on)

Perhaps you would prefer Sancho rather than those 4-5 players. But even so, Dortmund may not sell Sancho to us for 80m +25m adds on.

Another thing is, Sancho hasn't been performing well so far this season. If there is one player we have to splash big money on from Dortmund, it has to be Haaland.
Good teams, with top coaches/managers will be interested, our name will be liked for clicks and to sell players but he'll be moving to a side on a different level to the shite we currently are.

just hope that's Bayern, cause i can see him at the dippers
 

UmbroDays

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We spent the whole of the second half of last season moaning that there wasn’t enough squad depth and everyone looked shattered. Now we have it, everyone is losing their shit about players not playing.

Ole needs to do a better job of rotating, today was a perfect opportunity to rest Bruno for example, but we’re too shit to do it. Also, it was more like £35 million and looks as if we’ve basically bought a Pogba squad replacement in advance.
How will he get up to speed playing 12 mins a game?

When you have a squad player, said player needs to start games. Competitive games in your main league.

Then he can sit and start a few games later. That’s the logic.

Bernado Silva doesn’t get 12 mins a game and called a rotation player. He starts games.

If he can’t start over a 33 year old Mata at home against WBA then it’s clear there is no obvious plan for VdB. That was a prime game for him to start and try and test what can be done with VdB, but instead Ole chooses a player we know about and is fading as a player.

Edit: I only saw someone quote the first part of your post. Yeah we are kinda saying the same thing.
 

Dan_F

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How will he get up to speed playing 12 mins a game?

When you have a squad player, said player needs to start games. Competitive games in your main league.

Then he can sit and start a few games later. That’s the logic.

Bernado Silva doesn’t get 12 mins a game and called a rotation player. He starts games.
I know. I said in the post Ole needs to do a better job of rotating. He hasn’t got the confidence in the team, and clearly doesn’t trust any DM enough to switch to 433.
 

zizou81

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If he went to barca he would be starting most matches. He should at least be given a start for at least one PL so far.
 

wolvored

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Bruno is undroppable as we would be more shit without him than we were yesterday. The only thing I can think of is VDB was bought to take over from Pogba and may have been told that. If not if I were him I would ask to be put on the transfer list in the summer, as he is an international and wont be much longer with 10 mins here and there. There is no problem with him and Ole as they were laughing and joking together walking down the side of the pitch before the game.
 

UmbroDays

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I know. I said in the post Ole needs to do a better job of rotating. He hasn’t got the confidence in the team, and clearly doesn’t trust any DM enough to switch to 433.
Yeah sorry mate, I updated my post.
 

MadDogg

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City have proven you can have quality in depth and keep everyone happy but you never see someone like Bernardo Silva or Mahrez go 7 games without starting a match like we’ve done with VDB.
Actually Bernardo Silva only started three of the first sixteen league games when he first joined City. He's probably the perfect example of how we hope this goes - somebody who wasn't getting much gametime at the beginning as the manager obviously thought he wasn't ready, started getting more games as the season wore on and then exploded in his second season. Even Mahrez only started two of his first seven, and that's somebody who had already been very successful in England.
 

Dr Fink

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Donny deserves to start, he looks sharp and links the play up well every time he is on the pitch. But Ole prefers safety first with two out of McSauce/Fred/Matic starting every game. A “don’t lose“ mentality rather than “win”. FFS.
 

Red00012

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We spent the whole of the second half of last season moaning that there wasn’t enough squad depth and everyone looked shattered. Now we have it, everyone is losing their shit about players not playing.

Ole needs to do a better job of rotating, today was a perfect opportunity to rest Bruno for example, but we’re too shit to do it. Also, it was more like £35 million and looks as if we’ve basically bought a Pogba squad replacement in advance.
We can’t afford to rest Bruno , do you ever see Klopp resting Mane or City resting KDB in league / CL games? You don’t just leave your key player out of a game you need to win and yesterday was a game we had to win.
 

SSSSnake

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This is a crime and I’m sick of him coming off the bench. Ole get your head screwed on!! The entire world knows his qualities but you give him 5 mins to prove something. Get out of our club!!
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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We paid +45m for a bench option? That's a little bit crazy when we needed the money to strengthen main positions in the squad like RW.
Although I would rather spend that money on midfield or DM like Zakaria or Partey instead. But Liverpool bought Jota for 5m extra which 50m for back up option. That’s how much quality attacking mid backup nowdays so it’s not crazy or unusual.
 

Slik

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He was playing well in that game and no idea why he was taken off. Having an odd game here and there is not going to show anything. He needs more games in that position to show what he can do and against defensive teams that should be an option. He is also flexible enough to play in a more advanced position so we have a great asset which has not been utilised properly to date.
Playing well? How do some of you define playing well? He was back passing the whole game and never lifted up his head to look for a runner ahead of him the whole game. Looked like he was more interested in passing the ball quickly rather than doing anything useful with it.
He is neat and tidy, but that’s all you can say about him so far. He hasnt been trying to create chances but rather just keep possession for possession sake. Maybe he is still feeling his way into the team. I totally understand why Ole doesn’t play him if he is always this cautious with his play in training also
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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This is a crime and I’m sick of him coming off the bench. Ole get your head screwed on!! The entire world knows his qualities but you give him 5 mins to prove something. Get out of our club!!
The player can’t even play regular over Klaassen in Netherland national team and you are acting like he’s some sort of world class player that is ready to play in our XI. Calm down, new player needs time to play in new team that has different system and different league. The manager is trying to implement him to the starting XI slowly.
 

Slik

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This is a crime and I’m sick of him coming off the bench. Ole get your head screwed on!! The entire world knows his qualities but you give him 5 mins to prove something. Get out of our club!!
Well if he actually tried to get the ball forward and not pass sideways and backwards in any of the three games he started, he would probably have gotten more chances by now. He is too cautious with his play. More afraid of losing the ball than actually creating chances
 

Borys

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Playing well? How do some of you define playing well? He was back passing the whole game and never lifted up his head to look for a runner ahead of him the whole game. Looked like he was more interested in passing the ball quickly rather than doing anything useful with it.
He is neat and tidy, but that’s all you can say about him so far. He hasnt been trying to create chances but rather just keep possession for possession sake. Maybe he is still feeling his way into the team. I totally understand why Ole doesn’t play him if he is always this cautious with his play in training also
That would be my description of him as well. Good at keeping possession, but I don't see how he transforms us, whatever position he plays.

Don't understand at all why are people so obsessed with him
 

Josep Dowling

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I can sense this will goes exactly the same way as Herrera. A good player that the manager doesn’t use for years. He will get a break through season to prove he’s a decent player. By which point the damage is already done and he will want to move on.

There is no reason for him not to be used for that type of game yesterday. If I was the player I would be fuming. Every time he goes away for international duty he scores. Just poor management by Ole.
 

UmbroDays

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Playing well? How do some of you define playing well? He was back passing the whole game and never lifted up his head to look for a runner ahead of him the whole game. Looked like he was more interested in passing the ball quickly rather than doing anything useful with it.
He is neat and tidy, but that’s all you can say about him so far. He hasnt been trying to create chances but rather just keep possession for possession sake. Maybe he is still feeling his way into the team. I totally understand why Ole doesn’t play him if he is always this cautious with his play in training also
Have you ever in your life watched VdB play before United?
 

TheGame

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Playing well? How do some of you define playing well? He was back passing the whole game and never lifted up his head to look for a runner ahead of him the whole game. Looked like he was more interested in passing the ball quickly rather than doing anything useful with it.
He is neat and tidy, but that’s all you can say about him so far. He hasnt been trying to create chances but rather just keep possession for possession sake. Maybe he is still feeling his way into the team. I totally understand why Ole doesn’t play him if he is always this cautious with his play in training also
Considering our poor performance in that game, he was one of the better players. Technically sound on the ball. You surely can’t make an assessment about him in the games he has featured in so far, he needs a decent run in the team. I don’t think he’s any more cautious then our other midfielders. Having seen him for Holland and Ajax before, passing forward is something he regularly does.
 

TheGame

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I can sense this will goes exactly the same way as Herrera. A good player that the manager doesn’t use for years. He will get a break through season to prove he’s a decent player. By which point the damage is already done and he will want to move on.

There is no reason for him not to be used for that type of game yesterday. If I was the player I would be fuming. Every time he goes away for international duty he scores. Just poor management by Ole.
Yep yesterday is the games he should definitely be playing in. Teams who set up defensively should allow us to play an extra attacking midfielder.
 

TheGame

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I know. Ole clearly doesn’t trust the team to perform without Bruno, who is the main player he’s competing with. I’ve never really been him play off the right, but he might be an option there if Greenwood isn’t playing.
Certainly worth a shot although going from yesterday it seemed to me that Bruno moved to the right and him in the centre.
 

Sultan

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The ideal game to play him yesterday. If he can't game a game against West Brom with Pogba absent then I find that questionable.
 

Bilbo

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Donny deserves to start, he looks sharp and links the play up well every time he is on the pitch. But Ole prefers safety first with two out of McSauce/Fred/Matic starting every game. A “don’t lose“ mentality rather than “win”. FFS.
Yet everytime he doesnt play 2 of those 3 (the winning mentality that you describe) we are more likely to lose.
 

MattofManchester

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Ole prefers to play two defensive midfielders who can't create anything, a lacklustre attacking fullback who is deeply awkward on the ball and passes it backwards, a legless past it Mata all over Van De Beek, while having made Bruno the sole point of creativity in the team.

At home against fecking West Brom.

Having seen enough of him at Ajax and for Netherlands, this just becomes baffling. He's not a 10, so there's no reason he can't play deeper therefore that's not excuse. Him and Bruno are probably more capable of playing together than Pogba and Bruno.

But no. We'll play the likes of Matic and Mata who do feck all, all game then introduce him for a quick 10 minute warmup before you piss off home again.

He's a good player, and better than most of the midfielders we have. I'm getting rather tired of seeing mediocre players by this club's standards constantly getting game time over better players. It's a trend that started with Fellaini, that continued under Mourinho, and now is ongoing under Solskjaer.

And then we wonder why we're shit.
 

Bilbo

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The ideal game to play him yesterday. If he can't game a game against West Brom with Pogba absent then I find that questionable.
I remember when everybody (myself included) was just as mystified when Jose kept leaving Mkhi out of the team. Not saying that these are parallel circumstances but there must be a reason why he is doing so.
 

::sonny::

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Ole midfield preference:

Bruno
Pogba
James
McTominay
Fred
Mata
Matic
Lingard
Van de Beek
Pellistri
 

archiebald

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Actually Bernardo Silva only started three of the first sixteen league games when he first joined City. He's probably the perfect example of how we hope this goes - somebody who wasn't getting much gametime at the beginning as the manager obviously thought he wasn't ready, started getting more games as the season wore on and then exploded in his second season. Even Mahrez only started two of his first seven, and that's somebody who had already been very successful in England.
Mahrez and Bilva were gradually getting incorporated into a team with by far the most stacked midfield in the PL at the time. VDB is not even getting starts over Mata and James :houllier:
 

Rood

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People are still reading too much into his absence - yesterday Ole prioritised players in midfield who hadn't been on international duty (Matic, Mata and Fred) and it has some logic to it as they should be fresher and have been training with Ole for 2 weeks while VdB only came back few days ago

He will start Vs Istanbul
 

Davie Moyes

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Some of you guys are over reacting. It's early days. Did B Silva get many games at beginning of his City career (or actually how many starts this season?). How about Fabinho, was is not like half a season used sparingly? What about Naby Keita? Okay Ole is no Pep or Klopp so I get why he gets questioned more.

I think DVB has been decent when played but not exactly making himself a cert for the starting 11.

You also have to consider Bruno has to play and then consider which team mates and set up gets the best out of Bruno. That without question has proven to be Fred and Mctominay.

Now after some busy internationals Scott is rested as he travelled to 3 different countries what DVB also played for his country. Fred and Matic did not. You can see why he started with these 2.

Now we've also seen what happens to Utd's central defensive pairing when they don't have enough cover in front, example the Spurs game or even the Istanbul game where I thought DVB like the rest did not exert himself on the game and contributed to our non existent middle which made us far too easy to play against.