It's just kind of obvious though mate - when he is playing deep he is constantly trying to get forward.
He kind of does it so much and gets in to spaces behind the opposition like a raumdeuter that the midfielder he plays with can hardly pick him out and he kind of plays that midfield a bit by himself.
VDB plays these one two passes and goes on a run which is very hard to play in a double pivot.
He literally makes runs that cheats and gets behinds the opposition and wants his partner to pick him out. It doesn't really happen.
I can see your point, but if I remember correctly that was when he played in AM position for us. His impact on the game was very limited as he either passed in backwards/sideways or made a run in behind, which as clever as it was, didn't result in any dangerous situation as he was totally out of sync with the teammates.
However, if you have seen the last 5 games he played for us in midfield you must see how much better he is in that position. Looks a proper midfielder to me, at the very least he has some awareness both on and off the ball which is something I think neither of Fred, McTominay and Pogba possess.
Okay again if you look at my original post - I said he can play CM. Nothing new there.
However, do you think he can play deeper better or further forward better?
Ie does he have the same problems with Pogba?
This started because people said we bought VDB but VDB is not a player for a double pivot for United is he? Do you think he is?
Let's leave aside whatever role he played for Ajax, based on the posts in this forum I think the vast majority think he's much better in deeper midfield than further forward. This is also my opinion on VDB after watching him play for us in those few games he was given a run.
I think he can do a job in midfield no worse than all our other options, only Matic is better (but he has other issues unfortunately).
Is van de Beek the answer to our midfield problems? Personally I don't think this will be fixed with buying one player, but we also need to take under consideration there is no way to tell at this point as Donny has never been given a chance to prove himself (even after decent - to - good performances he was never picked). I don't know how can you judge a player based on such limited game time.