Aniket Rai
Johnny Heitinga questions Donny van de Beek moving to Manchester United in the summer
Speaking to Stadium Astro (h/t Daily Mail), former Holland international Johnny Heitinga criticised Donny van de Beek for joining Manchester United in the summer and expressed concerns for his development.
Manchester United signed van de Beek from Ajax this summer for £40million. However, the midfielder was left frustrated with very little game time at the start of the season.
From last month onwards, the 23-year-old started seeing more action. That came to a halt as he was left warming the bench in United’s 0-0 draw against Manchester City.
Heitinga joined Marco van Basten and Louis van Gaal in criticising van de Beek’s decision to join United.
In particular, Heitinga expressed his concern for Van de Beek’s development. He believes that he needs more minutes at this age to develop into a better player, which he is not currently getting.
“I’m a little bit worried about his development because he isn’t playing many games. At his age, he needs to play games. This is not good for his development.”
The former Everton defender also mentioned that United already have quality midfielders like Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes.
He believes that it would be hard for them to sideline such quality names, and hence Van de Beek made a mistake in choosing Old Trafford as his destination. (h/t Daily Mail)
Referring to his time at Ajax, Heitinga said that the onus is now on van de Beek to prove himself as an individual.
“Donny was part of a team and now he has to do it by himself.”
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Van de Beek has made 16 appearances this season for United. However, only 2 of them have been starts in the Premier League.
He has been used more as a substitute as half of his appearances have come from the bench. In that time, he has also only managed just 1 goal and 1 assist.
