Owen Hargreaves hails Donny van de Beek's 'close to perfect' performance in Man United's victory

Published on: 25 November 2020

Owen Hargreaves hailed Donny van de Beek's performance as 'close to perfect' in Manchester United's comfortable 4-1 victory over Istanbul Basaksehir.

The midfielder was making only his fifth start of the season after joining the club in a £40million deal in the summer but impressed in a deeper role alongside Fred.

The Dutchman linked up with the attacking threats of Bruno Fernandes, Edinson Cavani and Marcus Rashford and played a key role in United's fourth goal with a slick pass into Mason Greenwood, who crossed for Daniel James to finish.

Van de Beek has struggled to force his way into the first team since his summer arrival from Ajax but BT Sport pundit Hargreaves believes he may have played his way into Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's starting XI for Sunday's game with Southampton.

Hargreaves said the 23-year-old's performance was 'close to perfect' while fellow pundit Rio Ferdinand was also impressed.

'Van de Beek is so unselfish that he can just fit in,' said Hargreaves.

'I think he's played himself into the starting lineup.'

Ferdinand added: 'I was really was pleased with him. We've been impatient ourselves but Ole has shown why he has been thought of so highly.

'He's the one player than can play one-touch two-touch and keep it simple. He sacrifices parts of his game to help other people and you need that in great times.

'He's the one player that will make other players play well.'

The midfielder was confident in possession, with a pass accuracy of 88 per cent and a total of 73 touches of the ball. He also created two chances and had a 100 per cent dribble completion rate.

Goals from Fernandes and Rashford put United in the ascendancy before James wrapped up the points in the 92nd minute after Deniz Turuc had pulled one back for the visitors.

Despite not getting on the scoresheet himself, it was Van de Beek who also caught the eye of Paul Scholes.

'Some of the one-touch stuff was brilliant,' said the ex-United midfielder.

'He had the awareness around him to find Cavani and find some good balls to Marcus.

'What we saw tonight was his best position. I think he's good enough at the defensive position. He will be willing to try to do that. But it won't be the defensive quality he brings, he will be bringing stuff going forward.'

Source: m.allfootballapp.com

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