According to Owen Hargreaves, Manchester United might already have the next ‘Thomas Muller’ in their ranks.
Donny Van de Beek made a rare start for Manchester United in their 5-0 thrashing of RB Leipzig.
Prior to that fixture, there have been calls from all over questioning why the Dutchman has seen little to no game time at Old Trafford. One of such incidents even saw club legend Patrice Evra get involved in a row of words with the player’s agent.
All of that tension would have calmed when Van de Beek was named in the Red Devils’ starting lineup against the Bundesliga side.
Hargreaves was impressed with what he saw from the midfielder, who has been playing second fiddle to Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba in recent weeks.
And the former United and Bayern Munich star reckons it won’t be long before Van de Beek is a permanent fixture in Solskjaer’s side. He likened the player to Bayern Munich’s Thomas Muller to buttress his point.
“I think he’s a really good player,” Hargreaves told BT Sport as quoted by Express.
“He hasn’t had the opportunity to show it. He could be like what Thomas Muller is for Bayern Munich – the style.”
“Everybody tried to get Thomas Muller out of the team, but once he’s in, you can’t get him out in terms of goals, assists, he’s very unselfish, he can press the ball, he works in a midfield three, he can play as an 8 or a 10.”
“[Van de Beek] is one of those… once he’s in the team, Ole is going to find it hard to get him out.”
Hargreaves added: “The problem you have is: You’ve got £100m Pogba, Bruno Fernandes… getting them all in one team with the front three they have is going to be a challenge for Ole.”
Van de Beek now has it all to do to secure regular minutes at United despite the presence of a star-studded midfield.
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