2
Donny van de Beek made his first start of the 2023/2024 season as his new side, Eintracht Frankfurt, came back from the winter break in perfect style, winning 0-1 against Red Bull Leipzig.
The Dutchman only played 21 minutes in total for Manchester United this season and made his unofficial bow for the German side last weekend in a friendly loss to Freiburg.
The whole Frankfurt side defended admirably in a smash and grab win today that helped them climb up to fifth, above Jadon Sancho’s Borussia Dortmund at the time of writing.
The 2022 Europa League winners made the perfect start, scoring after seven minutes of play and held on for dear life for the rest of the match.
Leipzig dominated the statistics with 31 shots in comparison to Frankfurt’s five. Moreover, the home side enjoyed the lion’s share of possession with 64% of the ball.
However, as many teams have found out over the years, all that really matters is how many times the ball hits the back of the net and Van de Beek’s new side led that category.
The former Ajax man played 63 minutes, starting on the left wing in a 3-4-3 formation. He was partnered in attack by Sasa Kalajdzic and the goalscorer, Ansgar Knauff.
Sofascore gave the Manchester United player a 6.5 rating and he was actually the lowest rated starting player in the entire team.
The Dutch international had a quiet afternoon where he had an expected assist statistic of 0.05 and one dribble attempt that was unsuccessful.
In spite of starting in an advanced role, the player attempted no shots in the match. This is something he will need to improve on as an all too often critique of his time in Manchester was his remarkable ability to completely disappear in matches and appear invisible to his teammates.
Van de Beek only touched the ball 22 times but passed it quite well with a passing accuracy of 77%. However, it must be said he only attempted 13. Furthermore, he lost the ball eight times during the encounter.
He only won two out of eight ground duels and made one tackle in the match.
All in all, it was a very quiet afternoon’s work, but at least it was a start for a player who has been in a minute drought for years now. The 26 year old will happily take a few more quiet matches if his team can win and if he gets serious minutes under his belt.
He will next be in action next Saturday against Darmstadt, where he will be hoping to get more game time into his legs and improve on today’s display.
