Erik ten Hag was forced to travel to Villa Park without Manchester United star Bruno Fernandes, but he certainly would have expected more from Donny van de Beek.
The former Ajax midfielder has been called up to replace the suspended Portuguese midfielder, who has reached the Premier League yellow card limit.
And Van de Beek received one of the biggest opportunities of his Man United career by starting in his favorite number ten role.
He failed to take advantage of a performance that directly contributed to Aston Villa’s 3-1 victory over the Red Devils.
For all the talk of Van de Beek’s off-the-ball career, he was completely invisible in Birmingham.
A playmaker needs to be available for his team-mates, but the fact that the Dutchman managed just eighteen touches in over an hour shows how easy it was for Villa to get their runs back.
Van de Beek cannot expect to play regularly for United when he is finishing games with just 13 successful passes to show for it, particularly when playing safely.
He didn’t try to dribble and managed only one shot, which was easily blocked.
Essentially an invisible man when United had the ball, he fared no better defensively.
Van de Beek won no tackles, made no interceptions and was ineffective in any attempt to pressure an opponent.
He didn’t even participate in a single ground duel in the entirety of his appearance, let alone succeed in one.
It is quite common, though somewhat undesirable, for a team to have a passenger in one phase of the game if that player excels in another.
Unfortunately for Manchester United, Donny van de Beek appears to be a passenger at every stage of the game.
(All statistics taken from SofaScore) 
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