Donny van de Beek is enduring a difficult start to his Eintracht Frankfurt career with the Manchester United loanee yet to win over his new fans after leaving the Premier League giants.
It certainly wasn’t a good sign, the Dutchman hauled off at half-time during last week’s 1-0 win over relegation-threatened Mainz at the Commerzbank Arena.
After displaying a few positive signs during his first two Eintracht Frankfurt outings, this felt like a big step in the wrong direction for Donny van de Beek, farmed out on loan by Manchester United and desperate to jump-start his stalling career in the Bundesliga.
And it’s fair to say Matt Ford, a German football expert and co-host of the Gegenpressing podcast, was less than impressed by a performance which raised more questions than answers as far as Van de Beek’s Frankfurt future is concerned.
Donny van de Beek struggling in the Bundesliga
“Donny Van de Beek was even worse than I ever even saw him in Manchester, to be honest. And that’s saying something isn’t it,” Ford sighs.
“One particular moment sticks in my mind. He receives the ball in the centre circle in loads of space. But rather than turning and moving forward, he simply takes a touch plays the ball slowly back into defence. And the entire crowd moans.
“He gets dragged off at half time.”
Van de Beek has not completed the 90 minutes in any of his three Frankfurt games, and was left out of Dino Toppmoller’s squad for the remainder of the Europa Conference League campaign. Man United’s hopes of getting the former Ajax ace off their crippling wage bill may already be hanging by a thread, then, with Ford hearing that the £13 million purchase clause in the Van de Beek’s contract is unlikely to be triggered any time soon.
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“(I was) speaking to someone close to Frankfurt,” Ford adds. “(The source) is already saying that Van de Beek had an awful lot of work to do to even consider staying at Frankfurt beyond the season.”
Van de Beek completed only five passes in his 45 minutes on the pitch vs Mainz. And it would not be a surprise to see Manchester United’s £34 million forgotten man dropped to the bench for Saturday’s visit of Bochum.
The good news, for Van de Beek, is that Toppmoller appears to understand the importance of patience. After four years warming the bench, the Frankfurt boss knows it will take time to get up to speed.
“The two of them are not in the rhythm of the game. We are trying to integrate them,” Toppmoller tells Kicker of Van de Beek and the Wolves-owned Sasa Kalajdzic.
“It is not about them playing outstandingly in their first two games. But about helping us throughout the entire second half of the season.”
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