Poor Donny
Manchester United scraped past a dominant Villarreal on Wednesday night thanks to a late, late goal from Cristiano Ronaldo, avenging their Europa League final defeat last season.
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But while 76,000 people in Old Trafford was beaming come the final whistle, it wasn’t sunshine and rainbows for everyone. Donny van de Beek, whose lack of game time has entered meme territory now, looked furious to be left on the bench again, with manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer preferring to bring on Fred in the 89th minute for Alex Telles, who levelled the scoring on the hour mark.
Fred had a part to play in the goal, playing the cross that led to Ronaldo squeezing in a shot from a tight angle, but one can sympathise with Van de Beek, who only has three appearances to his name this season, one coming in United’s Carabao Cup defeat to West Ham.
Eagle-eyed viewers watching the United game spotted that when Fred was preparing to come on, other players sat on the subs’ bench were consoling a visibly annoyed Van de Beek.
Van De Beek could also be seen taking his chewing gum out of his mouth and throwing it to the ground in frustration.
With the likes of Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes to fit into the same team, it is no surprise that Van de Beek’s game time has been limited again this season, but most football fans will have sympathy with a player who was so impressive for Ajax in their 19/20 run to the Champions League semi-finals.
