Manchester United midfielder Donny van de Beek has shared his ambitions ahead of the new season with Erik ten Hag in charge.
The Dutch international gave an interview to club media in Bangkok about his return after a loan spell at Everton last season.
“I think making as many minutes personally, as I can,” Van de Beek told ManUtd.com. “I think we need to improve as a team. If you’re looking at last season, we have a lot of things to improve and, if we work on that now, then we’ll see where we end up. We will fight for everything.”
When asked about reuniting with Erik ten Hag, he added: “I worked three years with him altogether, so now it’s a few years ago but I see a lot of things we did in Ajax as well, I like training stuff. So, yeah, I know a lot already.”
The 25-year-old is over the moon with Ten Hag’s arrival as it might give him a real chance to prove himself in a United shirt – something he’d argue did not happen under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer or Ralf Rangnick.
However, Van de Beek’s spell at Goodison Park only weakened his argument because he spent most of that period out injured and didn’t impact many games. He still believes the loan move will prove beneficial in the future.
“For my experience, I think [the Everton loan] was good. Obviously, I was a little bit unlucky with my injuries. I missed a lot of games but to have that experience… it was not an easy season for the team, because we played to avoid relegation, which is not what you want for a club like Everton, but, overall, it was a good experience to be there.”
The Netherlands international was part of the 31-man squad that travelled for the 2022 pre-season tour ahead of Ten Hag’s first season in charge at Old Trafford. He was keen to talk about his objectives for the new campaign, with the first hurdle being more minutes on the pitch.
An understandable demand for Van de Beek and we hope he can prove himself.
