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‘It was tough’

Former Manchester United midfielder Donny van de Beek has spoken about his struggles at the club.

Van de Beek spent four years at Old Trafford but things didn’t go well for him, only playing 42 Premier League games.

The Dutchman failed to break into the first team under multiple managers while also suffering a serious knee injury.

And now he has opened up about his time at Man United, telling The Athletic: “I don’t know. I think the start was quite good.

“When I played, I think in the start of the season, I did well, and then for different reasons…I don’t know exactly but I didn’t play.

“It’s difficult to get to the heart of the painful spot, but that’s what it is. I think that this can happen.

“In some places, it’s clicking but sometimes, in other situations, it’s not. I think it’s for different reasons. But it’s also football.”

He continued: “Yes. It was tough. Normally in the second season, everything gets better for a lot of players. But I think it was also a difficult situation.

“I think the coach [Ole Gunnar Solskjaer] left, and a new coach [Rald Rangnick] came in and then it’s always chaotic.”

“I think it was quite unlucky because I played some more games [under Erik ten Hag], especially closer to the winter, and then I got injured,” he added.

“That was not easy. It was very bad timing. If you start to play a little bit more, then you can get the rhythm of everything.

“But that injury arrived, you need to restart again, you need to come up.”