LONDON – Donny van de Beek slammed Manchester United for playing too “slowly” in their “really bad” defeat against Crystal Palace.
Former Ajax midfielder Van de Beek came off the bench to score on his United debut, but his side was already trailing 2-0 by then and went on to lose 3-1 in a dismal start to their Premier League campaign.
The 23-year-old will not look back on his debut with any fondness after United’s manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted his team fell short of expectations at Old Trafford.
Van de Beek was surprised by United’s lack of drive and urgency, claiming they played too directly at times.
“My first match for the club and then you want to win. It doesn’t matter how you want to win,” Van de Beek said.
“I’m really disappointed that we lose 3-1 at home. I think it’s really bad.”
“Yeah (we did not have as much match sharpness as Palace) but last week in training we did really well.”
“We trained good, so my feeling was really positive. But, yeah, today we played too slowly.”
“We went too long with the ball and I think against an opponent like Crystal Palace you need to speed up the game to create something. That was not good enough.”
Netherlands international Van de Beek took no consolation from his debut goal.
“To play for all the fans in stadiums like this it’s more nice to score,” he said.
“But still I scored but we lose and this is the most important thing that we win.”
“We lose but it’s always really nice to play for a club like this.”
“I made my first game and I hope to help the team and next time that we win, for sure.”
United has precious little time to recover as a trip to Championship outfit Luton awaits in the League Cup third round on Tuesday before next weekend’s Premier League match at Brighton.
“I mean, next week we need to step up and we need to win,” Van de Beek told MUTV. – AFP, September 20, 2020
