Stam slams Man Utd for not giving flop ‘enough chances’ and ‘trust’

Joe Williams
Former Man Utd defender Jaap Stam

Former defender Jaap Stam is frustrated that Man Utd failed to give Donny van de Beek “enough chances” to prove himself.

Van de Beek has started just four Premier League matches since his £40m transfer from Ajax to Man Utd in 2020 and moved to fellow Premier League side Everton in January until the end of the season.

The loan move ended a horrific time for the Netherlands international with Van de Beek dropped from the Dutch squad for the last few rounds of international games ahead of the World Cup in Qatar this year.


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Van de Beek has started more games at Everton since his loan move from Man Utd but he is yet to get a goal or assist in his six Premier League appearances.

And Stam thinks that Man Utd should’ve trusted Van de Beek more rather than take him out the team after one negative performance.

“I think for Donny, he didn’t get enough chances to show himself, because it’s not only about getting one game or a couple of minutes,” Stam told bettingexpert.

“No, you need several games and I’m not saying that the coach is to blame, because there’s a lot of tension on the games, there’s a lot of tension on the coaches.

“Of course I can understand that a coach is not saying ‘yeah, but I cannot give him a couple of games to see how he does’ and then risking, if he’s not working out, that we might lose more games. I can understand that in a way.

“But I can also understand that you need to trust your players, you need to give confidence to players. Sometimes, of course, you need to give them a little bit more extra time to show themselves in what they can do and also maybe play a little bit more attacking minded.

“For some reason the coaches were not picking him. Maybe he’s too attacking-minded. He wants to go forward. The coaches have favoured two holding midfield players.”

Stam added: “Donny needs to play if he wants to have a chance [at the World Cup squad] and wants to improve himself and become a better player.

“He needs to get playing and it’s always nice to go to one of the biggest clubs in England, but maybe sometimes you need to make that choice to go to a different club and then maybe play for a year or two years somewhere else so that you get used to everything, to get used to playing in the Premier League.

“It’s a totally different way of playing than in Holland. The physicality of it, the pace of it. Different players, better players that you need to face and then after that, also still make that step to a big club in England or maybe in Europe.”