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Comparing Donny van de Beek’s stats to Man Utd’s current midfielders

Manchester United have been linked with several midfielders this month and are now reportedly ready to turn to Donny van de Beek.

The 22-year-old was a key part of the Ajax side that stunned Europe and reached the Champions League semi-finals last season.

We’ve compared Van de Beek’s stats in the Eredivisie so far this season to United’s existing central midfield options of Fred, Paul Pogba, Andreas Pereira, Jesse Lingard and Scott McTominay. Nemanja Matic has not been included due to his lack of minutes in the Premier League.

Goals and assists

Van de Beek has an impressive return of six goals and four assists in the league for Ajax this season, directly contributing to a goal every 129.7 minutes.

In comparison, Lingard and Fred have both failed to register a goal or assist in the Premier League, despite playing 2,186 minutes between them.

Pereira has been United’s most productive midfielder this season, contributing a goal and three assists at a rate of one every 295.25 minutes.

McTominay has also provided a goal and three assists from midfield, but his direct goal contributions in the Premier League have been 363.7 minutes apart.

Pogba has struggled with injury problems over the past few months, but the 26-year-old has still created two goals from his 521 minutes this season, directly contributing to a goal every 260.5 minutes.

Passing and attacking

On average, Van de Beek creates 2.2 chances per 90 minutes, which is more than McTominay (0.9), Fred (1.6), Pereira (1.9) and Lingard (2) but slightly fewer than Pogba (2.8).

The Dutch midfielder has a pass success rate of 83%, an improvement on Pereira (76.8%), McTominay (78.8%) and Pogba (82.8%). Fred comes out on top in this respect, with a pass success rate of 87.8%, marginally higher than Lingard’s 87%.

Fred also leads the way in terms of dribbling, completing 1.9 dribbles per 90 minutes at a success rate of 76%.

Van de Beek has only completed 1.0 dribble per 90 minutes and is bested in that regard by Pereira (1.1 at 57.8%), Lingard (1.3 at 54.1%), McTominay (1.5 at 65.2%) and Pogba (1.6 at 61.6%), but the Ajax star has the best success rate by far at 90.9%.

Defensive contributions 

None of the sextet are especially renowned for their defensive abilities, although are all expected to contribute to the midfield battle.

McTominay has averaged 2.4 successful tackles per 90 minutes this season at a success rate of 77.4%, while Fred makes 2.2 but at a poor success rate of 40%.

Van de Beek has also won 2.0 tackles per 90 minutes in the league this season, at a success rate of 71.4%. Pogba is often criticised for his defending but has won an average of 1.9 tackles per 90 minutes with a tackle success rate of 65.5%.

Lingard averages 1.5 tackles per 90 minutes at 57.6%, while Pereira also averages 1.5 tackles but only wins 46.8% of his attempted challenges.

In terms of interceptions per 90 minutes, Van de Beek comes in third place (0.6) behind Fred (1.5) and McTominay (1.4) but ahead of Pogba (0.5), Pereira (0.5) and Lingard (0.3).


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