Donny van de Beek has vowed to continue pushing for a place in the Manchester United XI after his frustrating start to the campaign.
The 25-year-old has played just 19 minutes of Premier League football so far this season and hasn't featured at all since the 2-1 win over Liverpool last month. He came on for 12 minutes in the Red Devils' defeat by Brighton on the opening day before playing four and three minutes against Brentford and the Reds respectively.
To make matters worse, Van de Beek wasn't even named on the bench for United's defeat by Real Sociedad in the Europa League on Thursday. That would've been a game the Netherlands international may have expected to start, especially due to the Red Devils' hectic fixture schedule before the World Cup starts.
However, it has been revealed that Van de Beek was suffering with a minor injury that kept him out of the home win over Arsenal and the game against Sociedad in midweek. Despite that, Van de Beek has declared he is working as hard as possible to force his way into Ten Hag's plans, with Christian Eriksen, Bruno Fernandes and Scott McTominay the preferred midfield three at present.
He told club media : "Everyone wants to play, but you have to show it and you need to improve yourself every day to be in the first XI. A club like United needs many options and needs a big squad to play and to have a good season.
"I switch sometimes – sometimes I play in the '10', sometimes in the '8', in Ajax sometimes I play in the '6', so I can play in different positions. There’s been some great defending, in particular, from back to front."
Van de Beek added: "I’m really working hard for it, so I’m positive. I’ll do my best. The last part of last season, I was injured, so I missed a lot. I could feel that in the first few weeks of pre-season, but now I’ve started to feel better and better. So I’m really positive."
The midfielder worked with Ten Hag during his time at Ajax and the duo helped the club to the semi-finals of the Champions League, where they eventually lost out to Tottenham. With Ten Hag recording four wins from his opening seven matches in charge in all competitions, Van de Beek has backed him to bring back success to Old Trafford after five years without a major trophy.
He continued: "He will be really good for the club. I think in terms of the way the club is, and how they want to play, he’s a good mix for what they want as a manager. I’m really looking forward to it. We had big success at Ajax at that time – the semi-final of the Champions League, and we won trophies. So it was a special time. Now we are here, with a new chapter and a new challenge, and of course we want to do the same here."
