Donny van de Beek slams Man United's performance in 3-1 loss to Crystal Palace
Donny van de Beek didn't hold back in his assessment of Manchester United's 3-1 loss to Crystal Palace
Donny van de Beek has blasted Manchester United’s performance after their 3-1 loss to Crystal Palace on Saturday evening.
The Red Devils made a delayed start to their Premier League campaign as Manchester United were given an extra week to recover from their Europa League exploits.
Manchester United fell behind in the seventh minute when Andros Townsend managed to get on the end of the cross after evading Victor Lindelof and Luke Shaw.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer turned to summer signing Van de Beek in the second half following Manchester United’s lacklustre performance in their Premier League opener.
However, Palace extended their lead when Wilfried Zaha scored from the penalty spot with 16 minutes left to play after David De Gea was adjudged to have come off his line when the Spanish goalkeeper saved Jordan Ayew’s initial spot-kick.
Manchester United’s new addition Van de Beek did halve the deficit with a clinical close-range finish but Zaha punished his former club with a second goal in the 85th minute.
Van de Beek admitted that he was disappointed with Manchester United’s sluggish performance in their season opener.
“That was not good enough today,” Van de Beek told MUTV. “Last week in training, it looked really good. There was lots of quality and we played fast but today we played too slowly.
“First match for the club, a day you want to win. It doesn’t matter how, you want to win and I’m really disappointed that we lost 3-1 at home, that’s really bad.
“I think against an opponent like Crystal Palace you need to speed up the game to create something. That was not good enough.”
Van de Beek moved to Manchester United in a £40m deal from Dutch side Ajax earlier this month to bolster Solskjaer’s midfield.
The Dutch midfielder scored 41 times in 175 games during his five seasons in the Ajax first team after coming through the Eredivisie outfit’s famous academy.
Manchester United will have the chance to make amends against Brighton at the Amex Stadium next Saturday as Solskjaer’s side look to make up ground on their top-four rivals.
