The 3-0 win over Everton, probably one of the best performances by Manchester United this season was achieved by benching one of their bright sparks from the start of the season. Memphis Depay was seen as the perfect purchase by Louis van Gaal, someone who was young, talented, pacy and fit the United player mould of being great in attack.
What has transpired since his £22-million move from PSV is nothing short of a disaster for the young attacker. Depay has looked pretty average since the season has progressed and even when he plays for his national team, he doesn’t seem to have the same hunger and passion for playing and performing at a high level.
Shape up or ship out
After the 3-0 win over Everton, Louis van Gaal did speak about Memphis not being part of the starting XI and how he needed to buy into the Manchester United philosophy if he wants to have a chance in the team.
He even referred to the likes of Falcao and Di Maria who were let go off, speaking after the game, Van Gaal had this to say about the Depay predicament.
“Ryan has already given advice to him, but the player is responsible for his own deeds,”
“You have to give respect to your team philosophy.”
Referring to the other players who have been sold off by the Manchester United boss added:
“We have seen that some players cannot adapt to the team philosophy. You cannot know in advance before you buy them. You have to wait and see. That happened with Angel Di Maria and [Radamel] Falcao.”
Van Gaal, however, did voice his support for the youngster, but Depay has to work hard to prove to the manager that he should be playing in the first XI. The attacker has had a poor season after his initial games for United and even a brilliant performance in his first Champions League game seems to have taken place a long time ago.
From team performance stats in the Premier League, Depay has a passing accuracy of 81% in his first season at Manchester United, ranking him 20th in the list of Manchester United players. He only completes 34 passes per game which puts him in 15th when it comes to passes completed this season for Manchester United. Those stats don’t provide great reading for the United youngster and playing him only reduces the efficiency and attacking ability of the team. The better thing would be to keep him out of the starting lineup and on the bench, to use him as an impact player.
Depay, however, has to work harder if he is to keep his position in the bench even, Van Gaal’s warning should be taken seriously as the manager has shown that big names and big transfer values mean nothing to him, case in point, Angel Di Maria.
The good thing for Depay is that he has time on his side and it is pretty early in the season. Dropping him from the team is the best thing to do for Manchester United at the moment since he isn’t performing to the levels expected and neither is he contributing to the team as they might have wanted. Depay has gotten one strike at the moment, if another one comes in from Louis van Gaal, he could be shipped out by the end of the season.