It’s the international break this week, and Manchester United sit third in the Premier League table, despite not playing the best football in the world. However, the Reds were blitzed by Arsenal in the final game before the break, conceding three goals in the first twenty minutes at the Emirates.
And one of the key underperformers for United last Sunday was Memphis Depay, who continued his poor form in the Premier League this season. He looked short of ideas throughout, often losing the ball with his poor decision making, and crucially, left Ashley Young exposed at left-back by giving him no defensive help at all as the Reds conceded three goals in the first twenty minutes.
The 21-year old was hauled off at half-time by Louis van Gaal, and that summed up his Premier League so far. Memphis has started every single league game that United have played so far this season, but the Dutchman has only played all 90 minutes in three of those games (Newcastle, Swansea and Southampton) while being hauled off at half-time against Liverpool. With only one goal and one assist from those eight appearances in the league, United fans would have certainly expected more from their £25 million summer signing from PSV Eindhoven.
And Memphis himself has admitted his struggles with adapting to the physical demands of life in the Premier League. Speaking to Dutch paper De Telegraaf while on international duty, he said: “There are a lot of games in Manchester. There are very few rest days and on training days you are mainly concerned with recovering. It’s heavy, two games a week, always at a high level, and my body has to get used to that.”
Perhaps the lack of rest is affecting Memphis’ performances. He has started just about every game for club and country since August 8th, and by my calculations, that’s 14 games (including internationals) in 57 days. Memphis has played an average of one game every four days this season, and that is simply crazy for a young player still finding his feet at a new club.
United fans could easily point the finger at van Gaal for failing to give Memphis adequate rest – just about every United player in the squad bar Juan Mata has been rotated in and out at some point, but I feel that the manager’s hand has been forced in playing Memphis week in, week out because there simply isn’t enough squad depth for the winger to be given a rest.
At this point in time, only Ashley Young can be considered competition for Memphis for that left wing spot (van Gaal, it seems, doesn’t consider Andreas Pereira to be in contention just yet), but with the unfortunate injury suffered by Luke Shaw, Young is effectively being forced to deputise at left-back with Marcos Rojo also currently out with a hamstring injury – therefore Memphis is having to play every week despite not being at full fitness.
However, they may be a solution to this problem – one that van Gaal may well want to consider. Matteo Darmian is widely known to be able to play both on the right and left-hand side of defence, having done so during his time with Torino, so why not play Darmian on that left-hand side and play Antonio Valencia on the right? Sure, Valencia isn’t your archetypical full-back, but he has shown he can do a job on that right flank and he would be able to give Mata more than enough support down that side.
That will surely allow Young to be played on the left-wing, therefore allowing Memphis to be rotated out of the squad. It was clear to most United fans six or seven games into the season that the Dutchman wasn’t playing as well as he could and although it could be only down to fatigue, it could also be the fact that he is still adapting to the breakneck pace of the Premier League.
And some United fans are guilty of setting the bar too high for Memphis. They expected him to light up the Premier League on arrival, and be consistently good week in, week out. But these fans forget that Memphis is only 21, and playing his first season in a top European league. Very few players come into the Premier League and immediately take to the pace of the game (Anthony Martial a very special exception).
There have been glimpses of the talent that Memphis possesses – and he certainly has the tools in the armoury of a potential star, but it’ll definitely take time for him to use them effectively. The main issue for Memphis currently is his decision making. More often than not you’ll see him trying to cut inside and try to curl one into the top corner, but ends up being crowded out by two or three players and losing the ball.
I’d like to see him try and get to the byline more – he definitely has the pace and power to beat full-backs and use those pinpoint, curling crosses he possesses in the armoury (the cross for Fellaini’s goal against Club Brugge a case in point). Perhaps he could also work on tracking back to help out his left-back, but I think that’s more of a one-off than a constant problem (when Shaw plays there doesn’t seem to be much of an issue).
I’m confident that Memphis will come good in the future. It’s only his first season, and United fans will have to be patient as he develops. It’s clear that Memphis has the drive and technique to go far, but he needs to improve his decision-making, which will come from experience. At this point in time, however, it’s clear that he needs a rest, and I’d advocate rotating him out of the side and letting him recover a bit before unleashing on Premier League defences.
