Erik ten Hag could decide Donny van de Beek's Manchester United future next month

The end of next month will mark the one-year anniversary of, arguably, the lowest ebb of Donny van de Beek's Manchester United career.

After being thrashed 5-0 by Liverpool six days earlier, United travelled to the capital to face Tottenham Hotspur in the Saturday evening kick-off a day before Halloween, with the hope of avoiding another nightmare. It was a must-win game for former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and he was expected to ring mass changes after what had happened at Old Trafford the previous weekend.

In fact, Solskjaer opted to make just two changes, choosing to revert to a back-three. It meant that Raphael Varane came into the side, forming a three-man defence with Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof.

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The midfield, however, remained unchanged, with Scott McTominay and Fred joining Bruno Fernandes in the engine room. Both McTominay and Fred were outclassed by Liverpool the week before, meaning United's supporters expected Solskjaer to bite the bullet and give Van de Beek the chance he had been craving.

Instead, the Dutchman was restricted to bench duties once again. While that was a bad enough story in itself, it what was happened before kick-off that summed up his Old Trafford career. In video footage captured by a United supporter in the away end, Van de Beek was spotted being called away from the substitutes warming-up and was instructed to tee the balls up for United's starters to have some practice shots at goal instead.

There he was, a £40million signing, conducting a duty that a member of Solskjaer's coaching staff ought to have been doing. Van de Beek wasn't used again that evening and he has made just