Erik ten Hag has changed his stance on Donny van de Beek at Manchester United

Towards the end of his unveiling at Old Trafford in May, Erik ten Hag was asked by a Dutch journalist about his reunion with Donny van de Beek at Manchester United.

"We had a fantastic squad in that time at Ajax, I had a really good relationship with him and I’m looking forward to meeting him again on the pitch," he said.

This was a day after Van de Beek's disappointing loan spell at Everton had ended, but while his United career had been a two-year nightmare so far, there was an expectation that the arrival of a familiar face in Ten Hag would bring a change in fortunes.

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Fast forward two months and it already feels like Ten Hag's tone has changed. Van de Beek has played in the second half of all three of United's friendlies in pre-season and he did play well against Crystal Palace on Tuesday, but the arrival of potentially two more midfielders is only going to add to the competition.

Speaking in Melbourne earlier this week, Ten Hag's olive branch to Van de Beek had disappeared. Now, it was all on the midfielder to save his United career.

"It's the same for every player, he has to do it by himself," Ten Hag said of Van de Beek. "Me as a manager and the coaching staff around him can do everything to set the right conditions so he can perform but in the end the player has to do it by himself. They have to take responsibility for their performance. Donny has the capability. I have seen it but he has to prove himself."

Proving himself in the Premier League has been difficult so far for Van de Beek. There have been just four starts for United in 18 months and two of them came in meaningless games towards the end of the 2020/21 season, when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was