'It baffles me' - 5 Live pundit flabbergasted after what he saw from £22.5m-rated Everton star

Alan Hutton has said that he cannot understand Danny van de Beek’s lack of playing time at Manchester United, especially in light of an impressive full debut for Everton. 

The 24-year-old had played a mere 68 minutes of Premier League football for United in 2021/22 before sealing a loan move to Goodison Park at the end of the January transfer window.

Frank Lampard handed him a 30-minute debut off the bench in the 3-1 defeat against Newcastle United in midweek, and although the result was of course disappointing, the manager saw enough to select him in the starting line-up for the clash with Leeds United on Saturday.

The Dutchman repaid that faith quickly, crossing for Dominic Calvert-Lewin, whose shot broke for Seamus Coleman to open the scoring after nine minutes.

Speaking during radio commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live (15:13), Hutton raved about Van de Beek’s “aggressive” display and questioned United’s treatment of the 24-year-old.

The former Scotland defender said: “Genuinely, I do not understand it. We’ve only seen 13 minutes here, and he’s been everywhere. He’s played forward passes, he’s aggressive, he’s done everything really well. It baffles me.”

The numbers illustrate that it was a strong outing for Van de Beek and give credence to Hutton’s astonishment about the midfielder’s lack of game-time at Old Trafford.

In addition to creating the chance for Calvert-Lewin, he won seven of his duels, made four tackles and completed 34 of his 38 passes for an accuracy of 89% (via SofaScore).

It’s still very early days, but if the Dutchman can build on this performance, Everton may start to think about a permanent offer. There’s no option to buy in the loan agreement, but United don’t appear to rate him particularly highly, so