Dutch midfielder Downey Van der Beek, who is on loan to Everton, has quickly conquered his new team-mate and manager, playing just two rounds at the Toffee but playing nearly twice as long as he did at Manchester United in the first half of the season!
Van der Beek first came off the bench against Newcastle United, playing more than 30 minutes, and returning to Goodison Park to play Leeds United, Fan Jr. started for a full 90 minutes, participated in a goal, and almost completed a direct assist.
After spending half a month at his new club, Van der Beek said he had found his joy again, joking that it was indeed tiring to play the whole game because he had not been able to play 90 minutes in the Premier League for more than half a year.
"After playing for 90 minutes, I feel really happy." Van der Beek said, "In the last 20 minutes, I felt like I hadn't played the whole game in a long time, so I was a little tired! But it's an amazing day and a good start, and we need this victory."
According to the data, Van de Beek has played more than 120 minutes in the Premier League in just two games at Everton and has won the best of the game, while he has only played 69 minutes in five and a half months at Manchester United and has never started. Coupled with the fact that his girlfriend is about to give birth to his first child, Xiao Fan's life can be described as gradually getting better.
Everton's new coach Lampard praised Van der Beek for being smart and obedient, with a level of training that made both the coaching staff and his teammates very satisfied.
"I was really impressed with him," Lampard commented, "from a professional player's point of view, I negotiated with him, persuaded him to join, and then saw his training and competition, and I absolutely admired his physical fitness, the state of the game." If you've seen his training, you won't be surprised by his performance."
"Not only that, but when I recall his performances at Manchester United, I also feel that he has top level. Before joining Manchester United, when I played for Ajax, I also played against him. But the players always have difficulties, you have different ways of reacting, I know how tough it is, but his performance shows that as long as you stay calm, put your head down and work hard, take the right attitude, you will get through it and people will respect you. Hopefully now he'll have the opportunity to show off his talents steadily, which is what I'd like to see."
Manchester United star Leo Ferdinand also revealed that Everton players also have great admiration for Van de Beek's level of training. 'I've talked to some people at Everton and they all said that Van de Beek has improved the team's training level when he joins. Ferdinand said, "He's a great lad and a lot of Everton players say, 'I didn't expect him to be so good, how he couldn't play at Manchester United, it's incredible!'" 」
Dutch star Stam believes that Van de Beek was abandoned by Manchester United because he was accustomed to playing with other teammates. Recently, a video of more than two minutes showed that when playing at Manchester United, Xiao Fan was often ignored by his Manchester United teammates, he always ran into the gap, opened his hands to ask, and many times his teammates did not give him the ball.
Former Premier League coach McLeish believes Van der Beek could move to Everton permanently and never return to Manchester United. "Manchester United signed him, which shows that he naturally has his own characteristics, but they don't know how to use him well." McLeish said: "A lot of clubs will be willing to get him from Manchester United and will continue to pay attention to his performance after the rental. Of course, Everton will be in the lead."