Judge Memphis next season

Memphis Depay arrived in Manchester following an outstanding title-winning season with PSV Eindhoven where he was the Dutch league’s top scorer with 22 goals in 30 games.

Fans were understandably excited to have one of the best young talents in Europe at the club and the fact that he hasn’t shown his promise in the league so far has drawn criticism of late.

Memphis has only completed 90 minutes three times and Van Gaal felt the need to substitute him at half-time against Liverpool and Arsenal. There are probably a couple of reasons for this: Memphis has been losing the ball frequently and when he does keep the ball, he hasn’t been productive with it - he has created just four chances in the league so far.

Van Gaal said initially that it “will take time for Memphis to get used to the rhythm of the Premier League” and that is absolutely right. Daniel Taylor wrote in The Guardian in 2012 that Prozone data showed that top-flight football was 20% faster than it was in 2007. And it certainly hasn’t got any slower over the last few years.

Therefore, adjusting to the pace of the Premier League isn’t as much of a throwaway comment as it sounds. Of course, there are newcomers like Payet and Ayew who hit the ground running but they tend to be older, more experienced players and even then, there are players with the pedigree of Mesut Ozil who take their time to show their class.

Somewhat worryingly, Memphis has been in the press recently for his off-the-pitch exploits, with Steve Bates of the Sunday People reporting that Ryan Giggs has had a word:

“Memphis is photographed out and about more than other players and that’s not gone unnoticed. He’s been told to keep his head down a bit while his football catches up with the rest of his profile.“

Giggs is perhaps best-placed to advise the young player, having had many similar encounters with Alex Ferguson in his early career:

"You’d go out on a Saturday night and he’d tell you where you were, what you’d done and who you were with. You’d think: ‘How does he know that?’ He just knew everyone. If I came here for training clean shaven, he’d say I’d been out the night before. He had a go at me too many times to recount.” - Giggs

The most notable incident was the party at Lee Sharpe’s house he was dragged out of by Ferguson. Giggs later told The Telegraph of how he “opened Sharpey’s door…holding a [bottle of] Becks and there was no escape.”

Giggs could do with mentioning to Memphis the contrasting career trajectories of himself and Sharpe. Sharpe showed significant early promise, earning an England debut and the PFA young player of the year award at 19.

While Giggs found his way after his conversations with Ferguson, Sharpe didn’t. Sharpe later explained in an interview with The Guardian that “you can’t do things you want to do at 19 when you’re 35…I suppose I got punished for wanting to be a 19-year-old.”

In short, Memphis is perfectly entitled to be out enjoying his youth but he cannot let it affect his football. Skipping a few nights now to ensure you aren’t looking back on your career with regret at the age of 35 may be the price you have to pay if you want to remain a first-team regular at United.

Memphis is young, new to the league and to the country. He needs to be given time and support while he matures and adapts. He has admitted that he has found it tough, stating that “it’s heavy, two games a week, always at a high level, and my body has to get used to that.”

He won’t be the first young player to struggle upon his arrival in the Premier League and he won’t be the last. We will be able to make a fairer assessment of him next season and it is arguably more of an indictment on the United squad that they need to rely on him performing on the wing consistently so early in his career.