Memphis was billed as the next Cristiano Ronaldo when he made the near £30m move from PSV Eindhoven to Manchester United over the summer, but the Netherlands international has taken longer than Louis van Gaal had expected for him to settle and produce the goods that shot PSV to their first Eredivisie title in seven years just six months ago.
The 21-year-old finished arrived at Old Trafford having scored more goals than any other player in the Dutch top-flight (22) and his WhoScored rating (7.92) was only bettered by teammate Luuk de Jong (7.96), who he could line up against on Wednesday evening.
The United No.7 is yet to reproduce performances of a similar calibre but notably marked his return to the starting fold after a six game absence with a fine finish against Watford at the weekend, suggesting all is not lost for the novice. However, do his performances warrant him a space in the combined PSV and United WhoScored XI?
Unfortunately, there is no space for Memphis along the front three with the likes of Anthony Martial (7.18), De Jong (7.82) and Luciano Narsingh (7.05) among those to pip him. In fact, only David de Gea (6.90), Chris Smalling (7.43) and Morgan Schneiderlin (7.13) join Martial in the team from United’s players despite being one point off the top in the Premier League and group leaders in Europe.
This is perhaps underlined by how unconvincing United have been in all formats under Van Gaal. The Red Devils’ best form of attack has been their defence this season, so it is no surprise than Smalling is there and also the second highest rated player from both teams. In fact, only Santiago Arias and Schneiderlin has contributed more tackles and interceptions (both 77) than Smalling (73) from both sets of players this season.
Instead, the remaining seven spots are filled by PSV players despite them languishing four points off rivals Ajax in the league. The winners of this fixture will all but confirm their place in the knockout stage of the competition, with United looking to exact revenge having lost the reverse fixture 2-1 on matchday one.
For more stats on United’s clash with PSV, click here to visit the WhoScored preview page
