Memphis Depay’s confidence has been evident ever since he had his first official press conference for Manchester United. He owned the podium that day. “We have to play for the trophies,” he said, like he had to get so many loafs of bread. And that’s not to say he came off as arrogant, quite the opposite: he alternated often between admitting he needed to work hard and listen to his manager. A manager who later said what was obvious to everyone in the room, “He’s full of confidence; you hear it.” And now he has a performance to back it all up.
Depay had his coming out party on Tuesday, and he did it on the biggest stage of this young 2015/16 campaign. Manchester United faced a Champions League playoff for the first time in years. It was against lowly Club Brugge, but the stakes were high never the less: win, or lose and miss out on the lucrative Champions League for an unacceptable 2nd year in a row. The team had to step up and meet the challenge, and no one did more so than Memphis Depay.
By the time he busted out the Whip and Nae Nae he was on his way to putting in a certified-legendary Manchester United performance. People were throwing names like Beckham and Ronaldo at it and they were sticking. At least, for those first two goals they were.
Cristiano Ronaldo has never felt so replaced. #Memphis
— Shravan Manghani (@Mangha7) August 18, 2015I hope Louis Van Gaal's philosophy is to pass the ball to Memphis at all times...
— Manchester Utd Stats (@UtdNumbers) August 18, 2015Liverpool fans watching Memphis Depay be like.. pic.twitter.com/xSVhNhbnzj
— Football Funnys (@FootballFunnys) August 18, 2015If hype was a traded commodity, Memphis Depay would have been worth more than anyone in the Premier League in that moment. No one could touch him: the next #7 for Manchester United. It was an overdue destiny being realized and people simply couldn’t keep their s*** together.
The day was won, and it was Memphis Depay that won it. Yet listen to this answer he gave when asked about his performance:
"I am happy of course that I scored and we won the game [but] of course I'm a little bit disappointed that I couldn't finish the last two chances…I will forget about it tomorrow but tonight I will think about that last chance."
This is the chance that has him speaking of disappointment while the world tweets of greatness:
Around the hour mark of the match, Luke Shaw stole the ball, sprinted almost 100 yards, played a marathon of a 1-2 with Juan Mata, and crossed the ball. It landed at Rooney’s feet, he played it off perfectly to Depay, but Depay missed.
Finishing that chance would have meant so much more than his first two goals, even though it would have meant nothing had he not scored them. It would have meant a hat trick in his first big game for Manchester United; it would have been a team goal, a team goal that saw Rooney defer to him; it would have been the last, definitive piece of proof that we were watching nothing less than a changing of the guard. Instead:
Photo: @Squawka | Twitter
It was his easiest chance of the game, and he knows it. He should have finished it, regardless of his other heroics, and he knows it.
It’s no wonder he was “a little disappointed.” It’s a sign of how much he believes in himself. It’s also a sign of how far he has to go.
Hidden in that answer is a hunger to be the best. That same hunger turned Cristiano Ronaldo from just another promising young winger to one of the best players to ever play the game. Ronaldo has always said that his dedication and hard work set him apart, not his talent. Depay has a chance to match what Ronaldo accomplished, and he is challenging himself to do so by not allowing himself to be satisfied.
Don’t hold your breath until he succeeds, but don’t sleep on him either. The boy’s full of talent; you see it. Now he just has to put in the work to make sure he gets the most out of it.
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