Marnick Vermijl will leave if he doesn’t get an opportunity

Louis van Gaal earlier confirmed that Rafael will miss Manchester United‘s game against Crystal Palace this weekend as the right-back hasn’t recovered from the injury which ruled him out of the City game last weekend.

In the Brazilian’s absence, Antonio Valencia deputised but he is not a natural right-back and him being out of position certainly contributed to Chris Smalling‘s second yellow card as the centre-back had to cover the space behind Valencia.

Going into the Crystal Palace game, Valencia is the most likely player to start but with Marnick Vermijl in the squad, the Belgian could be a better option.

The 22-year-old voiced his frustrations at being left out of the pre-season US Tour and indicated he would be looking for a new club, thoughts that will most certainly be compounded if he is overlooked by Van Gaal for a makeshift right-back in Valencia.

On loan last season at NEC Nijmegen, Vermijl was very impressive and throughout the years with the U21s he was known for his reliability. Never below a six out of ten but rarely above an eight, Vermijl was very consistent in that respect.

He has been training with the first-team so Van Gaal must spot something in the youngster but as it stands, Vermijl has only featured at centre-back in the 4-0 defeat to MK Dons.

Van Gaal has his own reasons for not using Vermijl thus far and it may be the case that the Belgian does indeed leave either in January or the summer but he should certainly get an opportunity ahead of Valencia who is a poor right-back.