Manchester United has set up a special training program for Donny van de Beek, writes The Sun Wednesday evening. The club is ‘impressed’ by the midfielder’s fitness, but would like to see him become a bit stronger physically. The training program is aimed at having Van de Beek build muscle mass ‘in the right places’, so that he can better withstand ‘the physical game of the Premier League’.

Van de Beek, who came over from Ajax, is 1 meter 85 and has a weight of about 74 kilos. Manchester United believes that he can gain some pounds in muscle mass. The 23-year-old international of Orange can therefore “look forward to pull-ups, chest exercises and exercising with weights,” according to the newspaper. Van de Beek’s training program is compared to the treatment that players like Bruno Fernandes, Jesse Lingard and Cristiano Ronaldo received at the club.

Fernandes made the switch from Sporting Portugal in January and was immediately sent into the gym by trainer Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. When he arrived in 2003, Ronaldo was certainly not as muscular as he became later in his career. The Portuguese came to Manchester as a shy and slender teenager and asked Mick Clegg, still a physical trainer at Old Trafford, for help building extra muscle mass. Lingard gained over a chunk of muscle mass this year with chest exercises and pull-ups.

Manchester United is confident that Van de Beek can develop physically. He is considered ‘one of the hardest working players’ and his ‘fantastic attitude’ would be compared internally to that of David Beckham during his time at the Red Devils. Van de Beek started on the bench in all three Premier League games this season; in two EFL Cup matches he got a starting spot from Solskjaer. Due to the suspension of Marten de Roon, a base place with the Orange squad is in the offing on Wednesday-evening in the Nations League game against Italy.