The Manchester United manager has been criticised for not playing the midfielder after signing the 22-year-old from Ajax in the summer
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer insists Donny van de Beek will have a big part to play for Manchester United this season despite still waiting for his full Premier League debut.
The Dutchman’s move to Old Trafford has been widely criticised this week after the 22-year-old was an unused substitute in the goalless draw against Chelsea on Saturday.
Former Ajax and Netherlands striker Marco van Basten was one of many vocal critics who questioned why Van de Beek made the move to United in the summer as he still waits for his first start in the league.
But Solskjaer has disagreed with his critics and, with United facing a jam-packed fixture schedule up until Christmas, the Red Devils boss claims Van de Beek will get minutes and the midfielder is just being given time to settle into life in Manchester.
“When players come into a new league and team it’s always going to be a time to adapt," said Solskjaer ahead of Wednesday's Champions League tie with RB Leipzig.
"When he’s played, he’s played really well, I think it says a lot about our depth of quality in the squad that we don’t have to use him every single game, we also have other players, it says everything about our ambitions that we want to push on and challenge for trophies this season.
“Donny will play a big, big part this season, I realise the topic is Donny van de Beek at the moment.
"It’s nice for some players and commentators to have a little go, I know you’re short for time on television and you have to put your points across very quickly.
"You don’t have to start the first three games to be a very important member of the squad. I would be disappointed if some of my team-mates had said I wasn’t important at Man United because I didn’t start very many games. Donny is going to be very, very important about for us, don’t worry about that.”
Scott McTominay, who has started the last three games and looks set to start again at Old Trafford on Wednesday night, said nobody should be panicking about Van de Beek’s lack of game time and claimed the former Ajax man has already had a positive impact on his team-mates.
“The way he has come in, he’s lifted everyone else,” McTominay said. “Big, big signings like that can really lift the dressing room and I feel like we’ve seen that already with the way that Alex [Telles] played in Paris and Donny coming off the bench and showing what ability he has whenever he has been on the pitch.
“I feel like there’s no time to panic with Donny. People can be so quick to come to an assumption that he’s not playing, give him time, let him adapt and let him settle in and let him concentrate on the season.”
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