Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has fired back at Patrice Evra and Gary Neville over their criticism of Donny van de Beek’s transfer and insists the Dutchman will be an important player for Manchester United.
The 23-year-old midfielder was United’s biggest signing in the summer transfer window, arriving from Ajax for £35million, but he is yet to start in the Premier League this season and was an unused substitute against Chelsea.
Neville was on commentary for Sky Sports and described Van de Beek’s signing as ‘a bit of a mystery’ while fellow pundit Evra said the Netherlands international ‘was not needed’ at the club.
But Solskjaer has refuted their remarks and is adamant Van de Beek will prove to be a key component of United’s squad – just as the Norwegian himself was in his playing days despite rarely starting.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference ahead of facing RB Leipzig tomorrow, Solskjaer said: ‘At the moment, I realise the topic is Donny van de Beek and it’s nice for some [ex-]players or commentators to have a little go.
‘And I know that you’re short for time when you’re on telly and you have to put your points across very quickly.
‘But you have to know that you don’t have to start the first three games to be a very important player in a squad.
‘And I would be disappointed if some of my teammates said I wasn’t important at Man United but I didn’t start many games. So Donny is going to be very, very important for us, don’t worry about that.’
He continued: ‘When players come into a new league, a new team, there’s always going to be a time that he adapts.
‘Donny has played and when he has 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, because we have other players as well.
‘And I also think it says everything about our ambitions. We want to push on, we want to go and challenge for trophies this season. Donny is going to play a big, big part this year.’
