Manchester United‘s manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has insisted that his new signing, Donny van de Beek, is still very important at the club even though he hardly starts the Dutchman in most of the club’s matches this season.
Donny van de Beek was the only prominent signing Manchester United made during the 2020 summer transfer window. Due to financial restraints, the club was not able to land the club’s major transfer targets like 20-year-old Borussia Dortmund and England international Jadon Sancho.
Though Manchester United made it open that they could not afford the asking price for the players they were interested in because the coronavirus pandemic has affected the club’s revenue, most of the club’s fans hardly fail to criticize the club’s inability to improve the squad during the transfer window.
Based on this, Donny van de Beek has attracted a lot of interest from some of the club’s fans being the club’s only major signing. Hence, those groups of fans are always quick to criticize Ole Gunnar Solskjaer when he fails to start the 23-year-old Netherlands centre-midfielder especially when the club is on the losing side.
Donny van de Beek’s fans argued that Manchester United spent £35 million on the Netherlands international because of the impact the youngster had in Ajax’s 2019-2020 campaign in which he scored 10 goals and provided 11 assists in 37 games.
Before he left Ajax, Van de Beek played 175 matches with the club’s senior team in which he scored 41 goals and provided 34 assists between 2016 and 2020.
After 13 years, I say goodbye to the club that played a huge part in my development. I thank everyone who made this move possible. Time has come for a new chapter, but @afcajax and the fans will always have a special place in my heart. I will keep following you! Donny ❌❌❌ pic.twitter.com/qvJIdrqhiF
— Donny van de Beek (@Donny_beek6) September 2, 2020
But when he got to Manchester United, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has managed to start him in 2 matches out of 7 appearances in all competitions for the club in which he scored a goal and provided an assist. Critics of the football manager have insisted that the Dutchman deserved more from Solskjaer.
“It says a lot about our depth of quality that we don’t have to use him in every game, it says it all about our ambitions,” Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said in a pre-match press conference on Tuesday.
“It’s nice for some players and commentators to have a little go. I know you’re short on time on television and have to put your point across quickly, but you have to know you don’t have to start the first three games to know you’re an important part of the squad.
“I’d be disappointed if some of my team-mates said I wasn’t important at Manchester United but I didn’t start many games. Donny will be very, very important to us. Don’t worry about that.”
Manchester United will be in action against RB Leipzig in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday, October 28, and the fans of the club would want to see Van de Beek in action once again after missing out on the club’s 0-0 draw against Chelsea on October 24.
