Solskjaer finds positives from Van de Beek's lack of minutes

Donny van de Beek playing sparingly only highlights the abundance of talent in the Manchester United team, suggests Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Manchester United summer signing Donny van de Beek has found minutes hard to come by, having been limited to less than an hour of action so far in the Premier League.

Out of the seven games he has played across all competitions so far, the midfielder has started in only one – an EFL Cup fourth round match-up against Brighton.

It was expected that the €40 million man from Ajax will force his way into the Red Devils’ starting XI. Instead, it appears as if he is below all of Bruno Fernandes, Paul Pogba, Nemanja Matic, Scott McTominay, Fred, and Juan Mata in the pecking order.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, however, refuses to downplay Van de Beek’s importance in his squad, suggesting that the player will be tasked with more responsibility as the campaign progresses.

“It says a lot about our depth of quality in the squad that we don’t have to use him in every single game because we have other players as well,” Solskjaer said in his pre-match press conference ahead of the Champions League clash against RB Leipzig.

“You know, Donny is going to play a big, big part this year. You have to know you don’t have to start the first three games to be a very important player in the squad.

“Donny is very, very important for us. Don’t worry about that.”