Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘DONNY SO VERY IMPORTANT’
Scott tells Van de Beek to stay calm and wait for his chance, and the good times will follow
have a little go.” Solskjaer, whose side host RB Leipzig in the Champions League tonight, has been accused of disrespecting the new boy.
The United manager pointed out: “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.
“You have to know that you don’t have to start the first three games to be a very important player in the squad.
“I’d be disappointed if some of my team-mates said that I wasn’t important at Manchester United.
“But I didn’t start many games, so Donny’s going to be very very important for us – don’t worry about that.” Van de
Beek has completed just 61 minutes of Premier League action and started only two games – in the Carabao Cup against Luton and Brighton.
Van Basten insisted: “Donny should not have gone to Manchester United.
“When you are a good player you want to play every week.”
And former Holland coach Blind said: “What was he signed for? Solskjaer didn’t even give Donny a brief cameo against
Chelsea. He bought him to beef up the squad. Why not use that squad depth?”
DUTCH COURAGE Mctominay (right) urged
Van de Beek to keep his focus and sieze his opportunity
day, a big smile on his face, wanting to work hard, wanting to really impress everybody.
“I’m so confident Donny will be such an important figure in this team and throughout oughout the whole season.
“The way he’s come in has lifted everyone else along with Alex (Telles), Edinson (Cavani), big signings like those who are topquality players can really lift the dressing room.
“We’ve seen that already with the way Alex played in Paris and obviously Donny coming off the bench and showing what ability he has.
“I feel like there’s no time to panic for Donny. People can be so quick to c ome to an assumption he’s not playing and things like that. But give him time, let him adapt to the league, let him settle into his new house or wherever he’s living and really let him concentrate on his season.” With or without Van de Be ek, S o l skja er will be desperate to follow up last week’s opening 2-1 Champions L ea gu e win at Paris SaintG e r ma i n w i t h another against RB L e i p z i g in Group H tonight.
L ast seas on’s semi-finalists are top of the Bundesliga and come to town high on confidence under the leadership of highly-rated boss Julian Nagelsmann.
Solskjaer has been keeping close tabs on Leipzig’s progress and knows it will be another fierce challenge. He said: “When you prepare for games you watch quite a few of the opposition position matches. But of course we have followed Leipzig the last few years, especially in Europe, ope, and their top games, big games mes in the Bundesliga.
“I know Julian’s very adaptable, daptable, he’s capable of putting g teams together in different formations mations but the style is always there, the style is he always wants ants to be dominant.
“It’s high tempo and it’s t’s high pressure, so we have ve to prepare for a difficult lt game against a difficult lt team that can play in n many different ways.
“Our focus is on n ourselves, that we have ve to give them problems ms and then make sure we can solve whatever er problems they give us.
“It’s a game I’m really ly looking forward to.”