After a disappointing summer and a mixed start to the season, there’s plenty of comments swirling around about Manchester United at the minute.
The win over PSG in the Champions League in midweek helped to stem the tide somewhat, but when you’re a big club like United, there’s always something to complain about.
Much of those are centred around Donny Van de Beek at the moment, with many disappointed the Dutchman has featured so little thus far.
The £35m summer signing from Ajax has managed just seven appearances and 229 minutes of football this season, with his only 90 minutes coming against Brighton in the Carabao Cup.
Recent weeks have seen plenty questioning Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer over it.
He’s argued that Van de Beek needs time to adapt to the Premier League, a logic that former Netherlands international Wim Kieft defends him for in De Telegraaf today.
He states that Van de Beek has to be ‘patient’ at Old Trafford given the competition in the squad, with the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Paul Pogba, Nemanja Matic and Fred all competing for places too.
He believes that the midfielder is ‘a sensible boy anyway’ so won’t be pushing or worried at this point, and then moves to defend Solskjaer.
Kieft argues that the Manchester United manager ‘is not crazy’ and has seen that his new midfielder needs to get accustomed to the ‘pace and physical resistance’ of the Premier League.
Thus it is ‘not strange’ that he is being introduced slowly and needs a ‘period of adaptation’ as introducing him ‘forcibly’ could easily lead to him being ‘burned down’. Davy Klaassen’s short and unsuccessful spell at Everton is the perfect example of this.
He warns Van de Beek to ‘settle for his role in the pecking order’ and ‘quietly wait for his chance’, although that can take longer after a famous Champions League win like the one in Paris.
The tone is very clear from Kieft, though. Everyone needs to calm down and stop making an issue where there isn’t one when it comes to Van de Beek.
