Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has said that Donny van de Beek must follow the examples of Victor Lindelof and Fred if he is to break into the Red Devils’ first team.

Both players took the best part of a year to 18 months to establish themselves, and with van de Beek having struggled for game time since his £35m switch from Ajax in the summer, Solskjaer says the Dutchman needs to be patient:

“Donny has played well when he has had the chance. I think we are too quick sometimes to jump on, ‘Oh he’s not playing, it’s a failure’, but you know we can see now. For example, with Victor [Lindelof] and Fred, as examples, that it takes a little bit of time and now they are massively important players in our squad, in our team, which will be the same with Donny.”

Van De Beek has started just two Premier League matches since arriving in England, and the biggest reason for that is due to the likes of Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes who play in his position.

Were Pogba to leave at the end of the season, van de Beek may then have the chance to establish himself at Old Trafford but it remains to be seen whether the 23-year-old has the patience to sit on the bench for that long.