Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer insists Donny van de Beek will play a "big, big part this year" at the club despite only being used sparingly since his summer arrival.
Expectations were high when the 23-year-old midfielder arrived at Old Trafford from Ajax in the summer for an initial €39million.
But Van de Beek has started more matches for Holland than United since making the switch, having been restricted to five appearances off the bench and just two starting roles in the Carabao Cup.
Dutch great Marco van Basten is among those to have questioned the midfielder's decision to move to the north west given his inauspicious start, but Solskjaer says his time will come soon enough.
"When players come into a new league, a new team, it's always going to be a time of (transition)," the United boss said. "When Donny has played, he's played really well.
"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."
Solskjaer added: "I also think it says everything about our ambitions, we want to go and push on, we want to go and challenge for trophies this season.
"Donny is going to play a big, big part this year. At the moment, I realise the topic is Donny van de Beek and it's nice for some players or commentators to have a little go.
"I know that you're short for time when you're on telly and you have to put your points across very quickly, but 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 would be disappointed if some of my team-mates said that I wasn't important at Man 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 is pushing to start Wednesday's Champions League Group H clash with RB Leipzig, whose centre-back Dayot Upamecano was linked with a summer move to Old Trafford.
"There's always rumours and speculation about good players for Manchester United," Solskjaer said.
"I've always tried to respect that they are players for other teams and don't want to comment on every player that we are linked to.
"But since he's playing against us tomorrow, I know he's a very good player so we can see him close up tomorrow."
