OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER will call on his promising young stars to take on Chelsea’s bright new side admitting his Manchester United hopefuls are behind in their development compared to their rivals.
Teenagers James Garner, Brandon Williams and Mason Greenwood could all figure when United take on the Blues tomorrow looking to book a place in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup.
Midfielder Garner, 18, made his first start for the club in the win over Partizan Belgrade last Thursday while left wing-back Williams, 19, was making only his second start.
Greenwood, 18, has already made an impact this season with goals against Astana in the Europa League and Rochdale in the Carabao Cup.
But the trio are way behind Chelsea youngsters like Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Timori and Reece James – which Solskjaer says is down to the way they have all been farmed out on loan.
The United boss said:It is a very exciting team. Frank has got players that have been on loan for one or two seasons in the Championship.
The difference with my youngsters is that they are almost stepping up right now onto the scene.
You can see, Axel Tuanzebe, he has been out on loan and you can see the benefit, and I think Chelseas young players benefit from that now.
They are a mature young team.
But Solskjaer added:Character will be revealed in tough times, but I think they have done excellent, the young kids.
I cant give them any more responsibility and I couldnt be any happier with many of the youngsters.
We know its been tough, and we know that we have asked a lot of them because Paul (Pogba), Luke (Shaw), Anthony (Martial) and loads of other players that have been injured.
For us the youngsters have stepped up in a difficult period. But in the end they will be stronger for it.
The last time the two teams met was on the opening day of the season when Manchester United offered false hope with a 4-0 win.
It is a result that Solskjaer admits did not reflect the balance of play.
He said: I think Frank has done a good job, because the performance against us was good, although the result was bad.
We held our hands up then and said, yep, 4-0, was flattering.
We got pegged back, they pressed us but we scored two goals within a minute, the second and third, which decided the game for us.
But we didnt think we were 4-0 better than them. It is going to be an interesting game. We dont make it easy for ourselves in the cups, with the draws.
United struggled for goals after that until Sunday when they got three as they became the first club to reach 2000 Premier League goals.
Solskjaer said: It is a great thing. It says everything about how much we have dominated the Premier League.
