Will United stick with three at the back?

United deployed a trio of central defenders during last Saturday’s 3-0 win at Tottenham, with Victor Lindelof, Raphael Varane and Harry Maguire all starting the game in north London. Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Luke Shaw played as the wing-backs.

Due to Lindelof’s injury, Eric Bailly was swapped in for the 2-2 draw with Atalanta, although United moved to a back four half an hour in, after Varane pulled up with a hamstring problem.

The switch to 3-5-2 resulted in us keeping just our second clean sheet of the season, at Spurs, while Ole has had several big results with the formation in the past, including away wins at upcoming opponents Manchester City and Chelsea.

However, it has been noted that forwards who play on the flanks – such as Marcus Rashford, Mason Greenwood, Anthony Martial and Jadon Sancho – perhaps don’t have a natural role in the system, as the width is provided by Wan-Bissaka and Shaw. However, Rashford did start in Bergamo and each of the players can also operate more infield.

When asked if Sancho would get much of a look-in this season, Ole clarified that the shape we’ve seen in recent games wasn’t now set in stone and that it would depend on the individual game.

He also added that he and our no.25 were on the same page and that he expected him to be an important United player for years to come.

“Well, Jadon is going to play a lot of games, he’s going to get better and better, of course,” Solskjaer said in a call with journalists on Friday afternoon.

“The last couple of games, he has maybe suffered from the system we have played, but that’s not going to be a permanent 3-5-2 team that we are always going to see.

“You will see Jadon play a lot and he’ll do well for us, he knows what we want from him and I speak to him regularly. That will be fine.

“We knew what we signed when we signed him, we believe he’s going to be one of the top forwards for many, many years, the next decade at least.”