Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been considering the same Manchester United formation that beat Manchester City for Friday’s return match against Tottenham Hotspur, as he seeks to ease both Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford back into action.

With both stars fit again after long absences, the Norwegian has wanted to finally unleash his full-strength team, but is mindful of rushing them back into full action too soon, as well as the side’s encouraging momentum.

United were on an unbeaten run that culminated with the 2-0 win over City just before the coronavirus-enforced postponement.

Solskjaer felt the three-man defence that day worked very well, even though his preference is obviously for Pogba to partner Bruno Fernandes in a long-awaited midfield, and Rashford to be running ahead of them.

The United boss has been weighing up a tricky decision over whether to throw his stars straight in when they might not be completely match-ready, or instead attempt to nurse them back, so the side is then fully fired for the run-in.

He has been thinking that the City formation may be best for the first game back, albeit with Scott McTominay maybe coming into midfield.

The starting XI for that 2-0 win was David De Gea, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Victor Lindelof, Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw, Nemanja Matic, Fred, Brandon Williams, Bruno Fernandes, Dan James, Anthony Martial.

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