Manchester United to play Fred in Paul Pogba's position 'for a while', says Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says Fred will replace the injured Paul Pogba in the Manchester United midfield "for a while" and has backed him to "step up" in the Frenchman's absence.

Following United's 3-1 victory over Norwich in the Premier League, Solskjaer admitted that Pogba would not be back to full fitness and available for selection again until December.

Fred, 26, has featured in six top-flight games so far this season, but has only played the full match in the defeat against Newcastle and the draw with Liverpool in October.

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Last season the Brazil international played a largely peripheral role in the United squad, following his £52m move from Shakhtar Donetsk.

"Fred will probably take Paul's position for a while now," Solskjaer said.

"There's no use talking about who's not going to be here for a long, long time because he's not going to come on the pitch and help us until he's fit.

"Paul's been brilliant and he is a creative midfielder that we need, but then it is up to the others to step up."

United face Chelsea in the Carabao Cup round of 16 on Wednesday night at Stamford Bridge, live on Sky Sports Football.

The two sides' previous meeting ended in a 4-0 victory for United on the opening day of the season, thanks to goals from Marcus Rashford (two), Anthony Martial and Daniel James.

Ahead of their clash with Frank Lampard's side, Solskjaer insists that the result did not reflect the performance that his side put in against the Blues at Old Trafford in early August.

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"I think Frank has done a good job because the performance against us was good. The result was bad," said Solskjaer.

"We held our hands up as well and said: '4-0? Yeah, flattering'.

"We were pegged back, they pressed us, but we scored two goals, the second and the third within a minute which decided the game for us, so we didn't think we were 4-0 better than them but it's going to be an interesting game."

Martial scored in the second half against Norwich last weekend and, along with David de Gea, provided a welcome boost to Solskjaer's squad, with both coming back from spells on the sidelines at Carrow Road.

Luke Shaw and Nemanja Matic, who has been linked with a move to Inter Milan, are both doubts ahead of the game.

Watch Chelsea vs Man Utd live on Sky Sports Main Event on Wednesday from 7pm; kick-off 8:05pm.

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