For the first time since he took charge at Old Trafford, Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has something that closely resembles a bloated squad.

Having lots of options isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it can cause a few selection headaches when trying to select the best starting line-up, and it looks like there's one problem in particular that could soon be keeping Solskjaer up at night.

Namely, an abundance of talent in the midfield, as the Red Devils are absolutely full to the rafters with midfielders after the additions of Bruno Fernandes and Donny van de Beek over the past year or so, whilst Paul Pogba has arguably been the one of the first names on the team sheet since he returned to Old Trafford from Juventus.

And therein lies the problem, as with three players vying for two places, one of them is almost always guaranteed to miss out, unless Solskjaer drastically decides to change his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation.

Fernandes has been brilliant lately, with three goals in his past four games, whilst Pogba may be pushing for a recall, but it's hard to justify spending £35m plus £5m in add-ons on Van de Beek in the summer if he's just going to sit on the bench. It's not the first time we've said this, either.

The 23-year-old, who earns wages worth £108,000-per-week, has found his chances hard to come by so far this season, but came off the bench in the 1-0 win at home to West Brom, before he played the full 90' minutes in the following fixture as the Red Devils enacted their revenge on Istanbul Basaksehir in the Champions League.

Per SofaScore, he took 73 touches of the ball, and he made this possession count as he looked both comfortable in the middle of the pitch and confident on the ball, spraying passes left and right as part of the supply chain for Edinson Cavani, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford.

Whilst much of his hard work may have gone unnoticed, it's worth pointing out he made two key passes, which was the third highest amount out of any United player on the pitch behind his teammates Alex Telles and Fernandes, whilst he also contributed defensively as well with one tackle and one clearance to ensure United avoided a repeat of their trip to Turkey.

This kind of commanding performance is exactly what United fans will have been expecting to see since he first arrived at Old Trafford, whilst it will have sent Solskjaer a timely reminder of both his attacking and defensive attributes, which should not be ignored.

The club legend has previously insisted that the Dutchman will be given the time to shine, saying: "He'll get his game time. He's been fantastic in the group."

It looks like Sunday's game may come too soon for Pogba, so Van de Beek will be expected to keep his place in the starting line-up after impressing against Istanbul as United travel to St Mary's to take on Ralph Hassenhuttl's high-flying Southampton.

AND in other news, Manchester United must cash in on Timothy Fosu-Mensah in January...