From cause to affect Manchester United’s travails have been much pored over this season but at least Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has sought solace in keeping the club true to itself by adhering throughout to the ‘United Way’.

For anyone not familiar with the ‘United Way’ it essentially amounts to attacking football being played at all times (presently the red half of Manchester have created only six more big chances this season than Steve Bruce's Newcastle United) and of course the promotion of and faith shown in their academy talents.

Of the latter the blooding of kids is traditionally ingrained in the club’s DNA and frankly the Norwegian hasn’t stopped harping on about it since his appointment.

Indeed, helped by a media happy to play along, it would be understandable if a fair-weather fan had the impression that Old Trafford has become a crèche of late.

This makes it a shame, given their recent struggles that make them too easy a target, to point out that it is little short of codswallop.

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From their opening 4-0 win over Chelsea back in August to the present day, 20 players have started for the Reds on five or more occasions in all-competitions.

One of those players is Scott McTominay, an emerging success story for sure but at 22 hardly a precocious teen. Then there is Aaron Wan-Bissaka – also 22 – who signed in the summer for a very hefty fee so hardly constitutes an academy star.

One player who is often deemed to be callow and young, however, is playmaker Andreas Pereira. Unfortunately the Brazilian international – though an academy alumni whose breakthrough into the first team should certainly be enjoyed – is 23, the same age as Dele Alli. Alli to date has made 139 Premier League appearances.

Compare and contrast this to Chelsea, the side royally beaten in that August curtain raiser. Mason Mount, 20, Tammy Abraham, 22, and Fikayo Tomori, 21, have established themselves in the side yet all are younger than McTominay.

Factor in too that were it not for the long-term injury to their sensational teen Callum Hudson-Odoi, we could have seen another prodigious talent regularly feature in the side.

Ah, you say. But what about the numerous ten minute cameos Solskjaer is granting his junior army? Surely that counts for something? And it does, but only a little something. Because five clubs boast younger squads overall than Manchester United, two of whom make up the north London giants of Tottenham and Arsenal.

Earlier this season Gary Neville claimed that Solskjaer’s Saplings are unfairly being thrown into a highly pressurised situation, and that furthermore even the fabled Class of 92 would struggle without a successful team around them for necessary support.

He really needn’t have worried, or at least if utilising players in their early twenties is a cause for alarm he should extend that courtesy to the rest of the Premier League.