Owen Hargreaves believes Marcus Rashford was ‘fuming’ after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer left him out of the starting XI for the trip to Tottenham on Saturday.

The England international came off the bench with just over 20 minutes to go to replace Cristiano Ronaldo in the 3-0 win, before scoring his side’s third goal with a composed finish.

Following the 5-0 capitulation against Liverpool last week, Solskjaer resisted the temptation to make wholesale changes and confirmed nine of the 11 starters.

Edinson Cavani and Raphael Varane were the two exceptions, with the former joining Ronaldo up-front as United switched to a 3-5-2 formation. Hargreaves, however, suggested Rashford would have expected to start and was unhappy at being benched.

‘I think you could see that in his celebration, he was fuming,’ the former United and Bayern Munich midfielder told Premier League Productions.

‘But when two legends of the game are playing ahead of you it’s hard to complain in a sense.

‘He [Solskjaer] is never going to drop Ronaldo, he needed somebody else in there and Cavani was fabulous last season. He probably deserved to start sooner.’

While the combined age of United attacking was 70, the bench had a far more youthful look as it included 24-year-old Rashford along with Jadon Sancho and Mason Greenwood, who are 21 and 20 respectively.

Relying on experience over youthful exuberance, however, may have to be a price United have pay in the short-term, as they look to get back on track after a difficult run of form.

‘Having Rashford and [Mason] Greenwood to come off the bench, as much as it will hurt them, maybe right now for the balance of the team,’ Hagreaves said.

‘They looked good today and Rashford will get goals coming off the bench, definitely.’

United remained fifth following their first win in the Premier League since September but closed the gap to Manchester City and Liverpool to three and five points respectively.

Solskjaer’s men could draw level with the former, whom they host at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Asked whether he thought Solskjaer will stick with the same XI he picked against Spurs, Hargreaves replied:

‘The big question is they’ve got Manchester City at OId Trafford on the weekend.

‘You’re not going to have much of the ball and you’re going to be quite deep. They defend with seven then Bruno [Fernandes], Cavani and Ronaldo. Is that going to work against City?

‘We’ll see. But I think today was a big step forward.’