Diogo Dalot and Fred both came into this season hoping to improve on indifferent debut campaigns for the club.
While Fred has kicked on and become an important first team player, Dalot has not.
Against Aston Villa on Thursday night, Dalot failed to make the bench. This was not a one-off.
In fact Dalot has not made the matchday squad for any of the last eight Premier League matches.
Solskjaer clearly unconvinced
Dalot has played once since lockdown, in United’s FA Cup quarter-final victory against Norwich City.
In this game he was substituted after 63 minutes and replaced with Brandon Williams.
Williams has featured at right-back four times now this season, once as a starter and three times as a substitute, and it appears Solskjaer prefers the academy star there to Dalot.
Dalot may have slipped behind Williams and Aaron Wan-Bissaka in the queue for right-back, while highly rated academy talent Ethan Laird was promoted to the first team squad last week.
What happens next Sunday in the FA Cup semi-final could be interesting. Dalot has played in every round of the competition to date.
United are likely to be bolder in team selection on Sunday and select a first choice line-up, with the possible exception of Sergio Romero in goal instead of David de Gea.
If Dalot fails to even make the bench at Wembley then it will be a bitter blow for the Portuguese defender.
Expendable
Dalot was signed for United when we were searching for an answer at the right-back spot.
We since found a better answer, with Aaron Wan-Bissaka signed a year later.
An injury hit start to the season impacted him for the second season in a row, and upon his return to action he has not been able to get near to a regular role in the side.
In the Premier League he has just 65 minutes football to his name all season.
The former Porto man is expendable, especially with a need to raise funds for incoming transfers this summer.
While there is a case to keep Dalot and give him more time next season, his situation has not improved since lockdown. If anything it has got worse.
Solskjaer has made his position pretty clear so far over Dalot, and right now it does not look too good for the 21-year-old.
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