Ole Gunnar Solskjær is predicting a big future for Mason Greenwood and has explained why the 18-year-old forward has been used sparingly this season.

Greenwood scored the opening goal in Manchester United’s win against Partizan Belgrade on Thursday, but missed their previous cup outing against Chelsea through being selected for the U21s to play Doncaster the night before. Even when Anthony Martial was out injured, Solskjær resisted the temptation to use Greenwood in league games because he did not want to rush his development or give him too much responsibility too early.

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“We can’t play him all the time, we are trying to ease him in gradually,” the manager said. “As a young boy you have ups and downs. It would not be fair to ask him to play every week and it would not have been right either to put all the weight on Mason’s shoulders when Anthony was missing. This club is all about giving young players with the right attitude a chance, but at that age you have to be careful.

“Mason is going to have a very good career. He’s a natural finisher and he’s just as composed in front of a crowd of 60,000 as he is kicking a ball about with his mates but if it takes a couple of years for him to become established we are fine with that.”

United face Brighton at home on Sunday and Solskjær believes their opponents have improved significantly under Graham Potter. “I thought they were a good team last season. I remember thinking we were lucky to beat them,” he said. “They seem to have turned a corner since, they have been controlling games and we are going to need loads of energy to press really well. We can’t let them be comfortable here at Old Trafford.”

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Defeat at Bournemouth in their last league fixture put an end to the mini-recovery United had staged since becoming the first side this season to take points from Liverpool, and Solskjær accepts there will be backward steps as well as forward ones. “You will get that with such a young team,” he said. “We are still not quite as consistent as we would like to be but we are learning all the time. We know the Premier League is out of our reach, we are too far behind the top teams, but there is a lot of the season left and any cup competition that comes around we intend to go for.”