Manchester United do not have enough match winners to rotate how Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did

This was like watching the Manchester United that existed prior to the arrival of Bruno Fernandes and the emergence of Mason Greenwood.

Hesitant, one-paced and lacking in creativity. How strange that this version of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's United should be allowed to show itself again just when a corner towards a brighter, more recognisable future appeared to have been turned.

Solskjaer, the United manager, undoubtedly played his own part in this enormous backward step. Clearly picking his team with two final Premier League games in mind, would Solskjaer have left out Greenwood, Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba had he known his club's main rivals for the top four, Leicester City, were about to lose heavily at Tottenham just before this game kicked off?

It seems inconceivable that he would have but the fact remains that he should not have selected this team anyway. His United team has been running hot recently on the back of consistency of selection and the sheer menace of his front three.

To leave two of them out for this game was simply unnecessary. In doing so he essentially took them right back to where they were last autumn and for that folly Solskjaer has paid a heavy price.

David de Gea's personal horror show was fundamental to this defeat and it's impossible not to feel sorry for a goalkeeper who should have left the club years ago. Chelsea's first goal – superbly taken by Olivier Giroud – may have been a De Gea mistake.

Their second, scored by Mason Mount, most certainly was and it's hard to know who will feel worse this morning, De Gea or the Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder.

United's long-term De Gea replacement is Dean Henderson, currently on loan at Bramall Lane. Wilder will doubtless be preparing to spend this week with his phone turned off.

But this was a United no-show that had its roots in something much deeper than one man's errors, namely that Solskjaer's squad is not yet good enough to cope with the changes he forced upon them here. He does not have enough match winners to rotate like this and as such this was a serious misstep by the young United manager.

Their recent progress has been startling but Solskjaer's decision to leave his most potent weapons on the bench left them looking a little naked. Chelsea manager Frank Lampard must have received the United team sheet with enthusiasm and this was a game that his side dictated from the first moment.

Management can be complicated but some things should not be. Pick your best team for the big games is one way of keeping things simple. It was because Sir Alex Ferguson used to do that so often that Solskjaer's own United career featured so many substitute appearances. There were some very good centre forwards in Ferguson's team in the late 1990s and Solskjaer was never really allowed to get past them.

Here at Wembley, Solskjaer went back to players like Daniel James, Eric Bailly and the midfielder Fred. James had started only one game since lockdown, Fred only one since Pogba was judged match fit again while Bailly has started only one Premier League all season. So why play them in this game? It made little sense at all and to have a chance in the game, United probably needed to score first.

That at least would have given them something to hold on to. What was certain was that this side was never going to dominate the ball against a Chelsea side that was technically superior. For Lampard's team, young Mount was impressive while Giroud enjoyed himself in a competition that enjoys playing in.

But more importantly, Chelsea just looked like a team that knew what it was doing. There has been a straight forwardness about Lampard's management this season that has been impressive.

Unlike previous Chelsea managers Maurizio Sarri and Antonio Conte, there has been nothing mysterious or overly clever about Lampard's methods. Largely, he has picked players in their accustomed positions and adopted a system that suits them. It has not always been perfect but Chelsea have slowly evolved along a line that has been pretty clear from the outset of the season.

Now Lampard has a final as a reward and if that is accompanied by a place in the Champions League next season then he will not have asked for more from his first campaign as manager.

Chelsea's players will have woken this morning still surprised at how straight forward this was, how simple United made it for them. As for Solskjaer, he will be troubled by one salient fact. It's only West Ham at home on Wednesday.