Former Manchester United striker Dwight Yorke has called for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's position as head coach of the 20-time English champions to be 'respected'.

There has been a host of speculation surrounding the Norwegian's future in recent days, with United allegedly identifying former Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino and current RB Leipzig boss Julian Nagelsmann as potential replacements.

Yorke has branded Pochettino "a tremendous manager", but the 49-year-old, who played a key role in United's famous treble-winning season, is keen for his "friend" Solskjaer to be given more time.

"There's no doubt that Pochettino is a tremendous manager," Yorke told talkSPORT. "I'm not going to speculate because Ole is in the job and we don't want to see Ole get sacked.

"I respect Ole, he's a friend of mine, I want to see him come through this and I'm not going to speculate about other managers because he's in that position and I think we ought to respect that at the moment.

"It's not been the season we expected, but people tend to forget last season he had a tremendous season in many respects, getting to three semis, winning big games when it really mattered."

United are currently 15th in the Premier League table, having picked up just seven points from their opening six matches of the 2020-21 campaign.

The Red Devils, who lost 2-1 against Istanbul Basaksehir in the Champions League on Wednesday night, are next in action away to Everton on Saturday afternoon.