Gary Neville thinks Manchester United need to sign a central midfielder and a striker in January, but they are far from the only recruits the club need.
With injuries to Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba and Scott McTominay leaving Ole Gunnar Solskjaer short of options, the likes of Bruno Fernandes and Edinson Cavani have been mentioned as potential signings in the winter window.
And while Neville thinks United need a centre-back, left-back and a wide player, he insists they have to prioritise signing a central midfielder and a striker, despite the difficulties of acquiring top-class players in January.
‘Look, it’s very difficult to recruit in January,’ he said on the Gary Neville Podcast after United’s 2-0 defeat to Liverpool.
‘At a lot lower level I’m an owner of a football club and the idea of trying to get the right player in this month is difficult because the best players essentially aren’t going to be available and you might have to pay over the odds but there’s no doubt Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and those Manchester United players need some assistance in that dressing room.
‘Marcus Rashford is out for potentially two or three months so they’re going to be light up front. You look at the midfield, it’s bleak. Paul Pogba is out, having an operation, but there’s more than the midfield and centre-forward that needs changing at the club.
‘They need a centre-back. They need a left-back. They need a wide player, they need a striker, they need a midfielder.
There’s five or six players needed in that squad not just one or two. Yeah, immediate to patch things up a midfielder and striker are essential because of the injuries to Rashford and Pogba but there are other things Manchester United have to be targeting.
‘It’s a squad that’s had hundreds of millions spent on it but it looks like it needs hundreds of millions more. That’s worrying.’
Rashford is set to miss the next two or three months of action, with a stress fracture in his back, and Neville suggested a short-term loan could be the best option for his former side.
‘To lose Marcus Rashford is a big problem for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer,’ Neville added. ‘He wasn’t blessed with a large pool of strikers and forwards anyway.
‘I don’t know how they’re going to cope without him other than to try and sign somebody who can fill that gap and that’s not going to be easy because no one is going to let Manchester United just pick someone off the top shelf and go “you have him” – everybody is looking to look after their own club and they just have to be somehow smart enough to get someone who can do a job for the club.
‘It might even be a loan. In the past, United brought Henrik Larsson in short-term and he did a very good job for the club just to get the club over the line.
‘It might just be it’s not the perfect striker who comes in in January but Manchester United just need a body, somebody who can get out there and contribute essentially what that team needs until the end of the season.’
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