3 potential signings for Manchester United in January

Despite improving their defense in summer by bringing in Harry Maguire from Leicester and Aaron Wan-Bissaka from Crystal Palace as well as bringing in young winger Daniel James, it’s clear that Manchester United didn’t improve their squad as much as they needed to. After their opening games this season it’s clear that Manchester United’s main issue is scoring goals and creativity, and with the likes of Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial all being injured, Ole has been forced to depend on academy players Mason Greenwood, Angel Gomes and Tahith Chong to score the goals. As a result of not replacing Alexis Sanchez and Romelu Lukaku, United find themselves stretched and lacking enough quality and options in the final third, with Solskjaer saying “We let Alexis and Romelu go, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see that it’s a forward we’re going to recruit, we’re looking for some creativity and goals”. So we’ll be looking at 3 potential signings Solskjaer and United should be looking to complete in January in order to improve their squad.

After becoming the fourth teenager to score a Champions League hat-trick when he scored 3 goals within the first half in RB Salzburg’s game against Genk, Norwegian striker Erling Braut Håland gained a lot of well deserved praise and attention. It’s clear that his performance against Genk wasn’t a one-off performance either as the young striker has scored 17 goals and registered 5 assists in 9 games for the Austrian side this season, including 4 hat-tricks. Solskjaer will be familiar with Håland as he signed him when he was the manager of Norwegian club Molde, with Håland becoming the clubs top goal scorer for the 17/18 season with 16 goals before leaving for RB Salzburg in January of 2019. Despite only being 19-years-old, Håland has demonstrated that he is a naturally talented attacker who effortlessly scores goals and has plenty of potential to improve as well. As it stands, United are currently 5/1 favourites to sign Håland from RB Salzburg.

Someone who was linked with a move to Old Trafford towards the end of the summer transfer window was Juventus striker Mario Mandzukic. It would be expected that if Mandzukic were to move to Old Trafford it wouldn’t be as the main starting striker, however looking at United’s worrying lack of depth in attack, Mandzukic would be a useful option to have if Rashford or Martial are injured. Despite currently being 33 years old, Mandzukic has shown that he is still capable of playing up front as he scored 10 goals and registered 7 assists for Juventus last season. With his experience playing for the likes of: Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, Juventus as well as being a key figure for the Croatian national team which reached the 2018 World Cup, Mandzukic would be a useful player to have in the squad and no doubt help players such as Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood improve.

Moving away from strikers, one name that has been linked with a move to Old Trafford (for what feels like since the beginning of time) is Sporting Lisbon attacking midfielder Bruno Fernandes. After scoring 32 goals and registering 18 assists last season for Sporting Lisbon, Fernandes was heavily linked with a move to Old Trafford as well as being linked with Real Madrid and Tottenham, however no transfer materialised and Fernandes remains in Portugal. With Paul Pogba being their strongest source of creativity in midfield, the introduction of Fernandes would provide United with more creativity, and with Pogba being injured for the majority of the season, United’s midfield have been lacking the creativity that players like Pogba and Fernandes are capable of bringing. With their recent injuries, United have had to rely on 17-year old Mason Greenwood to score the goals and he has been the only goal scorer in United’s last 3 games, so to have a midfielder who has shown he is capable of scoring goals as well as assisting them would provide United with more sources for goals, which is what they are severely lacking at the moment.