Beaten to Gakpo, unable to meet Joao Felix demands, Man Utd turn elsewhere for a striker

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag watched his side ease to a 3-0 home win over Nottingham Forest then insisted that his team lack ruthlessness and must sign a striker if they are to continue to compete on four fronts.

The day after being priced out of a move for Cody Gakpo by Liverpool, United beat Forest thanks to first-half goals from Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial, and an 87th-minute strike from the Brazilian substitute Fred.

Ten Hag, the United manager, told his players in the dressing room afterwards that they should have killed the game off earlier, however, and renewed his call for reinforcements in attack.

“We are looking for a striker,” Ten Hag said. “It would be good because of all the games that are coming. We are playing every third day. It is tough and we want to stay in all the competitions we are in.

“We are in the market but it has to match the sporting criteria and the financial criteria.

 “Martial is a goalscorer. Rashford is a goalscorer, Bruno [Fernandes] will score, so we have a lot of players who can score, but we have to be ruthless.

“For the progress of the team we need to be more clinical. We created so many chances and it took us until just before the end to score our third. We have to finish the game earlier and make life easier and save energy.”

United have been left short in the striker department after they cancelled the contract of Cristiano Ronaldo because he criticised Ten Hag and the club during an interview with Talk TV.

Despite saving about £15 million in wages because of Ronaldo’s exit, United only have a small budget for January, having spent about £220 million on five signings in the summer. The Times understands that a loan deal for a forward is the most likely option. United were unable to match the £37 million fee that Liverpool are paying for Gakpo, the PSV Eindhoven forward.

United are unwilling to meet Atletico Madrid’s demands for their Portugal forward Joao Félix, who is available for a loan fee of £8 million, plus another £8 million in wages.

Memphis Depay, the Holland forward, is available on loan after falling out of favour at Barcelona.

Rashford scored his tenth goal of the season last night after running to the near post and firing home Christian Eriksen’s low delivery from a corner.

“It was one from the training ground and I’m glad it came off,” Rashford, 25, said. “We had seen from some of their clips that they are very man-to-man [in terms of marking] and if you can shift them to the back half of the goal and create some space in the front then we can get a good chance on goal.”

Rashford said that he felt “so low” after England’s quarter-final exit to France in the World Cup.

 “I feel like we could have done better with the team we have got,” he said. “You have to try and get rid of the negative energy by the time you return to your club though because if you don’t, you are going to lose games.” Rashford now wants to beat the 22 goal tally he recorded in the 2019-20 campaign.

“I think every forward has a number you want to reach. For me it’s to score more than I have ever done in a season, so 23,” he said