Michael Owen names the signing Manchester United need to make before transfer deadline

Michael Owen has named the signing Manchester United need to make before the summer transfer window closes at the end of the month.

United, desperate to improve following their eighth-place finish last season, have spent close to £100m so far this summer to bring Leny Yoro and Joshua Zirkzee to Old Trafford.

Yoro, 18, arrived in a £52m deal from Lille after Manchester United beat Liverpool and Real Madrid to his signature.

Much is expected of the Frenchman but a pre-season injury means Yoro could face up to three months on the sidelines and may not be back until November.

Zirkzee, meanwhile, joined the Red Devils in a £36.5m deal from Bologna and has the potential to be an ‘important player’ for Manchester United, according to Owen.

But the ex-England striker believes his former club need to dip back into the transfer market and sign another striker before the transfer deadline.

‘Joshua Zirkzee could be an important player for Manchester United, but it will be really interesting at the start of the new season to see if they are going to adapt to a certain style of play,’ Owen told Casino Hawks.

‘Zirkzee doesn’t look prolific in terms of goals but what is for sure is that Manchester United needed bolstering in that position. You look back at the great United teams, they had four top strikers at times.

‘Manchester United have just had a dearth of goal scorers in recent years so bringing in a talented player won’t go amiss there.

‘The next step will just be to wait and see how he does, but at some point Manchester United are going to need somebody who’s going to bang in plenty of goals like they’ve had with Ruud van Nistelrooy, Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney as well as others down the years.

‘At the moment you can only look at what Zirkzee has done so far and watch this space with him, it isn’t just having another body of quality up there but I think it will be a positive for Manchester United.

‘At the moment the manager can hardly change things up there a lot of the time, especially with all the injuries that they have had. If it hasn’t been working then there hasn’t been much to bring on to change.

‘So another body is great but even though it’s an exciting signing we need to hold fire and see how he settles in.’

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