A Manchester United signing could now become an accidental success

Manchester United have failed to score in 11 of their 47 fixtures this season and their most threatening centre forward at Nottingham Forest was a centre back.

Ruben Amorim has not often contradicted himself yet Joshua Zirkzee, whom he said is "not a number nine" less than two months ago, started there 16 days after United's actual number nine scored for the first time in 22 games.

Zirkzee and Rasmus Hojlund commanded £108.5million in transfer fees and one could argue neither is a proper number nine. Hojlund barely got a sniff after an initially purposeful half-time introduction against Forest.

Spending the best part of £30m on a left back-cum-winger and not investing in a forward in the winter transfer window was the latest inexplicable call by the power brokers at United. The squad's attack has been halved since the start of the season and they have had a minus goal difference since mid-December.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe claims Jason Wilcox has "the best eyes in football". He did not look for and wide enough for a goalscorer. Wilcox's former employers, Manchester City, have had a shot in the arm from Omar Marmoush and Marco Asensio has got the goals while Marcus Rashford has had the headlines at Aston Villa.

United went 1-0 down for the 23rd time this season at Forest. Leicester City are the only Premier League side that have conceded the opening goal more often this season.

Opponents know the score against the team that struggles to score. Forest were the latest to get a head-start and they held onto Anthony Elanga's fifth minute goal for close to 100 minutes, including the lengthy added time that extended each half. United's clearest chances fell to the battering ram Harry Maguire.

Benching Maguire was peculiar, too. United