Erik ten Hag might have a new wildcard striker option recommended by Solskjaer at Manchester United

Manchester United have promised they won't be spending quite as freely as they did in the summer when January comes around.

After a slow start to the summer window, United winded up spending more than £200million as they added Tyrell Malacia, Lisandro Martinez, Casemiro and Antony to Erik ten Hag's squad, alongside the free agent signing of Christian Eriksen. The club has now spent over a billion since Sir Alex Ferguson retired and it just isn't sustainable to be splashing out such vast sums at every opportunity.

Yet, if there is one position they may be tempted to invest some money into in the new year it is for a new striker. Ten Hag's options are extremely limited in the position. Marcus Rashford has made a decent start to the campaign but still looks stronger on the left, Cristiano Ronaldo appears ill-suited to the manager's ideal style of football and Anthony Martial is once again injured.

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The case of the Frenchman is particularly gutting. After a promising pre-season in which he finally looked ready to take the lead striker mantle with both hands, he missed the start of the season with an injury. He returned off the bench against Liverpool and put in a cameo that won the game, setting up the second and decisive goal. Then he was struck down with an Achilles injury.

He finally came back in the Manchester derby and was the only positive on an otherwise dreadful afternoon, scoring a late brace to take the sting out of the defeat. He scored again as a substitute the following Thursday in the win over Omonoia Nicosia and then made his long-awaited return to the starting XI at Everton.

But there was another setback as an injury occurred in the