The five-step plan for Manchester United to turn their season around

Get four more signings in - minimum

Whether it is pursuing a Barcelona midfielder for an inordinate period, getting misled by pre-season results, being led down the garden path by marquee names, recruiting only three players or entering August without two priority targets, this summer is a mash-up of United's worst summer transfer windows.

Their results have increased the need for new blood: a defensive midfielder, a controlling midfielder, a goalscorer and another forward. A back-up goalkeeper is still required unless Matej Kovar and Nathan Bishop's loans to Cheltenham and Wycombe have been called off.

Accept a defensive midfielder is non-negotiable

Erik ten Hag might have been sold a pup by a club that is so rudderless the football director has travelled to Barcelona and Turin only to return without done deals, yet Ten Hag's willingness to go a transfer window without recruiting a defensive midfielder is delusional.

Also read: Dressing room row erupted between United players before Brentford debacle

The position is non-negotiable at Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal. Ten Hag is tone-deaf if he thinks Frenkie de Jong (a deal that has gone from possible to nigh-on impossible) is panacea. Brentford might have gobbled up De Jong, accustomed to a sedate pace in Spain and the Netherlands, as they did Christian Eriksen.

Moises Caicedo, unearthed by United in Ecuador, singlehandedly divorced the Fred and Scott McTominay matrimony in Brighton's win. United do not have a single defensive midfielder in their squad and are open to selling the untried James Garner.

United need someone to keep vigil. Relocating Lisandro Martinez there would undermine his signing as a centre-back but that is where he