Paul Ince accuses Man Utd of being ‘desperate’ for trying to sign Mario Mandzukic

The Juventus striker is apparently in talks over a move to Old Trafford in January but this sounds like a desperate move if they really want to challenge the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool.

I know United need attacking reinforcements but he’s 33 now and is he even a striker? Whenever I’ve watched him play for Juventus he seems to spend a lot of time on the left-hand side. He’s definitely not the sort of player who is going to get you 20 goals a season.

Just look at United’s rivals. Tottenham have got Harry Kane while Liverpool have got a front three of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino who are all scoring goals. Manchester City have Sergio Aguero and Raheem Sterling who can get you 25 a season. Will Mandzukic do that? I don’t think so.

I can see why they might be thinking about him because we know United don’t score enough goals. A lot of is expected of Marcus Rashford this season but he got 11 last year and it’s not enough. Frankly, it shouldn’t be down to him, there are not enough goals coming from anywhere in the team and United need players all over the pitch who can score goals.

I remember the United teams I played in. What was so good about that was that everyone chipped in – even Dennis Irwin and Steve Bruce as defenders. The only one who didn’t really score was Gary Pallister! I’d chip in with nine and Roy Keane would score 10 a season, and then you had the likes of Ryan Giggs and Bryan Robson.

All the United teams back in the day used to do the same. You can go back to the days of Steve Coppell, Jimmy Greenhoff, Lou Macari and Gordon McQueen. They were all capable of hitting the net but United don’t do that anymore.

Defensively they are looking a lot more sound but going forward I’m really not sure that Mandzukic is the answer. It just looks to me like they’re panicking because everybody says they need a striker after Romelu Lukaku left.

There has also been some talk about Zlatan Ibrahimovic coming back but that just makes me think United feel they haven’t got any leaders or characters in the dressing room. Zlatan is exactly that but why haven’t they got that already?

When Zlatan was there before, not only did he have a great goalscoring record, he also controlled that dressing room and helped the young players. He was there to teach them what it meant to have that toughness and a winning mentality. Since he has gone, we haven’t seen it. There are no leaders and not enough characters. There is a definite lack of presence in the dressing room.

I do think Maguire can be that sort of player eventually and David de Gea should also be that. Then again, I saw his interview after they lost to Newcastle and he looked completely lost.