Owen Hargreaves identifies the position Manchester United need to focus in transfer window

Former English international Owen Hargreaves reckons Manchester United should focus on a centre-back in the upcoming transfer window. In order to win the Premier League and the Champions League titles, Hargreaves feels United need to invest in “key players” in certain positions. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side has secured second in the league title and are awaiting a Europa League final, but they seldom troubled Manchester City on their way to winning the title.

In order to make the club challenging for major honours, the former Champions League winner believes the “right recruitment” is needed in the summer. “United could win the Europa League but the goal is to win the Premier League and the Champions League and to do that they need investment, the right recruitment, key players in certain positions,” Hargreaves told Goal.

“If you look at the squad Man City has, with the utmost respect to everyone else, that’s the best team in the country. They’ve got a coach that’s super innovative but the depth of players they have, I don’t think anyone in the country can compete.

“So for United to compete they’re going to have to invest heavily and back Ole, because Ole has got them in a position where they’re within striking distance and I think that’s good. A lot of teams sign good players but they’re not difference makers.”

‘United need a centre-back’

While urging United to sign a defender, he took the examples of Ruben Dias and Virgil Van Dijk to emphasise his point. “I like Lindelof, I think he’s a really good player, but I think you’ve seen the impact [Ruben] Dias has had at Man City and the impact [Virgil] Van Dijk had [at Liverpool] and it might take getting one of those guys in to help Man Utd take the next step. It costs a lot of money but United need a centre-back, a right winger and probably a defensive midfield player,” he elaborated.

It is reported that Harry Kane is looking for a move away from Tottenham Hotspur and Hargreaves spoke about his situation. “I’m sure everyone would love Harry Kane but that’s going to cost a lot of money, so you potentially could get two or three players for maybe one of those types of players,” Hargreaves, who is BT Sport pundit, said.

“City are great examples of buying players to spread the wealth around. There’s probably six guys getting 10 goals and assists so rather than just having one guy that gets you 30 goals it might not be bad having four, five or six that can contribute and make you unpredictable.”