Joshua Zirkzee failed to take the chance he was given in the ignominious 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford to Everton on Monday.
Everton and Manchester United both have only 18 points in the Premier League after 12 games. (so have Tottenham and Liverpool)
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Manchester United signed Benjamin Šeško in the summer in a deal worth up to £74 million, but he has scored just two goals this season and is currently out with a knee injury.
His injury saw Joshua Zirkzee make his first start of the season against Everton, but the Netherlands international was unable to make much of an impact against David Moyes’ side.
Zirkzee has attracted interest from clubs such as AC Milan, West Ham and Aston Villa, and United will need to bring in a new striker if they let him leave. We have looked at five strikers that United could realistically target in the January transfer window.
Serhou Guirassy
While Šeško has the potential to become one of the best strikers in Europe, United need an experienced number nine who will be ready to come in and make an immediate impact.
Manchester United could be offered the opportunity to sign Guirassy, who scored more goals than Šeško in the Bundesliga the previous two seasons.
The 29-year-old netted 28 goals in 28 Bundesliga games for Stuttgart in 2023/24 before moving to Borussia Dortmund and scoring 21 goals in 30 Bundesliga games in 2024/25.
He also scored 13 goals in the Champions League and four goals in the FIFA Club World Cup for Dortmund last season, bringing his 2024/25 tally to 38 goals across all competitions.
The striker is yet to reach his peak form in the first months of this season, but still has nine goals and four assists in 17 appearances in all competitions.
He has a €50 million buyout clause in his Dortmund contract, although it will only be available to an unspecified select group of “elite clubs”.
If United are on that list and decide to sign the Guinean international in January, he could go straight into the team as his country did not qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations.
Dušan Vlahović
Vlahović shot into the limelight after scoring 49 goals in 108 appearances for Fiorentina and joined Juventus in January 2022 in a deal worth up to £66.6 million.
While the striker has not lived up to expectations in Turin, he still has a respectable record of 64 goals and 16 assists in 161 appearances for “La Vecchia Signora”.
His contract expires at the end of the 2025/26 season, and negotiations on a new deal have stalled because Juventus want the Serbian international to take a pay cut.
If they are unable to reach a deal, they could sell him in the January transfer window to avoid losing the 25-year-old on a free transfer next summer.
Jean-Philippe Mateta
United signed Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha in the summer as they were both Premier League experienced attackers and would not need time to adapt to a new league.
The same cannot be said for Šeško, who arrived from RB Leipzig and has admitted that “the level is much higher” in the Premier League than in the Bundesliga.
Jay Floe, writer for Time People World, has suggested that Manchester United will continue to give priority to signing players with Premier League experience in future windows.
They have been credited with an interest in Mateta, who has been steadily improving at Crystal Palace over the past two and a half seasons.
The 28-year-old accounted for 16 goals in the Premier League in the 2023/24 season, scored 14 in 2024/25 and has now netted six league goals this season.
His contract at Selhurst Park expires at the end of the 2026/27 season, and recent reports suggest that negotiations over a new deal have stalled due to his salary demands.
Palace are about to lose Marc Guéhi on a free transfer in the summer and could sell Mateta for around £40 million while they try to avoid a repeat of that situation.
Ivan Toney
Toney also has a proven track record in the Premier League, having scored 36 goals in 83 top-flight appearances for Brentford.
The striker joined Al-Ahli in 2024 and has netted 41 goals in 61 appearances for the Saudi Arabian league club, helping them win the Asian Champions League and the Saudi Arabian Super Cup.
Despite his impressive goaltending, he has played just two minutes of football for England since the Euro 2024 final and currently looks set to miss out on a place in Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup squad.
The 29-year-old has told close associates that he is willing to take a pay cut to force through a return to the Premier League in the January transfer window.
A move to Old Trafford would see Toney reunite with Bryan Mbeumo after making 119 appearances alongside the Cameroonian international at Brentford.
They formed an impressive partnership at the Gtech Community Stadium, where Mbeumo scored 15 goals for Toney and the latter scored four goals for the former.
“We saw Bryan and Ivan’s relationship today and they’re a dynamic duo – similar to (Dwight) Yorke and (Andy) Cole,” Brentford manager Thomas Frank said after a 2-0 win over Wolves in 2021.
United could replicate that partnership if they bring Toney to Old Trafford in January, although they will face competition from Tottenham and Everton.
Danny Welbeck
A United academy graduate, Welbeck scored 29 goals in 142 games for his boyhood club before joining Arsenal in a £16 million deal in 2014.
He had an injury-plagued spell at the Emirates, but has since become a key player for Brighton & Hove Albion and was their joint top scorer in the Premier League last season with 10 goals.
The Athletic revealed that United explored the terms of bringing him back to Old Trafford this summer, as they felt he would bring experience, technical quality and heritage to the squad.
But United’s co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe would not approve a two-year contract for a 34-year-old, and the transfer did not happen.
They can now regret that decision, as the striker has since scored seven goals in 12 Premier League games this season, including a brilliant free-kick in Brighton’s 4-2 defeat to United.
Only Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and Brentford’s Igor Thiago have more Premier League goals than Welbeck in the 2025/26 season so far.
“We talk about him a lot throughout the season,” Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler said. “He’s like a good red wine, the older he gets, the better he gets, and we’re very happy to have him in our squad as a leader, as a player, as a personality.”
But his contract at Brighton expires at the end of the season, and a reasonable deal could be possible for United in the January transfer window.
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