Jose: No need to sign a striker

JOSE: NO NEED TO SIGN A STRIKER

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho says he has no plans to sign a striker this summer, despite Zlatan Ibrahimovic leaving the club last week.

By Eje Peter

The Swede's departure has reduced Mourinho's centre-forward options by one, but the Reds manager believes that several members of his squad can play in that role if required.

"We have Lukaku and Marcus Rashford as number nines, and of course Marcus can play right and left, but Marcus is a striker," he told reporters on Friday.

"Alexis [Sanchez] can play as a striker, [Anthony] Martial can play as a striker, so without having another Lukaku, we have three more players that can play as a nine.

"If we don't have Lukaku for different reasons, we can change systems and play with two and give more mobility to, for example, Marcus and Martial together, Marcus and Alexis together, so we are not going to go for another number nine."

Rashford and Martial have scored 23 goals between them this season, and while Alexis is still adjusting to life at Old Trafford, he has a proven goalscoring record and found the back of the net on 30 occasions for Arsenal last season.

Ibrahimovic was United's top scorer during 2016/17 and Mourinho praised the outgoing 36-year-old after he bid farewell to join LA Galaxy.

"I always feel very, very sorry when the big ones finish or when the big ones go to the last period of their careers," admitted the United boss. "So for me, the Zlatan goodbye moment was more in that direction.

"He's a huge, big player that top football, European football is losing now and we lose forever, because he will not be back to this level of football. But I think it's fantastic for him in this period. I think this period with Galaxy, these couple of years, probably, will be very good for him.

"I think he's more... what the MLS and the US as a football country is going to get is more than what Zlatan is going to get, because for him I think it will just be a way to enjoy probably the last year or last couple of years of his football.

"It will be very good for American football because of what he can do, what he can teach, what he can attract, his personality, his passion for football and the level of professionalism he always has. Even his recovery was an example of what a professional should be."