Every now and again it is good to check in on players who are consistently linked with moves to Manchester United. Often they go through struggles which are under-reported and yet they are still touted around as top options.
Jadon Sancho is one we know all about. He has no goals in 11 Bundesliga games and more than 900 minutes of league football this season.
Another player experiencing a tough time this season is Lyon striker Moussa Dembele.
Dembele was reported by the MEN to be on United’s striker shortlist back in July. The paper claimed ‘Dembele would find it hard to reject a move’ to United if it materialised.
He hit the headlines in August by dumping City out of the Champions League, but no move came. The £60 million price The Mirror claimed Lyon valued him at was deemed to expensive.
Failing to attract attention
This season Dembele’s record tells it’s own story. In 16 Ligue 1 games he has just one goal.
To elaborate a little, Dembele has started only six of these matches and played from the bench 10 times. It was in one of these substitute appearances he netted his only goal, in a 3-0 win over Reims last month.
Dembele is being kept out of the starting line up by former United attacker Memphis Depay.
Depay is being touted for a cheap transfer this month as his contract winds down. His exit could breathe life into Dembele’s season. Foot01 report if Depay stays, Dembele faces ‘a season on the sidelines’.
Dembele needs a move but it is unlikely to be his dream move to Manchester United which materialises.
United signed a stop gap striker in Edinson Cavani, and Dembele 24, has hit a wall.
In Dembele’s defence, a number of players who featured late into the summer as Lyon did, have struggled. We have seen it ourselves with Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood failing to recapture their electric 2019/20 form.
Yet that is no reason for United to pay up for another player in the same situation. This is one move which will be off the radar for the Red Devils in January, and Dembele needs a big second half of the season to cause United to revisit his situation next summer.
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