Gary Neville tells Man Utd to make one more transfer if they want ‘healthy’ league place

Gary Neville believes the capture of a new goalkeeper can help make Manchester United a top six side – especially if their new look attack is able to produce in the final third

Gary Neville has claimed Manchester United can finish in the top six if their three new strikers notch 40 goals – and they get another goalkeeper to keep them out at the other end.

Ruben Amorin’s side finished 15th last season after scoring only 44 goals in Premier League games. But the £73.7m signing of Slovene Benjamin Seska has taken their summer spending on strikers to over £200m following the arrival of Bryan Mbeumbo and Matheus Cunha.

And former Reds defender Neville believes there will have to be an improvement on the last torrid campaign. “I think they’ll be looking at Champions League, I think that’ll be the ambition,” he said. “I think we’ve gone past the point now where we say Manchester United have to win the league, I think that’s unrealistic.

“I think top six would be healthy, I think that my feeling is probably between seventh, eighth is where I’m looking at it now, but I think they could, without Europe, they could get into the top six if they have a good run, and those players settling up front, which I’m actually quite happy about the players they’ve signed up front.

“I didn’t think they had the £200 million to spend. If you said to me after that Tottenham game in the Europa League that Manchester United would have a forward line of those three that they’ve signed, I’d have snapped your hand off. I like the profile of those players, whether they settle in now is obviously the big question.

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“Two of them are proven Premier League players, obviously they’ve got to step up a level, Sesko’s young, he’s got potential. He’s young, can he get off to a good start? That’s important for him.

“Can they embed themselves at United? Can they get the probably 35-40 goals which would be par for those three players? If they can get 40 goals, United’s goals last season was terrible, they’ve got a good chance of getting into that top six, but they’ve got to settle those three players, and we can’t take that for granted anymore at United. If they get a goalkeeper, I think that they could get into the top six, but a lot of things have to go on.”

Manchester United conceded 54 Premier League goals to finish the season with a goal difference of -10. Paris-Saint Germain goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma is available for £30m – and big wages – as an upgrade from Andre Onana.

Amorin will also have more time to work with his players without European football. Antonio Conte took Chelsea from 10th to champions in his first season in 2016-17.

“I think it’ll help, it has to help, because there’s basically more training time, less pressure on the players, less injuries, it means that the best players can play more often in the league, and not have those demands of a Thursday night game,” Neville said. “But I think we’ve got to start the season well, there were some tough fixtures early on.”

Neville claimed Sunday’s clash with Arsenal was a good opening game for his club. “I just think they need something big,” he said. And fellow Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher reckons Arsenal and Mikel Arteta are in even bigger need of a strong start to the season.

“It’s a big game, we’re out for Arsenal,” he said. “I think there’s going to be that much pressure on Arsenal, just because we’re in year five now, I think it’s year six, and it just feels like right from the start everyone’s eyes are on them. so I don’t think it’s a great game actually for Arsenal, to kick off the season as well, because of the situation that they’re in, where it just feels like all eyes are on them from the very start.

“I’m not saying it’s Premier League or bust, that type of thing, because I actually think Mikel Artel has done a brilliant job, and to be second, year after year, people sort of sneer at him, Arsenal finish second again, but there’s a lot of good clubs in this, so to second every year is not a mean feat.

“I think it would be good for them to get some sort of trophy. I think they had a good result in their last pre-season match but I think the one before that, they lost at home, and there was a few murmurs in the crowd. It’s not just people outside, people in the stadium are worried. It’s like: ‘This has to happen now’.”

Sky Sports and NOW will broadcast over 215 Premier League matches exclusively live this season

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