Reds reject Memphis is now showing true class
MEMPHIS Depay has now scored more goals in his last nine appearances than he ever managed in 18 months at United after firing the Netherlands to victory against Scotland on Thursday night.
The 23-year-old started and finished a clinical breakaway goal just five minutes before half-time as the Oranje claimed a narrow 1-0 win at Hampden Park.
Former United team-mates Timothy Fosu-Mensah and Daley Blind were also handed starts by boss Dick Advocaat in his penultimate game as the Netherlands’ manager, but it was Memphis who stole the show.
It was the forward’s sixth goal in five games – his best run of form since helping PSV win the Eredivisie title in May, 2015 – and the forward’s revival is gathering pace at Lyon.
The Ligue 1 giants may lie seven points off leaders PSG in the table, but their mouthwatering frontline, featuring Memphis, Bertrand Traore and Nabil Fekir, has won them admirers from across Europe.
And Memphis has been at the heart of it since his £22m move from United back in January, and even scored an incredible goal from the half-way line against Toulouse in March after spotting that goalkeeper Alban Lafont was way off his line.
United will have first option on re-signing Memphis if he ever leaves the Parc Olympique Lyonnais, but the 23-year-old has his eyes on another move.
“I think I’m going to Real Madrid. Yes, that’s a serious goal,” he told The PSV Supporter magazine last month. JOSE Mourinho will come under increasing pressure to offload fringe players if he strengthens during the January transfer window.
The United manager still wants to add to his squad after failing to secure the four signings he targeted in the summer.
Despite deals for Victor Lindelof, Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic during the last window – he missed out on the wide player he believed was crucial to his plans.
Tottenham’s Danny Rose remains one target, while Antoine Griezmann is another player Mourinho is expected to re-ignite his interest in during the next window or at the end of the season.
But there is an acceptance within Old Trafford that room will need to be made for new recruits. That reasoning looks to be more of an issue of squad size, rather than finances.
Mourinho has already used 25 players in all competitions this season.
That number does not include the injured Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Marcos Rojo, while Andreas Pereira is currently on loan at Valencia – and seen as a player with a future at the club.
Mourinho has identified the leftback position as in need of address, with Rose seen as an ideal option.
But United already have a host of options in that position in the form of Luke Shaw, Daley Blind, Ashley Young, Matteo Darmian and Rojo.
Should Rose arrive in either of the next two windows, at least one of that group is likely to be considered surplus to requirements.
Luke Shaw increasingly looks like an odd man out, with growing suggestions he could head out on loan in January.
United would also be aware the England international has potentially the greatest sell-on value of the players he’s competing with at the club if he can prove his fitness. He could also be used as a makeweight in any attempt to lure Rose from Tottenham. Further ahead, Ibrahimovic is almost certain to leave when his contract expires at the end of the season, as well as Michael Carrick, who is also in the final months of his deal. Ibrahimovic’s departure would make room for Griezmann, who Mourinho was desperate to sign last summer until injury to the Swede prompted him to refocus his priorities on an orthodox striker in Romelu Lukaku. Should Carrick move on, it would make room for Pereira’s return from loan or potentially another midfield addition. Mourinho has spent his first two summer windows at United trying to bring some much-needed focus to a spending policy that has looked scattergun since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement. A total of James Robson