Manchester United are preparing to try and bolster their squad in the January transfer window, and a new striker is believed to be among their priorities.

During the summer window, United spent over £160m to bring in Youri Tielemans, Andrey Santos, Carlos Baleba, Karl Darlow and Tynan Thompson, but the team have had their worst start to a season in over 40 years, with just two wins in their first 13 games in all competitions.

A major issue for Carrick's side has been goals, with just 17 goals scored in 13 games, and that has been exacerbated by the fact that first-choice striker Benjamin Sesko has barely been able to feature as a result of injury.

United didn't bring in a forward in the summer as they backed Sesko to establish himself as a regular following a stop-start campaign last year, but the Slovenia international missed all of pre-season with a shin problem.

He briefly returned to action to score against Everton in the Premier League and Sabah in the Champions League, accumulating 206 minutes of action, before he suffered a recurrence of the shin issue, and he is now set to be sidelined until the new year at least.

Despite that, Carrick has continued to leave Zirkzee on the substitutes bench for the majority of the campaign, instead preferring to use Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo as centre-forward options. The Netherlands star had been on the verge of an exit in the summer, with a number of clubs interested, but ultimately a deal never materialised.

One club who made an attempt for his signature was Everton, who were keen to add a forward after some concerns around a move for Folarin Balogun. A loan offer was made, and Zirkzee was open to the move, but ultimately Man Utd felt it was too late in the day to let him move without a replacement.

Everton instead tried to push ahead with a move for the USMNT star Balogun, with a £42.8m deal agreed with Monaco, but the player himself backed out of talks after the deadline passed after being annoyed at how the situation had been handled behind the scenes.

Balogun instead stayed at Monaco, but he has now fallen down the pecking order with the Ligue 1 club, making just four substitute appearances this season, and being left out of the European squad entirely.

It has now emerged that an exit in January is on the cards, and TEAMtalk report that talks have been held between Jorge Mendes and Man Utd over a potential move to take the American to Old Trafford to help bolster their attack.

It's unclear how strong United's interest in the player is, or whether or not Balogun would be open to making the move at this stage, but talks have taken place, and it's fair to suggest that his arrival would certainly be an improvement on current attacking options in the squad.

Man Utd Must Replace Zirkzee in January

Zirkzee has never been the right fit for Man Utd's attack, and it shows with his poor record of just 10 goals in 82 appearances in all competitions since his arrival.

By contrast, Balogun managed to score 19 goals last season with Monaco, while he also netted four times in the World Cup for the USMNT. His goalscoring prowess isn't something to be questioned, and his national teammate Weston McKennie has described him as 'clinical' previously.

"Obviously he's a striker who's very versatile. He can hurt you on the dribble, hurt you in behind, he's a clinical finisher."

He's the right age, profile and stylistic fit for the squad too, and he's more than capable of scoring more goals than Zirkzee has. A deal is clearly there to be done, even if it's a short-term deal, and United would be crazy not to seriously think about pulling the trigger.