Ruben Amorim vowed that Manchester United will do ‘everything’ they can to bring a striker in before Monday's 11pm transfer deadline, but stopped short of guaranteeing fans of a new arrival. Sunday’s 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace makes it nine games this season that United have failed to find the back of the net. The two strikers in Amorim’s squad, Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee, started on the bench and central midfielder Kobbie Mainoo started at the point of attack, a message that won’t have been lost on Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Manchester United hierarchy.

With Marcus Rashford heading to Aston Villa on loan and talks for Bayern Munich’s Mathys Tel arriving on loan continuing, Amorim’s options in attack look increasingly threadbare and he could provide fans with little comfort that that would be rectified by this evening. ‘We are trying everything to improve the team without doing mistakes of the past,’ he said. ‘And trying to balance the urgency of the moment, we know all of the aspects of our club in the moment but we are trying everything.’.

Ruben Amorim vowed that Manchester United will do ‘everything’ they can to bring a striker. Pressed on how he can fix an attack that mustered just two shots on target from 17 attempts versus Crystal Palace, Amorim is putting the onus on everyone. ‘We have to improve as a team to score goals,’ he added. ‘This market is really hard on the clubs to make some deals here. It’s hard. Then you have the urgency, sometimes when you are in the moments you make mistakes. We are trying everything, guys, we want so bad to improve.

‘I want so bad to improve the team. I know what the team needs. But sometimes it’s possible or not, but we are trying everything.’. One player Amorim looks set to be without for the foreseeable future is centre back Lisandro Martinez, who left this match in tears as he was carried off on a stretcher. He tangled legs with Ismaila Sarr and was tended to for a significant amount of time on the pitch, with fears of how much more of this season he will feature in.

‘I think it is a bad situation,’ Amorim said. ‘Let’s wait to assess things with the doctor but I think it’s a serious situation.’. Rashford’s imminent loan move to Aston Villa felt like an elephant in the room at Old Trafford as United looked devoid of ideas in an attack that he has been ostracised from for a number of weeks due to Amorim’s dissatisfaction with his application in training.

Sunday's result means United have failed to find the back of the net nine times this season. But Amorim disputed the suggestion put to him that he may well find himself with egg on his face if he hits the ground running at Villa Park. ‘Humiliating? It’s not embarrassing,’ the Manchester United head coach said. ‘When you loan a player - and I don’t think it’s official - you expect him to play and to improve, so there is nothing humiliating there.