Manchester United’s transfer struggles are down to a failure to get big names to the club earlier this summer, according to former striker Michael Owen.

The Red Devils look set to make Marcos Rojo their third addition of the window after a few months of disappointment in terms of arrivals.

However, opening day defeat at home to Swansea brought issues within Louis van Gaal’s squad to the fore, with the Dutchman possessing lack of options in a number of roles in his preferred 3-4-1-2 set-up.

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The likes of Mats Hummels and Arturo Vidal have been mooted as targets all summer, but with the window now almost at its close reports suggest that they’re struggling to get big names to Old Trafford with other clubs reluctant to sell.

Owen – who spent three seasons at the Theatre of Dreams – believes that a failure to get stars earlier means that United will either have to pay over the odds or miss out on much needed reinforcements:

"The way to go in these situations is to do your business at the start of the window because it’s probably a little bit cheaper," he told talkSPORT.

"People know they’re going to be desperate now and there might be an extra zero going onto a price. It’s difficult for Manchester United because they didn’t have a manager at the start of the transfer window. But it’s not too clever of them.

"Everyone can see they need to reinvest, but not just reinvest in players, they need frontline players. They need players that are going to go straight into that team because they don’t need a huge squad.

"They’ve got numbers already and they’re not in European competition. So they need three or four players that are going to go straight into that starting XI.”

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