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This article is part of Football FanCast's Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers...

Speaking on talkSPORT, former England manager Sam Allardyce has insisted he would have pulled Jesse Lingard aside and warned him about his form by now.

What did he say?

The England international has come under criticism for his lack of end product, with a recent stat showing how apart from his four goals and two assists in December, he has not made a single direct goal contribution in the last 12 calendar months.

Lingard has started both of United's opening two Premier League games against Chelsea and Wolves, but Allardyce has revealed he would have had a direct conversation with the midfielder about his lack of form.

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He said: "From a personal point of view and a manager’s point of view, the warning signs would have been brought up by now. The player would have been called in and I would have said to him, 'you haven’t got a lot of time to put this right before your place is taken by somebody else'.

"As a manager you have to be ruthless, you have to make these decisions and you have to try to explain to a player in the best way you can. At Manchester United Lingard has got to be an eight-to-ten goal a season man in his position, and maybe six or eight assists as well I would think."

Lack of competition

For someone who is an attacking midfielder, and has played mostly as a number ten or on either flank, Lingard's frankly terrible record is a huge concern. The 26-year-old has taken to the field 169 times for the Red Devils, but has managed just 29 goals and 18 assists.

But perhaps Lingard's continued involvement in the side comes because Ole Gunnar Solskjaer simply does not have enough options to replace him with. The Norwegian has looked to implement a fast-paced approach with pressing from the front, and for all of his technical qualities, a 31-year-old Juan Mata probably isn't best suited to that.

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Indeed, aside from the Spaniard, Solskjaer only has Andreas Pereira to call upon to assume that number ten role, or push Paul Pogba further forward. But both come with caveats. The former is still relatively inexperienced at the top level, whilst the latter has performed well deeper in midfield, and perhaps more importantly, still has his future up in the air.

So whilst Solskjaer (and Big Sam it seems) may wish he could drop Lingard, the simple fact is he may just be forced to keep him in the side for the time being.

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