Six players Man Utd could sign in January to replace Sanchez

Alexis Sanchez joins Inter on loan from Utd as he reunites with Lukaku.

Marouane Fellaini exited for China in February before the departures of Antonio Valencia, Ander Herrera and Romelu Lukaku earlier this summer.

Sanchez's loan move to Inter Milan leaves the 23-year-old Anthony Martial as United's most experienced forward and only time will tell whether United's youthful forward line will be able to handle the elevated pressure on them in the coming months.

In reality, Sanchez's departure should not make too much of a difference to United's plight. He has not played at all this season and his last goal for the club came in January.

Should United deem it necessary to replace the Chilean, though, they will have to wait until January to do so - providing they don't snap up any free agents - so we've taken a look at some of the players they could go for, with a specific emphasis on players whose contracts with their current clubs are due to expire next summer.

Ryan Fraser

Heavily linked with a move to Arsenal during the transfer window, Fraser's current deal at Bournemouth will run out in 10 months' time.

The 25-year-old Scotland international was one of the Premier League's most productive players in terms of direct goal contributions last term as he found the net seven times and also notched 14 assists.

Only Cherries teammate Callum Wilson and Leicester's Jamie Vardy directly contributed to more goals for clubs outside the top six.

He is yet to get off the mark this season, and United already have a number of left-sided forwards in their squad, but Fraser's contract situation could see him made available for a cut-price fee in January.

Jadon Sancho

United are far more likely to launch an assault on Borussia Dortmund for Sancho at the end of the the season than they are in January, but it was last week reported that Solskjaer has made the 19-year-old his No.1 winter target.

Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke admitted earlier this month that he expects Sancho to eventually leave the Westfalenstadion but a mid-season departure seems improbable.

The only scenario in which you could envisage Sancho leaving in January is if Dortmund are out of the running in the Bundesliga, out of the Champions League and he pushes for a departure.

Callum Hudson-Odoi

Hudson-Odoi has been sidelined for several months with a serious knee injury sustained just as he was making inroads in Chelsea's team under their former manager Maurizio Sarri.

The 18-year-old earned his first England cap in March and, along with Sancho, is expected to enjoy a long career in the international set-up.

Hudson-Odoi is reported to be very close to signing a contract extension at Chelsea, with his current deal set to expire in less than 12 months' time, and United might be wise to test the waters before he puts pen to paper.

Willian

Perhaps the most underwhelming option on this list is a player Jose Mourinho was keen to sign last summer.

Willian opened the scoring at Old Trafford for Chelsea during the previous season and ended that campaign with a respectable 13 goals and 12 assists.

The Brazilian publicly said he wanted to play under Mourinho again in August 2018 but he was not granted his wish and remains at Stamford Bridge.

He was less impressive last term and has barely featured under Frank Lampard, despite being handed Eden Hazard's old No.10 shirt.

Christian Eriksen

Tottenham encouraged United to move for Eriksen before the transfer deadline and Solskjaer personally spoke to the Dane to gauge his interest in a move to Old Trafford.

Solskjaer understood Eriksen's preference, though, to be a move to Spain and United dropped their interest as a result.

His ambitions are unlikely to change between now and January but the 27-year-old would be a definite upgrade to United's attack - even if he would not, by definition, be a like-for-like replacement for Sanchez.

Pedro

The World Cup winner is a player United were interested in when Barcelona decided the time was right to offload him in 2015.

He has not hit the heights at Chelsea that he did at Barcelona but he has not been a part of as good a team as he was in Catalonia.

Pedro's contract at Stamford Bridge expires in 2020.