Patrice Evra says it is paramount that Manchester United find a striker who is natural at finding the net, and suggested that this is why the Reds should not bring in Joao Felix this month.
The Atletico striker has been linked with a loan move to United amid reports of a rift between himself and boss Diego Simeone. Club CEO Gil Marin has explained he believes Felix will push for an exit if the right offer comes along.
Meanwhile, Simeone underlined that no one in his squad is “indispensable” although hinted that he’d prefer to keep the attacker among his ranks for now. The Portugal international has scored five times this season, four of them coming in his last three Atletico outings.
READ MORE: Felix misses Atletico fixture amid United links
He was handed his first La Liga start since September in last month’s 2-0 win over Elche in the Spanish side’s first game back after the World Cup. Felix, 23, has not managed to score more than 10 goals in a season since his 2019 switch from Benfica.
Evra believes this is not enough to warrant a chase from United, who he said need an out-and-out scorer, no matter how they go about getting goals. Speaking to Betfair, he said: “He's an excellent player and if he's not happy at Atletico, the Premier League will welcome him with open arms.
“We [United] need to replace the 20 goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, so it's logical that we need another attacker. We can play [Anthony] Martial, [Alejandro] Garnacho and [Marcus] Rashford but we need a killer, someone who lives for goals.
“I don't care if they perform well, I just want them to score goals. That's why I don't think Joao Felix is the right type of player for United right now.”
Evra continued: “I don't want United to look beautiful. With players like Felix people will say how beautiful we look with the way we play, I don't care about that.
“I want us to look ugly and have a player like Filippo Inzaghi and have people saying 'who the hell is this he can't even dribble' but at the end of the season he's scored more than 20 goals. Where will we find that kind of striker? That is the question.
“You don't bring a player in just to make the fans happy or for commercial business. Right now they need to bring someone in who is coming just to score goals.”
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