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When you're manager of a top team, it's essential to always be on the lookout for players who will improve your squad and your first eleven. This is the case even if you've just won your domestic league in style and have won plaudits for the way your team plays. The reason it's so important to keep strengthening your squad is that you can be pretty sure that your main rivals are going to spend in an attempt to wrest that crown away from you. Teams that stand still are bound to decline.

With specific regards to strikers, the general wisdom is that top team need a minimum of four top class strikers. This is required to cope with busy fixture lists, injuries and suspensions. Incidentally, having too many big name strikers can actually be damaging to team morale as you can't play them all and those not getting games can become unhappy and disruptive influences.

Man Utd currently really only have Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez, and Louis Saha as recognized first team standard forwards in their squad. At a pinch, players such as Ryan Giggs or Cristiano Ronaldo can play as a makeshift supporting forward but that means weakening the positions that they normally play in.

With this analysis, I think it can be said that Man Utd ideally need to add another forward to their squad. Indeed, they might end up on the lookout for two new strikers if they decide to jettison injury prone French striker, Louis Saha.

The interesting thing, though, is that Man Utd's manager Alex Ferguson has already planned ahead. Earlier in the season he purchased an Angolan striker, called Manucho, who was prompted loaned out to Greek team, Panathinaikos. Manucho starred in the last African Nations tournament and is a big speedy striker. I think we can expect him to play an important role next season as a backup striker.

I think it is possible that Ferguson will decide to sell Saha this summer, which would leave one more vacancy to be filled. The player everyone has been linking with Man Utd is Tottenham Hotspur's Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov.

Spurs will be reluctant to let Berbatov leave but the Bulgarian's agent has apparently spoken recently of his client's desire to be involved in Champions League matches. Securing Berbatov would be a big coup for Man Utd and would give Ferguson a very nice balance of forwards to choose from.

This season, he's mainly gone with Rooney and Tevez as a strike partnership and it has been surprisingly effective. I say surprisingly' as both are quite similar, both in stature and style of play. They both like to drop deep and link up play with the midfielders. Conventionally, you would expect to see one of them playing behind a more orthodox centre forward and both Manucho and Berbatov would offer this option. Berbatov is also very good in the air, and at holding the ball up, which could be invaluable, especially in Champions League matches away from home. The question, then, may be how much Ferguson is prepared to bid for Berbatov and how hard Berbatov is prepared to fight his corner to secure a move away from Spurs.

P.S. Man Utd's top scorer this season has, of course, been their right winger Cristiano Ronaldo, so who needs strikers to score goals when you've got a player like that in your team!

Learn more about this author, Simon Wright.
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