I believe united can win the league – Scholes urges Ten Hag to push for two January transfers amid Man Utd concerns so that they can keep pushing for the league

Paul Scholes has urged Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag to push for two transfers in the January transfer window.

Marcus Rashford’s goal was enough to secure United’s fifth successive win in all competitions and lifted them into third place in the Premier League.

But the performance from United left plenty to be desired as they struggled to create chances, in the first half in particular.

And Scholes believes the Red Devils’ forwards are some way behind their league rivals.

Scholes told BT Sport: “I think they look an exciting team again. The best teams have the best forwards, at the moment they don’t have the best forwards, they’ve got very good forwards but I keep going back to the bench, they haven’t got those players who change a game, the football’s been good to watch.”

The United legend is also concerned over Luke Shaw operating as a centre-back in the absence of Lisandro Martinez, who is yet to return after World Cup glory with Argentina.

Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof were both available for selection, but left-back Shaw was preferred to play alongside Raphael Varane.

“Casemiro and Eriksen have made a huge difference, there’s a real bit of quality with Fernandes in front of them. The back four I still think they can improve, we’ll see in a couple of weeks against City can you see Luke Shaw playing centre-half then, I’m not sure you can but I think things are promising, fourth in the league and hopefully we can go secure a Champions League place.”

The result saw Ten Hag’s side move into the Champions League qualification spots for the first time this season, and the United boss was pleased with their reaction after a poor first half display.

He said: “We were not that good in the first half. In my opinion the second half was better. Fred was winning second balls and linking play when he came on.

“In the first half, you analyse the game but sometimes things do not work as expected. Wolves did not create many chances and we did but you have to be sharp.

“I was not happy at half time and I told them with this attitude they will not win this game and everyone had to give 10 per cent more.”