Peter Schmeichel has hit out at Manchester United over five mistakes in the transfer market, including one summer signing brought in purely because one “powerful” Red Devils chief just had to “make a mark” at the club.

Ruben Amorim remains under significant pressure at United – he’s second in the sack race– having picked up just 37 points in his 34 Premier League games in charge and faces the daunting task of Liverpool at Anfield as they return to action after the international break on Sunday.

And Schmeichel is baffled by his former club’s moves in the transfer market; in particular their ￡66m signing of Benjamin Sesko from RB Leipzig to replace Rasmus Hojlund, who moved to Napoli.

While Sesko has two goals in eight appearances for United this term, Hojlund has hit the ground running in Naples, scoring four in six, having been given the service that Schmeichel believes he would have received at Old Trafford had he remained at the club.

“At United you’ve got a head coach [Ruben Amorim], then you had a director of football [Dan Ashworth], a technical director or whatever Jason Wilcox’s title is, and you’ve got a head of recruitment [Christopher Vivell], who is very powerful,” he told BBC podcast Sacked in the Morning.

“You’ve got a lot of people deciding on who is coming in.

“For instance, the signing of Benjamin Sesko was a little bit weird to me because we have Rasmus Hojlund, who has been starved of service for two years.

“You only have to see what he’s doing at Napoli with Kevin de Bruyne and Scott McTominay to play with – he’s scoring goals.

“I’ve consistently said this for two and a half years – Rasmus Hojlund will be a 25-goals-a-year striker for Manchester United, but he needs service.

“We let him go on the stats that he scored very little goals last season and bring Sesko in at the time we bring in Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbuemo, who would give Hojlund first-class service.”

On top of signing Sesko and getting rid of Hojlund, Schmiechel is also struggling to understand United’s failure to sign a new No.6 and not bringing in an experienced goalkeeper, claiming Vivell has a “different agenda” to Amorim.

He added: “You spend ￡70m-plus on Sesko, when we don’t have the number six we should have, and there’s the goalkeeping position as well.

“This season alone we’ve conceded nine goals from goalkeeping errors. When I played, when Edwin van der Sar played, when David de Gea played, the brief was win 10 points a season, you don’t give points away.

“Why did we bring someone in that we didn’t need? Because the head of recruitment comes from Leipzig [also Sesko’s former club] and he’s got to make a mark.

“When I played, the manager [Sir Alex Ferguson] was in charge. He said ‘him in and him out’. Now it’s different people with different agendas that decide. How can you create a stable environment to have a football team that can go out and win every game?”

MORE MANCHESTER UNITED COVERAGE ON F365
???Chelsea project justified by Golden Boy shortlist as ten Premier League stars in the running
?? Man Utd willing to pay up to ￡52m for SPL striker amid interest in Crystal Palace star
?? Amorim future revealed if UAE-based consortium buy Man Utd as January transfer claim is made

Finally, Schmeichel claimed United made a big mistake in selling Scott McTominay, who drove Napoli to the Scudetto last season despite being “so Manchester United”.

“What’s he doing at Napoli?” said Schmeichel. “He is so Manchester United.

“The problem was his versatility, because you have players who can only play in one position. Managers didn’t trust him to build the team around. They want the neat players. He was the victim of that time and again.

“Phil Neville was a little bit the same. He never really got a starting XI spot, but he played an awful lot of games because he could play different roles.

“I don’t get why those two are at Napoli. You will get no-one with more enthusiasm for Manchester United than Rasmus Hojlund. He was writing about playing for the club when he was 10 years old. He’s a massive fan.

“And the fans love him because he was working so hard for the team and he never complained.”