Man Utd news: Single United transfer demanded to match Man City and Liverpool

That is the verdict of Sky Sports pundit and former Manchester United defender Danny Higginbotham.

United have had a turbulent start to the season both on and off the pitch.

The Red Devils sit 10th in the Premier League table after seven games and have already lost three matches.

They were dumped out of the Carabao Cup by Championship side Derby and played out a drab 0-0 draw with Valencia in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Jose Mourinho’s relationship with star players such as Paul Pogba and Alexis Sanchez has turned sour and the manager’s future is in doubt.

But Higginbotham believes Mourinho’s job is made harder by a lack of leaders in his squad.

And he claims both City and Liverpool have the type of players United need.

“A manager now has a harder job than ever,” Higginbotham said on Sky Sports News.

“What you used to have was the manager, you used to have a manager in the dressing room, and you used to have a manager on the pitch.

“Those players are now starting to fade out of the game.

“There’s the (Vincent) Kompanys, the (Virgil) Van Dijks, the (James) Milners, the (Jordan) Hendersons – they are few and far between now.

“So now all of a sudden you’ve got a manager who has to manage, he has to manage the dressing room, and he has to try and manager when things go wrong on the pitch.

“If you go back to United in particular, because that’s who we’re talking about, in the last 10-15 years you’ve had a Gary Neville, you’ve had a (Rio) Ferdinand, you’ve had a (Nemanja) Vidic, you’ve had a (Roy) Keane, you’ve had a (Paul) Scholes, a (Ryan) Giggs.

“The list goes on and on and on of players that are leaders.

“Other than say (Romelu) Lukaku and (David) De Gea, you probably haven’t got players within that United team who are playing week in, week out.”

United will look to bounce back on Saturday when they host winless Newcastle in the Premier League.