Jose Mourinho has told the club’s scouts to find him two new defenders before the end of January as he looks to boost his back-line.

The Red Devils have struggled to field a consistent back four throughout the season so far amidst injury problems to a number of players.

Eric Bailly, Chris Smalling and Antonio Valencia have all had injury problems of some description over the past months, meaning Mourinho has had to rotate his defence more often than he would have perhaps hoped.

Victor Lindelof’s inability to adapt quickly to the Premier League, and Matteo Darmian’s poor form have also not helped the Portuguese, who will now turn to the transfer window the solve his defensive woes.

The Sun reports that Mourinho has put his agents on red alert to find him both two new defenders and two new attacking midfielders by the end of January as he looks to salvage a withering season.

United started the campaign in blistering form, however have since slipped and are now without a top flight win in four and currently sit a whopping 15 points behind league leaders and bitter rivals Manchester City.

In order to fund such business, it is likely United will part ways with a number of their players over the course of the next month. Juan Mata, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Luke Shaw and Matteo Darmian are all could be on their way out of the club in the coming weeks.

Fulham youngster Ryan Sessegnon is one of a number of United’s targets, however Liverpool and Chelsea are also thought to be interested in the promising young Englishman.