James Wilson’s loan move to Brighton leaves Manchester United with just Wayne Rooney and Anthony Martial as the only strikers.

Louis van Gaal has explained we had to let Wilson go so that he could play

Until now he didn’t contribute so much. He played a few minutes in the Premier League and a few in the Capital One Cup and was not always in the selection of the squad of 18 players. Players of his age need to play and I can imagine that fans are saying that this is ridiculous, they have difficulties to score, but that is a short-term thought.

We have to think what is better for a player like Wilson and at the moment he does not have too many possibilities to play on a higher level. We believe in him so he has to develop himself elsewhere. If we need him, we can call him back.