It has been reported that on-loan Manchester United striker Odion Ighalo is likely to return to his parent club Shanghai Shenhua when his loan deal expires, despite the Premier League likely to be returning over the next few weeks.

This could leave United short of striking options towards the end of this season, and into next season, with an attacking player likely to be a priority for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer when the next transfer window opens.

One of the players who has been linked with a move to Old Trafford in the next window is former Fulham and Celtic striker Moussa Dembele, who currently plays for Lyon in Ligue 1, and has proven to be a prolific goal scorer over the last few seasons.

So, what kind of impact could Dembele have at United if he joined the club when the transfer window opens?

We used Football Manager 2020 to predict how United could perform with Dembele in the squad after the next transfer window opens.

Moussa Dembele to Manchester United in July 2020

To set up this simulation, we used the Football Manager 2020 editor to arrange the transfer of Moussa Dembele to Manchester United on July 1st 2020.

This is how Dembele's player profile looks like in Football Manager 2020 in late May 2020.

We then simulated the next two seasons to see what kind of impact Dembele could have at United in the 2020/21 campaign.

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Here's what happened.

Moussa Dembele's 2020/21 season for Manchester United

As it turned out in our simulation, Dembele played a bit-part role for United in the 2020/21 season, with Anthony Martial preferred as the striking option for Solskjaer, with Marcus Rashford often deployed from the left.

Let's take a look at Dembele's 2020/21 campaign for United in more detail.

The French striker only made seven starts for United in all competitions, making an additional 21 appearances from the bench. But, Dembele still managed to score eight goals, also providing one assist and earning an average match rating of 7.21, which is impressive.

In the Premier League, Dembele scored two goals in just three starts, also making an additional 13 sub appearances.

To put Dembele's goal scoring form into context, here are United's top goalscorers in the 2020/21 season, in our simulation.

Martial was the club's top goal scorer, followed by Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba, and then Dembele.

However, you will notice that Dembele made far fewer appearances for United than the other contenders, actually scoring more goals than Daniel James despite having half of the game time.

Martial and Rashford's form really restricted Dembele's playing time, but he still made an impact when he did manage to get on the pitch, something that is often invaluable.

At the end of the 2020/21 season, this is how United's best performing eleven looked.

This lineup will look very familiar, with Pogba and Fernandes in midfield, Juan Mata in the number ten role, James on the right and Martial in the number nine position.

So how did Dembele's arrival affect United's performance in 2020/21?

Well, Dembele's impact wasn't that great, particularly in terms of goals in the Premier League, but United still managed a third place finish in the league table, finishing just five points behind eventual champions Liverpool, who had finished level on points with Manchester City.

According to our Football Manager 2020 simulation, Moussa Dembele would provide United with a formidable back-up option for the number nine role, but that Anthony Martial would still remain first choice should he be signed, based on ability.

Still, Dembele may have proved to be an astute signing over the next few seasons, as he scored a decent number of goals considering his goals per game ratio, scoring eight goals in only seven starts in all competitions.

As always, this if just a bit of fun, but it's interesting to see what kind of potential impact Dembele could have at United next season, if the club did manage to secure his signature.