Pundit explains why Cavani won't play anytime soon for United

ESPN pundit Julien Laurens warns that it would take a little while before Edinson Cavani will get to full fitness for Manchester United.

Cavani became one of the last minute signings made by United on transfer deadline day.

The striker penned a one-year contract at Old Trafford after spending some time off the pitch after the expiration of his Paris Saint-Germain contract.

Cavani hasn’t played since March, due to the Ligue 1 season ending prematurely after the Covid-19 outbreak in France.

The veteran forward left PSG in the summer and wasn’t included in any of their Champions League games after the restart. Since then, he has been training on his own while he looked for a club.

He was reportedly close to signing for Benfica earlier in the summer, but the move fell through due to the financial aspects of the deal.

The same happened with a proposed move to Atletico Madrid, leaving Cavani still without a club into the final days of the window. In the end, he signed with the Red Devils.

And Laurens believes his time away from football will mean he joins United nowhere near at the condition he needs to be in order to play in the first-team.

Speaking to ESPN FC, he explained that Martial will still be United’s first-choice striker once he returns from his three-match suspension because of his relationship with Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford and also Cavani’s lack of full fitness.

“He hasn’t played football since February and hasn’t trained with a squad since February,” Laurens said of Cavani.

“He’s not fit, even if he kept himself fit on his own or with a fitness coach maybe in the last few weeks. But he’s not ready to go back into a team and play games, I don’t think any time soon.”

“He’ll need a little bit of time to work on his fitness, to work with the coaches there before he can even think about playing at United. Then, what do you do with Martial?”

“I still think that Martial, with the way he played last season and his relationship with Rashford, Pogba and Fernandes, his relationship is well established compared to Edinson Cavani.”

“I don’t think he’ll walk straight in, I think Martial will still be number one. But Cavani will add something different to the team, he can be reliable and dependent on the rest of the team.”

“He’s a poacher, that’s what he does. He doesn’t link up the play, he doesn’t participate in anything else but scoring goals.”

“If the service isn’t there he’s not going to be very useful to Manchester United.”

“The team will have to work a lot for him and serve him well for him to be able to score, which is very different to Anthony Martial. They’re two different profiles.”

Regardless of how fit Cavani is at the moment, his arrival at Old Trafford will benefit the younger players given his vast wealth of experience all over Europe.