With time running out for Manchester United to find a late equaliser against rivals Liverpool, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer turned to his bench and sent on full-back Diogo Dalot to little or no effect.
The Red Devils were without top scorer Marcus Rashford, who had been sent on as a substitute just days earlier to try to salvage a result against Wolves in the FA Cup, picking up a back injury that now sees him sidelined for at least six weeks.
“Rashford will be out for a while,” Solskjaer told reporters after United's 2-0 defeat to Liverpool.
“He got a new injury against Wolves. We’ll not see him for a little while.
“We’re always looking at chances to improve the squad – with Marcus out for a while we have to look at it closely.
“We’ve had many injuries for big players this season. It’s just an unfortunate situation we’re in. We might look at some short term deals as well that could take us through to the summer.
“We don’t desperately need a striker, if the right one is there and it fits for us… we’ve got players who are champing at the bit.”
Last month, United had been in talks for a striker, with Solskjaer even holding a meeting with teenage talent Erling Haaland in order to entice him to Old Trafford.
However, Haaland moved to Borussia Dortmund for €20 million (£17m/$22m) from Red Bull Salzburg with talk from the United camp claiming they turned down the chance to sign him rather than the other way around.
Dortmund head coach Lucien Favre was in a similar position to Solskjaer at the weekend, losing 3-1 to Augsburg in the second-half, but when he turned to the bench, he called upon Haaland to make his debut.
Within three minutes of coming on, the 19-year-old striker had scored. Haaland ended the game with a hat-trick in a 5-3 win, becoming the first substitute to score a hat-trick on Bundesliga debut and the second-youngest player in league history to score three or more goals in one game.
"He has started very well," Favre told Sky. "He immediately showed his strengths with his runs in behind, and of course he scored three goals which is incredible.
"He moves well between the lines, which gives us another way of attacking. He was very good and did very well.
"At 19 years old, he has a huge potential for improvement, that's the most important thing. It was a crazy game."
Haaland's directness, strength and movement give Dortmund a different option up front and he has already proven himself to be a difference-maker for them.
The instant impact highlights the folly of United's decision not to push a deal over the line, with the Red Devils annoyed at the demands of superagent Mino Raiola.
Negotiating with Raiola has not been a problem in the past for executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, who has previously brokered deals for the likes of Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Dortmund were willing to accept Raiola's contract requirement of a €60m (£51m/$66m) release clause for summer 2022, but if Haaland reaches that valuation, they will have received two-and-a-half years of excellent service from the striker tripling their investment in the process.
In the past, Manchester United were not a selling club nor were they afraid to take risks on teenage talent, signing a young Cristiano Ronaldo and breaking the teenage transfer record to sign Wayne Rooney, who spent 13 years at the club before leaving on a free transfer in 2017.
A release clause in the future should not have been a deal breaker for the Red Devils. Two years should be plenty of time to convince Haaland that there is no other club he should want to join, even if they meet his release clause. Players rarely want to leave big clubs while they are successful.
Raiola revealed that United held more discussions than any other club with Haaland, but were not able to convince him to move to Manchester.
"They spoke to him the most. Everybody had the chance to talk to him in person. We let that happen especially when he knows Ole," Raiola told The Telegraph.
"Clearly he felt that at this moment it was not the right step in his career. There is nothing against Manchester United or Ole.
"He chose Borussia Dortmund ahead of them and other clubs and I’m very happy because he is going to the club he wanted to go to and that is best for him right now.
"If he wanted to go to Manchester United I would have been obliged to take him to Manchester United, but he did not."
Regardless of whether United were unhappy with Raiola or Haaland was unhappy with what United had to offer, the Norway international is now lining out in the black and yellow of Borussia Dortmund.
Manchester United have no striker for the next six weeks and are five points behind a Champions League spot.
Haaland could have made an instant impact at Old Trafford like he did for Dortmund, but instead Solskjaer's search for a striker goes on.