United boss Garry Monk says the recruitment process is still on-going and targets are being identified as he looks to further strengthen his squad over the coming weeks.

Six new additions have already been made since Monk’s appointment at the start of June, with Marcus Antonsson, Kyle Bartley, Hadi Sacko, Rob Green, Matt Grimes and Kemar Roofe all hoping to feature in United colours for the first time in Wednesday evening’s pre-season friendly with Shelbourne.

The former Swansea City manager has used the opening weeks of pre-season to assess his squad and welcome new faces into the group, and Monk remains keen to boost his options ahead of the new Sky Bet Championship campaign kicking-off in just under a month’s time.

“The squad’s a very young squad,” he said. “But I think you can see where we’re at – the sense of the club and the direction that we want to go in. We want to build something.

“Yes, we need to build short-term, but we want to build longer-term as well.

“I’m trying to get a look at everyone. You can see that I’ve brought five players from the Under-21s, so it’s a young squad. But I’m very pleased with all of them so far."

Asked about the type of players he may be targeting, the head coach added: “All that matters to myself is that every player, whether they’re already here or are coming in, is a player that can help us; a player that can give something that we haven’t got or a player who can add to what we’ve already got, which is the case for all of them.

“There are a lot of games within the league that come very quickly and we’ve got to be prepared for that as a squad.

“The Club understands that, the owner understands that – he’s been working very hard with myself to try and recruit these players, along with Ben Mansford as well. Everyone’s working together.

“We all know what we need. I’ve made it very clear from my side and the Club have made it very clear from theirs.

“We know what we need to do and what we need to add, it’s about making sure that whoever comes in adds quality to what we’ve already got. That’s the most important bit.

“When you’re recruiting, you’re looking for certain characteristics and certain elements that you want to see in those positions and then you recruit from there.

“I’ve made that very clear with the Club and they understood what we needed anyway, which is a good thing.

“We’re working well together and we’re identifying the right players to come into the club. Hopefully that continues. I’m more than confident that it will.

“It’s all part of the process and it’s important that we try and do that before the window closes to go into the season with the squad that we want and are happy with, especially strength-wise.

“Then we’ll go from there and try to hit the ground running. That’s the plan.”

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