Yeah with little to no impact. Don't think he has any midfield qualities really. He can carry the ball and has some vision on him, but he's been a striker his entire youth career. A striker that relied an awful lot on his physicality, when that didn'nt work he has focused a lot more on his touch, dribbling which has really helped him in the last years.
It's a bit like playing Isak as a #10 though. Don't think that would work at all.
Sure, but the fact that he was posted there for 10 mins also doesn't say anything. It's like van Dijk playing as a striker when the Netherlands is chasing a goal in the last minutes.He played about 10 mins?
Anyway:
Bologna chief (Di Vaio) about Zirkzee recently: "Joshua is a nine-and-a-half [a cross between a striker and a PLAYMAKER], yes, but he doesn’t resemble anyone, "He’s a unique player."
He has also operated in the 10 before, hes more similar to Martial/Firminho than Isak
Sure, but the fact that he was posted there for 10 mins also doesn't say anything. It's like van Dijk playing as a striker when the Netherlands is chasing a goal in the last minutes.
I agree with the 9.5, but not a number 10. If you play him as a number 10, you are playing a two-man midfield which close to no teams in the Premier League do. It's suicide.
Did it? That was the 2nd half of the season where we mostly played some of our worst stuff.We did it with Weghorst 2 seasons back and it worked well
Did it? That was the 2nd half of the season where we mostly played some of our worst stuff.
He started one match as an AM on transfermarkt, but Bruno was listed as RAM so we still had 3 midfielders on the pitch.
Do we? I don't think there was many if any matches where we played 4 forwards and 2 midfielders (counting Bruno as a midfielder).We know he started more
We definitely need at least 2 per position yeah. So that’s 6 contributing attackers. Only concern obviously would be to get the balance right so that they all complement one another etc.Was more just trying to point out we had a manager who did it plenty of times and would probably have adapted to sign players the way Liverpool did under Klopp.
As I alluded to earlier anyway, we are in the process of shifting three attacking players who contributed nothing last season (Greenwood, Sancho and Martial) and replacing them with potentially Zirkzee and say, Toney. That's not bad and more how we should be looking at things, considering how things were last year with those players and how badly we suffered scoring goals.
I also think Sir Alex would still have had at least 3, one established and 2 younger fighting for the chance. But that's just me.
This is a bit of a chicken or egg situation, though, so it can be looked at in different ways. He has never had the quality of squad to rotate reliably, so he has been forced to play the same team/players (add injuries, too). There's no guarantee that he doesn't want to rotate at times if he has access to better options.
I'd rather Watkins (probably way too expensive)
I don't think there's really enough evidence either way since he's been Manchester Utd manager, and the examples given are hardly conclusive. Amad was injured half the season and then introduced slowly. Despite the popular narrative on here, I think he was handled okay overall and started to feature much more regularly at the end of the season. Bayindir is an average second-choice keeper who really is here as a last resort; it makes sense that when fit and available, Onana will always start. Garnacho, Rashford, Antony, Amad, Hojland have all rotated in and out at various points of the season and that was because they were the only positions we had fit and available players. I think with better options he would use his squad for more because we did see at various time ETH impact the game with subs.I don't necessarily agree with that though. He had Amad, just for one example, sat waiting most of last season. He had ample opportunity to give Bayindir game time last season but chose to rush Onana back to play lower league opposition. I could go on. He was known for being this way at Ajax and this was some of the beef their fans had with him in the end too.
I don't think there's really enough evidence either way since he's been Manchester Utd manager, and the examples given are hardly conclusive. Amad was injured half the season and then introduced slowly. Despite the popular narrative on here, I think he was handled okay overall and started to feature much more regularly at the end of the season. Bayindir is an average second-choice keeper who really is here as a last resort; it makes sense that when fit and available, Onana will always start. Garnacho, Rashford, Antony, Amad, Hojland have all rotated in and out at various points of the season and that was because they were the only positions we had fit and available players. I think with better options he would use his squad for more because we did see at various time ETH impact the game with subs.
Totally agree it he’s £70-75m not £40-50m ?Solanke is right there, feck's sake
The plan seemed to be that we would buy a seasoned PL proven striker to support Hojlund. I think that’s still the plan but that Zirkzee being available at a relatively low price meant we went for him now too.
The fact is, neither Hojlund or Zirkzee will guarantee 20+ goals next season. They have potential for sure but if Zirkzee follows Hojlund’s pattern for his first season (which would be perfectly normal for a young striker in a new faster paced league) we’d be in poor shape goals wise.
We’ll have enough game time for all three, especially with EL games on Thursday nights.
All that being said, I imagine Toney will cost 70mil plus and therefore I’d be surprised if he was who we bought.
Solanke has been mentioned by journos that Bournemouth would want £60mil to sell.Id prefer solanke. Would be half the price & less of a penalty taker.
So Toney is supposedly going for £70m. So that means Solanke is going for £35m? The same price we paid for Big Z? For a player who had his best ever season, is Bournemouth’s best player and is English.Id prefer solanke. Would be half the price & less of a penalty taker.
So Toney is supposedly going for £70m. So that means Solanke is going for £35m? The same price we paid for Big Z? For a player who had his best ever season, is Bournemouth’s best player and is English.
Don't see Toney happening besides I think he would be too much of a primadonna wanting to start every game. I could see us taking Calvert Lewin who's 27 and has a year left on his contract so circa £30mil or under. Probably half of what Brentford would want for Toney.The plan seemed to be that we would buy a seasoned PL proven striker to support Hojlund. I think that’s still the plan but that Zirkzee being available at a relatively low price meant we went for him now too.
The fact is, neither Hojlund or Zirkzee will guarantee 20+ goals next season. They have potential for sure but if Zirkzee follows Hojlund’s pattern for his first season (which would be perfectly normal for a young striker in a new faster paced league) we’d be in poor shape goals wise.
We’ll have enough game time for all three, especially with EL games on Thursday nights.
All that being said, I imagine Toney will cost 70mil plus and therefore I’d be surprised if he was who we bought.
The plan seemed to be that we would buy a seasoned PL proven striker to support Hojlund. I think that’s still the plan but that Zirkzee being available at a relatively low price meant we went for him now too.
The fact is, neither Hojlund or Zirkzee will guarantee 20+ goals next season. They have potential for sure but if Zirkzee follows Hojlund’s pattern for his first season (which would be perfectly normal for a young striker in a new faster paced league) we’d be in poor shape goals wise.
We’ll have enough game time for all three, especially with EL games on Thursday nights.
All that being said, I imagine Toney will cost 70mil plus and therefore I’d be surprised if he was who we bought.
Don't see Toney happening besides I think he would be too much of a primadonna wanting to start every game. I could see us taking Calvert Lewin who's 27 and has a year left on his contract so circa £30mil or under. Probably half of what Brentford would want for Toney.
Given the length of the contract, Bournemouth hold all the cards not Solanke. They can charge £80m if they want.I think Solanke won't attract many offers compared to Toney.
I feel like if we make a 40 mil + add ons offers then Solanke himself will push at the chance for playing for us & pushing Bournemouth for the deal.
Toney i feel would be targeted by more clubs.
I'd rather Watkins (probably way too expensive)
Close to 30 for a guy who relies quite a bit on pace. Nah for both Toney or Watkins.
I would says it's actually massive we get a proven goalscorer as we don't have one in our squad. What we don't need is another winger who cuts inside and shoots all the time, we already have 100 of those.I don't think another striker is that much of importance right now - don't understand this interest. We have two now, which is enough.
Right winger(left footed) is what we lack the most in attack right now. But, I would leave that for next summer.
Should focus on fixing the defense and midfield as much as possible.
Watkins isn't being looked at because his price will have sky rocketed, Villa are well off and there's every chance he wants to play CL football with the team he helped get there.Toney is alright but he's had 1 good PL season. He's one of those player whose reputation is bigger than their performances. Watkins does it season after season, getting his team into the CL and he's still not looked at like Toney who takes a penalty without looking at the ball and gets national headlines for a week.
That's not what I am saying. I'm not saying we should consider Watkins to but, I'm speaking about the light they're spoken about. Toney is another player whose reputation has skyrocketed with only a short spell in the top division, whilst Watkins is often forgotten in conversations whilst he's done a lot more. I don't know what Toney has done to prove he'd be a good option for a top club as there isn't enough to judge by imo.Watkins isn't being looked at because his price will have sky rocketed, Villa are well off and there's every chance he wants to play CL football with the team he helped get there.
I wouldn't be disappointed at all, if he was a 90M young player whose best scoring season was 8 goals people would be all over him. He'd be a good rotation option and support for our younger forwards who clearly need experience around them. I wouldn't pay more than 25M for him though.Think we might sign him. Very disappointed by that.
