Sancho gets 5 minutes and Mctominay gets 30 but he is nowhere to be seen.
11
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 28
- Goals
- 4
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 1
Invisible today!
Is he injured? Bizarre he didn't feature.
Would have liked to have seen him get a few minutes today. Start to get a little sharpness in the legs in a lower intensity game.
Zirkzee is too cool to go on Tour, too cool for the CS….
I just hope he can be arsed to turn next week for the start of the season.
I just hope he can be arsed to turn next week for the start of the season.
He’s only trained this week, I imagine Ten Hag didn’t feel he was up to pace with everyone else yet.
Must just not be up to speed. I'm guessing we'll see a bit more of the setup used today in the first few league games as we ease him in.
What was the point in having him on the bench. No other striker in the squad, it would make too much sense getting him up to speed by giving him some minutes.
Maybe needs another holiday
Not ideal if he’s this far away from being up to speed..
Assuming he’s not injured
Assuming he’s not injured
Unless he had a small knock or illness, it was very strange not to bring him on at all today. Figured he'd get at least 10-15 minutes.
He wasn’t fit to start and I’d imagine ETH doesn’t want Zirkzee to get too much pressure by involving him in the penalty shoot out this early into his United career, particularly when he still lacks fitness having had zero mins in the preseason games. Hence why Sancho came on instead of him in the 83rd min.
He needed to get at least 10 mins for a run out. Bruno playing the whole match and McT playing half an hour was unnecessary.
We were well on top in the second half and Ten Hag probably didn’t feel the need to change the system and bring a striker on. You can argue it was more important to get him minutes, but easy to say when you’re not managing the team.
Think this match wasn't really suitable for his style of play.
Haven't seen much of him, and I don't really rate him that high, but I do think he could be useful in unlocking a low-playing, defensive team.
Haven't seen much of him, and I don't really rate him that high, but I do think he could be useful in unlocking a low-playing, defensive team.
Haven't really seen him, but from what I've read this setup we seem to be playing with should suit a false 9 like him better than a striker like Hojlund.
Was disappointing not to see him get any minutes, but understandable if he isn’t ready.
We could do with him for Fulham.
We could do with him for Fulham.
Nah I imagine in those games his role will be to play through balls to the wide players. My sense is that since he's unfamiliar with ETH's instructions and pressing that he didn't want to disrupt that since City are the last club you want consistently beating your press.
I think ETH will bed him in slowly like he did with Casemiro and others he's not worked with previously
I guess with Yoro getting injured I can understand being careful with Zirkzee's playing time, will be interesting to see how we set up against Fulham.
Even more baffling why ETH says he’s „weeks away” from playing.
Mount started as he was the fittest and most ready. McTominay deserved to play as he contributed to us getting to the community shield. Sancho played on the left so not Zirkzees position. So I don't see the issue.
I guess if we don’t put him on the football pitch, he’s very unlikely to get injured, so maybe that’s the thinking.
That’s a ridiculous logic, and I’m confident not the one the manager has applied here.
In a more serious game then maybe but I think he deserved some game time over new kid that has just turned up a week ago. Especially if he's sold
If that’s the metric then we should have signed Amrabat for this game.
I wonder if we will see him on the LW or if he is solely going to be used as a CF.
Odd that he didn’t feature at all.
It’s a preparation game. Playing a player who is not significant in your plans over one that is in a preparation game would be silly. But again, it’s almost certainly not what Ten Hag has done. What he likely has done isn’t much better of course, which is probably play McTominay because he sees him as a key player.
If McTominay helped us get to the community shield, then Amad helped us get to the final and he didn’t play in it. And even if Scott is to leave, I doubt he’d be fussed at getting to come off the bench in a pre-season game as some sort of gesture.
He hasn't played football since Serie A ended, so very likely not sharp enough. A lot of bench warming during the Euros, then no preseason. Unfortunately for him, he better get that sorted out quickly, because it will be a struggle with Hojlund already out for so long.
Given he’s older, and last season only put up marginally better numbers, in a weaker league, than the player he’d be replacing (Garnacho) I’d hope not.
Supposed to be playing in a closed doors friendly today, wonder how he gets on.
Definitely needed for some of them but one those you hope we come out of it injury free.
And if we continue to not play him, then he still won’t have played since Serie A. That’s on us, there have been plenty of opportunities to play him. He was pn the bench for a pre-season kick about just 4 days ago and we didn’t give him any minutes.
This whole thing has been quite bizarre to me, although I accept that there could be reasons I’m unaware of. Like why has Dalot played pre-season minutes but he hasn’t?
Not really excited by this signing, if I am being honest.
He’s more a facilitator than a striker, and what we need more than anything, is a striker. Someone to make runs, get on the end of crosses, and just put the ball in the net.
Hopefully I’m very wrong.
He’s more a facilitator than a striker, and what we need more than anything, is a striker. Someone to make runs, get on the end of crosses, and just put the ball in the net.
Hopefully I’m very wrong.
According to Premier League 'big chances created' stats we were level with Bournemouth, and a few behind Everton, last season. How seriously you take those kind of stats is to taste, I'm generally fairly sceptical, but I do think some facilitation wouldn't go amiss.
Not really we have that already in Hojlund, the issue is more how the side combines to create chances as you could argue that when playing both Rashford and Garnacho we have two forwards who want to get narrow and behind teams to score, so it suits us to have a striker like Zirkzee who wants to drop deep and link play so that you have a set of complementary runs being made (one player starting high and dropping deep, whilst others start deep and try to get in behind).
The problem with Hojlund is it's part of his natural game to want to make the same type of runs as Garnacho and Rashford (the type you describe in behind) so it makes us less cohesive and predictable. Its no coincidence that we look a more fluid side when employing a false 9 for this reason.
Zirkzee movement and hold up play should open up scoring opportunities for the whole team, its then up to us to be more clinical but the fact that we create so little for Hojlund and would likely do for another striker like him is down to the two forwards either side of him who are much more goal driven than creative. Zirkzee should balance that out.
Totally agree with the point about the false 9. I also think that a false 9 also gives us more cover in midfield so we look less porous. Hojlund needs to be able to adapt his game depending on who is around him. Zirkzee seems like an immediately good fit because his game revolves around providing assists.
I wonder did they say hey we actally made a mistake going for a 9 and we should go for a more creative focal point as an option. If that’s the case then I think if Zirkzee hits form Rasmus will be the impact player until he becomes unplayable or he tapers off and leaves in a few years. I’d rather this. I want ruthless competition and turnover in the squad. I really like Rasmus and hope he can go through the gears and become a top player. Last season was very encouraging but saying that having another creative player should suit the team well.