Joshua Zirkzee image 11

Joshua Zirkzee Netherlands flag

2024-25 Performances


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5.0 Season Average Rating
Appearances
13
Goals
1
Assists
2
Yellow cards
1
Dominated by Spurs players consistently reading passes up to his feet, because he has 0 threat of running in behind the defence. Every time they gambled that the pass was on the floor where he wants it and took it off him.
 
Has looked alright against poor teams like Southampton and Palace where we dominated possession, but he's stunk the joint out in the games against our toughest opponents so far, Liverpool and Spurs, when he's not gonna have a lot of time on the ball.

Echo what other posters have said, he looks slow and overweight.
 
He looks and moves like he is overweight. Lacks bite. I’m all for the silky touches etc but want to see some aggression from a centre forward
For all the silky touches are some very heavy ones also. Some today along with his passing was embarrassing.

He's so poor in the air for someone of his height and build.
 
Very average player. Dont know why we bought him, except that he is Dutch and that seems to be “the shit” these days.
 
For all the silky touches are some very heavy ones also. Some today along with his passing was embarrassing.

He's so poor in the air for someone of his height and build.

There are far more cumbersome and clumsy touches than "silky" ones from him so far. Even before today. Up until this point his passing, although mostly fairly simple passes was still pretty good. Today that was poor as well. He didnt look good enough for a europa league team on today's performance.
 
Worse than Martial. And I didnt like Martial, but at least he could score. With Zirkzee I have absolutely not faith in him finishing a chance, which is worrying because he seems to always get at least one chance per game.

For a low scoring team like ours, and with wingers who aren't very good, this one feels like a waste of time already.
 
He looks far from the player in the highlights reels. He’s capable of some great touches but there’s too much dodgy stuff in between. Not to mention that he’s another tactical actual issue because he’s got no pace. For some reason we keep signing players with big weaknesses - Ugarte can’t pass, this guy can’t run.

Based on what we’ve seen so far he’s like a poor man’s Martial. That’s how far we’ve fallen.

Hopefully he shows that it’s just an adjustment issue and that there’s a player there.
 
I see a lot of (justifiable) criticism about his finishing but for me the worst thing is the fact he just spends the entire game trotting about like he’s shat himself

If he can’t even motivate himself to move properly in his first handful of games for the club then he’s a lost cause.

I’d honestly say I saw greater overall contribution from Weghorst and he was levels below the standard required for the Premier League.
 
As much as I like Rasmus, 70 million on him and 34 on this guy. (let's not even mention the 90 million on Anthony) With all that money combined we could've at least signed someone who guarantees goals?
 
Like most others really bad today, but also with noone functioning around him. Zirkzee is a link up player, and with noone to link up with, he is fecked.
 
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He comes unstuck against a high intensity team, same happened at Liverpool. He needs to get used to the pace of the top teams in the league and quickly.
 
I tried several times in his old thread to make fans of United understand that he is NOT a number 9.
Never was, and likely never will be.

Didn't understand the transfer then (for you or Milan) and still don't today.

Using him as a 10 type player, absolutely. a 9? this is what you get...
 
He’s a donkey. He looks every bit like one of those fairly successful Serie A strikers that move to the PL and flop.

Ah yes, because you signed Hojlund and Zirkzee as strikers, this lazy (and incorrect) take comes flying in. Of course.

You signed a kid who barely scored in Serie A, and then you signed a #10 to play as a #9, who also could barely score from open play in Serie A.

But sure.
 
Ah yes, because you signed Hojlund and Zirkzee as strikers, this lazy (and incorrect) take comes flying in. Of course.

You signed a kid who barely scored in Serie A, and then you signed a #10 to play as a #9, who also could barely score from open play in Serie A.

But sure.
In theory, together they should work well though. Zirkzee just isn't up to the pace yet. He was brought in to help Garnacho, Hojlund and Rashford get goals, but they've been awful
 
I see a lot of (justifiable) criticism about his finishing but for me the worst thing is the fact he just spends the entire game trotting about like he’s shat himself

If he can’t even motivate himself to move properly in his first handful of games for the club then he’s a lost cause.

I’d honestly say I saw greater overall contribution from Weghorst and he was levels below the standard required for the Premier League.

Looks look they're set for fairly similar goal contribution too....
 
One thing that really annoys me is that he doesn't seem to use his frame to his advantage. Doesn't use it to bully people off the ball, doesn't use it to shield, doesn't use it to win headers... what's the feckin' point of being 6"3 and a big chunky boy if you're not going to use it? I swear Juan Mata had more upper body strength.
 
In theory, together they should work well though. Zirkzee just isn't up to the pace yet. He was brought in to help Garnacho, Hojlund and Rashford get goals, but they've been awful

Zirkzee is absolutely up to his pace. he's doing exactly what he did at Bologna, and what I tried to tell United fans about for a month in the summer... He's brutal in the box.
This didn't change when he joined the mighty EPL. He stunk at it in Italy.

He will score goals, yes. He will make some great assists as well... But he needs a real target man to be truly unleashed.
 
Seems an unpopular opinion, but I like him, I think he’ll come good, once we have some tactics that utilise his attributes.
 
I'm not going to judge him until I see him play for a competent manager. You can't say he would look the same playing for Liverpool, Arsenal, Villa, Newcastle etc. He has brilliant qualities, but we're clearly not playing to his strengths, so what was the point of signing him now?
 
Zirkzee is absolutely up to his pace. he's doing exactly what he did at Bologna, and what I tried to tell United fans about for a month in the summer... He's brutal in the box.
This didn't change when he joined the mighty EPL. He stunk at it in Italy.

He will score goals, yes. He will make some great assists as well... But he needs a real target man to be truly unleashed.
Yeah, but his pace will not cut it in the prem. He needs to up it, we didn't buy him to be the same as he was at Bologna, we bought him to improve.
 
Yeah, but his pace will not cut it in the prem. He needs to up it, we didn't buy him to be the same as he was at Bologna, we bought him to improve.

not sure what his pace has to do with it.... he's scored on 1 of 11 clear goal scoring chances... he's had that many chances "despite" his apparent lack of pace.
his issue is, was and will likely always remain his finishing. he does most other things quite well and smooth
 
not sure what his pace has to do with it.... he's scored on 1 of 11 clear goal scoring chances... he's had that many chances "despite" his apparent lack of pace.
his issue is, was and will likely always remain his finishing. he does most other things quite well and smooth
Think we're getting lost in translation here. I mean the whole game is too fast for him in the prem, at present. Well, against the top teams anyway. I never expected him to be a great finisher, but the other aspects, I expected to be much better in the big games he's played in.
 
Ah yes, because you signed Hojlund and Zirkzee as strikers, this lazy (and incorrect) take comes flying in. Of course.

You signed a kid who barely scored in Serie A, and then you signed a #10 to play as a #9, who also could barely score from open play in Serie A.

But sure.
Could become the next Rooney and RVD. Please be patient
 
What are these
Link-up play, hold up, dribbling and technique, weight of pass are among his strongest. Not scoring goals does not mean you don't have other qualities, you know. He has played few games for us and we are not exactly playing to his strengths. If you can't see these qualities with your own eyes, then I can't help you.
 
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I see a lot of (justifiable) criticism about his finishing but for me the worst thing is the fact he just spends the entire game trotting about like he’s shat himself

If he can’t even motivate himself to move properly in his first handful of games for the club then he’s a lost cause.

I’d honestly say I saw greater overall contribution from Weghorst and he was levels below the standard required for the Premier League.

Like I said after the Euros, and was jumped on for saying it, there is a reason Weghorst was ahead of him in the pecking order for Netherlands. The fact that he and Depay were favoured should have told us everything we need to know.
 
Link-up play, hold up, dribbling and technique, weight of pass are among his strongest. Not scoring goals does not mean you don't have other qualities, you know. He has played few games for us and we are not exactly playing to his strengths. If you can't see these qualities with your own eyes, then I can't help you.
Totally agree, but these all have gone completely missing in intense games. He has to adapt quickly, otherwise any time we play a big team (which for us is about a list of 10 teams), he's going to become ineffective.
 
This is my exact feeling. He looks bloated and out of shape - there is no sharpness to his play at all.

But this is the thing.. what did some of us expect? You cannot blame him, not at all. He is not a No 9, anybody can see that. He should play off a No 9, ideally.. he drops deep, and will therefore need midfielders running beyond him to get in the box and score, plus two wide players who can stretch (rather than slow play..) and score goals. We don't have those players at United. So we have Zirkzee, Bruno and Mount all playing from the same position. And none of them are playing to the best of their ability.

I would like to see him play off Rasmus, almost a traditional two-up-top.. maybe with a supporting wide player.. would need a v v flexible set up, but why not? Can't get any worst!

This is all, all on ETH. Zirkzee was not a target man at Bologna.. Bologna fans were saying that we should not expect a Centre Forward, rather an intelligent link player...
 
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He isn’t.

But it’ll be hard to argue that point at this time. I’ll wait till he’s playing under a manager who sets up the team to play and exploit the half spaces.

Speaking but saying nothing at all...

If you are going to disagree at least point to why you disagree. What has lead you so far to believe that he isn't?
 
No striker would look good currently. Too early to judge imo

Are you seriously suggesting you can't think of at least one striker who'd have scored the 5 or 6 on the plate chances he has had already?

:lol: don't be daft