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Joshua Zirkzee Netherlands flag

2024-25 Performances

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4.8 Season Average Rating
Appearances
25
Goals
4
Assists
2
Yellow cards
1
After a bad game.

Sell him. Dud. Atrocius. Nowhere near PL level. Worst united striker.

After a good game (Yes. There has been those as well.)

Start him over Rasmus. He is coming good. Top link up player. Our best striker.

Caf. It is not black or white. Get a grip.
 
I know were trying to buy cheaper players but we shouldn’t compromise on talent and mentality otherwise well just stack up for duds for the same outlay.
 
Posters have been calling him cheap - its a lot of money in the end. Its about £12 million up front which is cheaper...

But do you really think we couldnt have signed a striker who was better for £12 million?

Brentford signed Wissa for £8.3 million and he has 9 league goals and Mbeumo for £5.4 million and he has 10 league goals

Duran was signed for Villa for just a bit more at around £13.8 million and he has 7 league goals

These are just deals around the same as the initial fee.

The eventual fee (£36.5 million) will be more than Nicolas Jackson (£30 million) who starts for Chelsea and has 9 league goals, Chris Wood (£14.11 million) who has 10 league goals, Watkins (£28.2 million) who has 7 league goals, Strand Larsen (Loan with obligation to buy at £24.5 million) who has 6 league goals
 
Zico1982 said:
After a bad game.

Sell him. Dud. Atrocius. Nowhere near PL level. Worst united striker.

After a good game (Yes. There has been those as well.)

Start him over Rasmus. He is coming good. Top link up player. Our best striker.

Caf. It is not black or white. Get a grip.
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It is not "just one bad game".

It is clear and obvious that he is not a player with much fight and intensity.
 
Zico1982 said:
After a bad game.

Sell him. Dud. Atrocius. Nowhere near PL level. Worst united striker.

After a good game (Yes. There has been those as well.)

Start him over Rasmus. He is coming good. Top link up player. Our best striker.

Caf. It is not black or white. Get a grip.
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I kind of agree with the overall sentiment here. This forum and fans in general tend to overreact to individual performances. However, it's pretty clear that there is just so little there with Zirkzee. In such a critical game, he put in a completely worthless performance.
 
Zico1982 said:
After a bad game.

Sell him. Dud. Atrocius. Nowhere near PL level. Worst united striker.

After a good game (Yes. There has been those as well.)

Start him over Rasmus. He is coming good. Top link up player. Our best striker.

Caf. It is not black or white. Get a grip.
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Even when he has good games(which is 1 I believe, vs Everton where everyone where good because Everton where pure trash). I didn't want to see him start again.

He's genuinely not good enough for us if we want to be a top 3 team in the PL and anyone who says otherwise are kidding themselves.

He also pisses me so much off when he has poor matches (like yesterday, which is more often than not), that I genuinely believe I would fight someone who tries to defend his ability. Never seen an attacker that actually brings nothing to the team. Can't even be an asset at defending set pieces, with his height and size, because he's weak as piss, physically and mentally.
 
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Ekeke said:
Posters have been calling him cheap - its a lot of money in the end. Its about £12 million up front which is cheaper...

But do you really think we couldnt have signed a striker who was better for £12 million?

Brentford signed Wissa for £8.3 million and he has 9 league goals and Mbeumo for £5.4 million and he has 10 league goals

Duran was signed for Villa for just a bit more at around £13.8 million and he has 7 league goals

These are just deals around the same as the initial fee.

The eventual fee (£36.5 million) will be more than Nicolas Jackson (£30 million) who starts for Chelsea and has 9 league goals, Chris Wood (£14.11 million) who has 10 league goals, Watkins (£28.2 million) who has 7 league goals, Strand Larsen (Loan with obligation to buy at £24.5 million) who has 6 league goals
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You are right

Realistically if we didn't have a better forward scouted we would have been better not buying one and using the money to buy a player who was good enough in another position e..g left back
 
Zico1982 said:
After a bad game.

Sell him. Dud. Atrocius. Nowhere near PL level. Worst united striker.

After a good game (Yes. There has been those as well.)

Start him over Rasmus. He is coming good. Top link up player. Our best striker.

Caf. It is not black or white. Get a grip.
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Tbf the people who said this are the incorrect ones. He’s played well twice since he’s been here. Sometimes a minority folk on the Cafe are very very slow at realising things that are very obvious.
It’s tradition. A lot of people are with the idea that “time” fixes everything.
“ETH needs more time” “Anthony needs more time”. It is very black and white, there is no grey area with Zirkzee. He’s a shite footballer.
 
Has he been good overall? No.

Has he been a total dud? I think not.

It is still early days, and I have seen what he can do at Bayern. It is about playing him right. Zirkzee is no 9. He is a hybrid between a false9 and a 10. If used according to that, he will come good. Do we need him in the new system? Only, if he can do a better job at one of the two AMs than Bruno or Amad or Eriksen or Mount or Garnacho or Rashford. It is seven players for two spots, but then again. Rashford and Eriksen are probably on their way out and Mount is always battling with injuries. Garnacho doesn´t really fit in there, so often it will just be Bruno, Amad and Zirkzee left for those two spots. I think it is way too early to just give up on him.
 
We may have looked a bit better in the first half with him than we did in the second but it's not enough.

There are some things he does better than Hojlund and there are some things Hojlund does better but it's really irrelevant as both are well before the standard we need.

I honestly believe our most important need in January is a proper number nine
 
lsd said:
We may have looked a bit better in the first half with him than we did in the second but it's not enough.

There are some things he does better than Hojlund and there are some things Hojlund does better but it's really irrelevant as both are well before the standard we need.

I honestly believe our most important need in January is a proper number nine
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Midfield and defence looked better with Ugarte. Our attack looked much better in second half.
 
Not a great first signing for Ineos was he? As bad as any of Ten Hag's signings. He wouldn't start for any other PL team apart from Ipswich or Southampton maybe.
 
Feels like he was signed with the thought of helping Rashford recreate his goalscoring form.

Makes INEOS look even worse now if that was the case, as Zirkzee looks below standard and it seems a new decision has been made to jettison Rashford. Such a lack of strategical thinking and will be more millions wasted.
 
I wonder if we would have signed him had Bruno not had a question mark over his future at the beginning of the summer
 
That was an absolutely pathetic performance. Nothing stuck to him, and ball kept coming back at us time and time again due to his half arshed attempts. The Bournemouth centre halfs won't find an easier player to mark all season.

I was encouraged by a couple of cameos more recently but screaming at the television cos of him yesterday
 
If anyone expects our signings to work from day one, they are bound to get disappointed a lot of times. That works only, if the rest of the team is a well oiled machine, and sorry. We are a rusty Fiat at the moment. @Ludens the Red. Time does not heal everything. I wanted EtH and Anthony out a long time ago, and I want Rashford and a couple of other players out as well. I am also no Zirkzee-Fanboy whatsoever. I´ll give any new player a season to adjust to a new team and a new league. He is in our starting 11 only wenn Rasmus needs a break, and I am fine with that. If he is still not up to speed in the summer sell him, but to judge on this sample is not serious.
 
Zico1982 said:
After a bad game.

Sell him. Dud. Atrocius. Nowhere near PL level. Worst united striker.

After a good game (Yes. There has been those as well.)

Start him over Rasmus. He is coming good. Top link up player. Our best striker.

Caf. It is not black or white. Get a grip.
Click to expand...

You know the Caf isn't a single entity right. So it's different people holding different opinions. Some saying sell, some saying keep, some having doubts.

The forum isn't black or white but at ye same time this isn't a complicated topic that requires a high level of nuance.
 
It's clear and obvious that Zirzkee should be playing ahead of Hojlund.. Better technically, and with the limited appearances this season already has more league goals than Hojlund.. Add to that we look better with Zirzkee on the field than with Hojlund. Still can't believe we spent 72 Million on Hojlund and all we have from him is 12 league goals in 42 league appearances.
 
New system, new league, service, young(ish), Bruno, needs time, potential.....no? That works only with Hojlund?

And yeah, he was bad yesterday, without question.
 
Eagle_eye said:
It's clear and obvious that Zirzkee should be playing ahead of Hojlund.. Better technically, and with the limited appearances this season already has more league goals than Hojlund.. Add to that we look better with Zirzkee on the field than with Hojlund. Still can't believe we spent 72 Million on Hojlund and all we have from him is 12 league goals in 42 league appearances.
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Tell me you don't watch our matches without telling me
 
Eagle_eye said:
It's clear and obvious that Zirzkee should be playing ahead of Hojlund.. Better technically, and with the limited appearances this season already has more league goals than Hojlund.. Add to that we look better with Zirzkee on the field than with Hojlund. Still can't believe we spent 72 Million on Hojlund and all we have from him is 12 league goals in 42 league appearances.
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Laughable...

Zirkzee looks lost, he's OK with loads of time and space and clear cut chances. However at the top level of football you need to do not than just wait for the ball to come to you. We are struggling and need someone to actually win the ball and hold the ball, he just can't do it.
 
Tosicsleftpeg said:
Laughable...

Zirkzee looks lost, he's OK with loads of time and space and clear cut chances. However at the top level of football you need to do not than just wait for the ball to come to you. We are struggling and need someone to actually win the ball and hold the ball, he just can't do it.
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Can Hojlund do it? He's had 42 league games and offers non of the above and cost us £72m. It's all good doing it against league 1 level teams in the Europa or league Cup, but put him against a decent team and he goes missing. The biggest waste of money in recent times. Zirzkees only had a handful of games in his United career and is rapidly improving.. People who can't see that are what's wrong with our fanbase.
 
Zirkzee is straight trash of all the bad signings over the years I'd put him near the top. He literally offers nothing and should never start over Hojlund.
 
Eagle_eye said:
Can Hojlund do it? He's had 42 league games and offers non of the above and cost us £72m. It's all good doing it against league 1 level teams in the Europa or league Cup, but put him against a decent team and he goes missing. The biggest waste of money in recent times. Zirzkees only had a handful of games in his United career and is rapidly improving.. People who can't see that are what's wrong with our fanbase.
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He was top scorer in the Champions League last season until we went out. For a highly disfunctionional team.
He presses and actually has speed. All of which is missing from Zirkzee. The ladder is more of a provider which doesn't suit our new system.
Like I said...clearly not watching
 
Andycoleno9 said:
New system, new league, service, young(ish), Bruno, needs time, potential.....no? That works only with Hojlund?

And yeah, he was bad yesterday, without question.
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I agree. Unless a young player is completely useless we should give him at least half a season to adapt to the league etc.
You haven’t cut Hojlund that same slack, though…
 
Both him and Hojlund are like useful reserve strikers. Neither one is good enough to carry the attack on their own.

We needed to sign someone with proven goalscoring pedigree and both times we've failed to do that.
 
Are we sure he's an INEOS signing? The fact that he's Dutch makes me think otherwise, or that he's at least a compromise candidate that all parties signed off on.
 
Zirkzee needs ball at his feet to perform. He basically would never perform well with Bruno in the team. It's just easy to tell. Bruno wants him to play like Rashford and gives too many inconsistent through balls for him to chase. Bruno can play simple and give Zirkzee the ball to his feet when Zirkzee shows to it, then all will click. But Bruno would not do it as he loves to monopolize all the key passes.

Zirkzee is more like Zlatan / Berbatov type of player with silky touch and good ball control. But ultimately the coach needs to play his strength and guide the team resource towards it, not like throwing him on pitch and then let him rot with Bruno's Hollywood style.
 
Andycoleno9 said:
New system, new league, service, young(ish), Bruno, needs time, potential.....no? That works only with Hojlund?

And yeah, he was bad yesterday, without question.
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Whatever your age you have to earn patience.

All you have to do to earn patience is show willingness. Pretty simple really for the player in question. Just show you want it.

Zirkzee just isn't doing that right now. Hojlund is.
 
Marwood said:
Whatever your age you have to earn patience.

All you have to do to earn patience is show willingness. Pretty simple really for the player in question. Just show you want it.

Zirkzee just isn't doing that right now. Hojlund is.
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Zirzkee certainly shows willingness. Hes often closing down players and getting stuck in. His presence in the air is also far better.
 
VP89 said:
Zirzkee certainly shows willingness. Hes often closing down players and getting stuck in. His presence in the air is also far better.
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He shows it in bits but that's not willingness. No player literally walks around not one bit bothered. The odd spurt here and there is the bare minimum.

Relative to what's required of a top end athlete his application on the pitch isn't there.

I think he's got the ability to be something but he has to quickly learn the aim of football isn't to look as cool as you can.

One way or another a United player has to be aggressive. There are different ways of being aggressive but the fans have to feel it in a player to give them that patience.

Fans aren't stupid. They've been watching the game for decades. They know when a player is phoning it in.
 
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