Joshua Zirkzee | signed for Manchester United

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Didnt watch the game last night so dont know how he played. But he is a good player, not a natural goalscorer but he will do his bit here.

Can be involved in some combination play, allow Hojlund to run the channels, an upgrade on McTominay for the advanced role he plays alongside the latter.
 
BayernFan87 said:
I havent followed him closely since he left Bayern, but i dont think he is the player you need.

He is best as a second striker, false 9 or #10.
He is a bit like Firmino, or a taller Gabriel Jesus or a Havertz without the good runs.

And at least at Bayern he was known to not be determined enough. Apparently at all fitness tests Salihamidzic taunted him with the results of Lewandowski and told him that this is the level he needs to get to.

This scene captures his mentality when he was at Bayern, dont know if it got better:
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Which is perfect our wingers, especially Rashford and Garnacho, who like to use their running power to get in behind.

Although unreliable, we saw the difference Martial made when he started up top, as he had the ability to drop off into the pockets and link play.

ten Hag also experimented with Bruno as a false 9 against Newcastle and City and in my opinion, it worked.

For me, having the options of Hojlund and Zirkzee make total sense.
 
avgp_1 said:
Didnt watch the game last night so dont know how he played. But he is a good player, not a natural goalscorer but he will do his bit here.

Can be involved in some combination play, allow Hojlund to run the channels, an upgrade on McTominay for the advanced role he plays alongside the latter.
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I thought that was Mounts job?
 
When Wout Weghorst is considered to be a more effective substitution (and to his credit actually did have a big impact on the result) - it tells you everything about this potential signing.

I suppose there is a lot of room for improvement there, which is what I suppose our scouts are looking at.
 
IrishRedDevil said:
I thought that was Mounts job?
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Not sure what ETH's plan is with Mount. I believe he has the technical ability and workrate to play the #8 role though he doesn't get involved nearly as much. With Mainoo now settled in the XI, looks a waste of a signing tbh
 
I really don’t understand this transfer

we need experience, we need goals, we need someone to have an impact from day 1.

looking at his career he doesn’t seem a big goal scorer. I am not sure what his strengths are. And during the European tournament he has only got a limited amount of minutes with many players being above him in the pecking order and Netherlands don’t even have any good forwards if you ask me. This transfer sounds too much like an ETH telling the club I want a player I know from before…… hope I am mistaken
 
With the pressure ETH is under, I would have thought he would go for someone ready to hit the ground running. This signing looks like he could take time to settle. This could go the same way as DVB.
 
greater wall said:
With the pressure ETH is under, I would have thought he would go for someone ready to hit the ground running. This signing looks like he could take time to settle. This could go the same way as DVB.
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A striker ready to come in and hit the ground running would cost a lot more, and that's a problem for us atm.

That being said though this is where we are exposed for our seeming lack of scouting network. We always seem to go for players either already at big clubs, or have failed at big clubs.
 
midou said:
Højlund is better and younger.
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Zirkzee got 13 goals in the league. Hojlund got 9 when playing for Atalanta and Atalanta are a better team and more attacking team. We have better players which should improve Zirkzee
 
greater wall said:
With the pressure ETH is under, I would have thought he would go for someone ready to hit the ground running. This signing looks like he could take time to settle. This could go the same way as DVB.
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I don’t even think he wanted a natural goalscorer. I think he wanted more of a link up ST someone that can improve the wingers and improve the style of play. We played our best football when Martial was upfront despite him not scoring many he was better at linking up with players around him.
 
Carl said:
A striker ready to come in and hit the ground running would cost a lot more, and that's a problem for us atm.

That being said though this is where we are exposed for our seeming lack of scouting network. We always seem to go for players either already at big clubs, or have failed at big clubs.
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Toney is available. He is not top 4 calibre but neither are we currently. He could add some experience for a similar amount of money.
 
#07 said:
I have to admit, I am not a regular Bologna watcher so I have to believe that our recruitment department has seen what it needs to see to go after Zirkzee. My first time seeing anything of him came last night. Wasn't impressed. Nonetheless, you would say that about Hojlund based on this Euros. Hojlund scored 16 goals for us last season, despite having a bit of an injury break during the spring, so who knows?
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He came on in the 87th minute of a quarter final after playing no football all tournament. There’s virtually nothing sensible to take from his cameo last night.
 
the_cliff said:
How is he in the air ? does he win aerial battles ? seems like a unit.
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No, statistically he seems quite crap in the air for a player his height.

The USP of this guy is he’s “quick feet for a big guy”. Ball-carrying and linking up play to bring others into play are his best traits. A Martial striker, though probably less clinical in front of goal but more fit.
 
DJ_21 said:
Zirkzee got 13 goals in the league. Hojlund got 9 when playing for Atalanta and Atalanta are a better team and more attacking team. We have better players which should improve Zirkzee
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Actually, he scored 11 goals, 2 of which were penalties and he played 1000 minutes more than Højlund did for Atalanta. Bologna has also been equally as offensive as Atalanta was at the time Højlund played for them. Højlund scored 9, none of which were penalties, so Højlund did better than Zirkzee in terms of output because he played much fewer minutes, and he is also two years younger.
Not saying Zirkzee isn't good, just pointing out that what you said is incorrect. I like Zirkzee's profile, though, and I think he can offer something we don't have at the moment. I just don't hope the reason we buy him is to fit with Rashford.
 
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#07 said:
I have to admit, I am not a regular Bologna watcher so I have to believe that our recruitment department has seen what it needs to see to go after Zirkzee. My first time seeing anything of him came last night. Wasn't impressed. Nonetheless, you would say that about Hojlund based on this Euros. Hojlund scored 16 goals for us last season, despite having a bit of an injury break during the spring, so who knows?
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What exactly did you expect of him when he came on? Help defend, pick up the ball and dribble the ball into Turkiye their goal? This was hardly a time for him to impress. Turkiye was playing all or nothing. We lost control and couldnt even play the ball towards midfielders.

He also made his debut for our national team yesterday. His last competitive game was at the beginning of may. Inbetween he picked up a small injury and went to Disney Land before he was emergency airlifted to our national team.

How he played last night hardly says anything about him as a player at all.
 
Onerealunited said:
I really don’t understand this transfer

we need experience, we need goals, we need someone to have an impact from day 1.

looking at his career he doesn’t seem a big goal scorer. I am not sure what his strengths are. And during the European tournament he has only got a limited amount of minutes with many players being above him in the pecking order and Netherlands don’t even have any good forwards if you ask me. This transfer sounds too much like an ETH telling the club I want a player I know from before…… hope I am mistaken
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Absolute nonsense. Zirkzee has been well known in NL for a while now due mostly for his goalscoring records in youth teams. It’s all the other things which have been more of a question mark, certainly not his goal scoring record which has never been in doubt.
I can sort of understand why United are after him, there aren’t many of his type & age available. I have concerns about his work rate & attitude, but he was outstanding at Bologna last season and does seem to have grown up a little. Most pundits in Holland want him starting for Holland at no.9 for example because they think he’s the best Dutch striker.
 
Irrational. said:
When Wout Weghorst is considered to be a more effective substitution (and to his credit actually did have a big impact on the result) - it tells you everything about this potential signing.

I suppose there is a lot of room for improvement there, which is what I suppose our scouts are looking at.
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Weghorst is a decent footballer, he's not a great finisher but his all round game is for the benefit of the side and I actually think he's a brilliant squad player for any club really.
 
greater wall said:
Toney is available. He is not top 4 calibre but neither are we currently. He could add some experience for a similar amount of money.
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He is 28 and would cost at least 60 million ...just what we should not sign
 
Nefario said:
Actually, he scored 11 goals, 2 of which were penalties and he played 1000 minutes more than Højlund did for Atalanta. Bologna has also been equally as offensive as Atalanta was at the time Højlund played for them. Højlund scored 9, none of which were penalties, so Højlund did better than Zirkzee in terms of output because he played much fewer minutes, and he is also two years younger.
Not saying Zirkzee isn't good, just pointing out that what you said is incorrect. I like Zirkzee's profile, though, and I think he can offer something we don't have at the moment. I just don't hope the reason we buy him is to fit with Rashford.
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Finally someone with actual sense.
 
Stadjer said:
What exactly did you expect of him when he came on? Help defend, pick up the ball and dribble the ball into Turkiye their goal? This was hardly a time for him to impress. Turkiye was playing all or nothing. We lost control and couldnt even play the ball towards midfielders.

He also made his debut for our national team yesterday. His last competitive game was at the beginning of may. Inbetween he picked up a small injury and went to Disney Land before he was emergency airlifted to our national team.

How he played last night hardly says anything about him as a player at all.
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Too much common sense and logic in your post, that should be illegal. How anyone can even judge him based on that cameo is wild.
 
Rams said:
Absolute nonsense. Zirkzee has been well known in NL for a while now due mostly for his goalscoring records in youth teams. It’s all the other things which have been more of a question mark, certainly not his goal scoring record which has never been in doubt.
I can sort of understand why United are after him, there aren’t many of his type & age available. I have concerns about his work rate & attitude, but he was outstanding at Bologna last season and does seem to have grown up a little. Most pundits in Holland want him starting for Holland at no.9 for example because they think he’s the best Dutch striker.
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Bologna 23/24: 12
Bologna: 22/23: 2
Anderlecht: 21/22: 18
Parma/Bayern: 20/21: 0

Above is what he has done last 4 years. He is 23 years old. He is not young. There is no purpose in checking his goalscoring in youth level, if you do so then our own Charlie McNeill would be a world star today given the significant amount of goals he has scored at youth level. There is a huge difference between scoring goals at youth level and continue to do so at senior level. Bar his season at Anderlecht he does not seem to be a good goalscorer. And I would not use 18 goals scored in the Belgium league as a indicator of him being a very good goalscorer. I really hope that in the end that you are right and that he can score +20 goals every season he is with us
 
Irrational. said:
When Wout Weghorst is considered to be a more effective substitution (and to his credit actually did have a big impact on the result) - it tells you everything about this potential signing.

I suppose there is a lot of room for improvement there, which is what I suppose our scouts are looking at.
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Lutsharel Geertruida is also above Frimpong for Koeman. It tells you everything about Koeman.
 
Apols if already been said but based on a few mins last night, he looked like he could operate in the wide forward positions as well as an out-and-out striker, is that right? Can see the rationale for that as gives us another option.

Incidentally, i thought Gakpo looked good last night, again one who can operate anywhere across the forward line, on reflection would have been a good addition.
 
UpWithRivers said:
Why do people keep saying this. Are we just going to act like Everton and buy Maupay because we can't afford any better. We are Man Utd. Either find the fkn money or sacrifice another position or wait if we have to. I'm not saying Zirksee is good or not. I'm saying we better not be buying him because he's cheap and we can't afford anyone else.
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C'est Moi Cantona said:
But this shouldn't be a choice between David or Zirkzee.
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Who's better? Find the money from where?! Have you not been following the news around the club at all? Sacrifice which position? Because most of them need at least a partial upgrade, but up front we only gave Højlund.

There's obviously a reason they want to sign him, which has been discussed in this thread numerous times already, although I imagine the fact he has a reasonable release clause has pushed him ahead of other potential targets. We're not going to pay silly money for someone like Osimhen, and while I'm sure our scouts have a list of young strikers, it's unlikely any of them would be ready to play straight away, unlike Zirkzee.

We finished 8th last season, can't offer CL football this one, can't guarantee regular CL football at all right now, so it's unlikely any half decent striker will want to sit on our bench.

Zirkzee is basically a replacement for Martial but might actually stay fit for half a season. He probably won't pull up any trees, but offers something different, won't have massive wages, and leaves plenty left in the transfer budget without immediately needing to sell. Which is important, as nobody looks like they're in a hurry to sign Casemiro, Sancho, or Greenwood.

If/when we want to improve on him in a few seasons, selling him on shouldn't be a massive burden, like it has been with some players.
 
greater wall said:
I think that he has one year left on his contract. He will probably go for £40m or less given his wage demands.
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He's irreplaceable to Brentford who've been pretty adamant they want a lot of money for him. For £40m they'd probably rather keep him and let him go for free next summer, which is what will probably happen.
 
greater wall said:
With the pressure ETH is under, I would have thought he would go for someone ready to hit the ground running. This signing looks like he could take time to settle. This could go the same way as DVB.
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This is my feeling as well. DVB was signed but it didnt look like the right fit right from the beginning. We had Pogba and Bruno who were attacking minded midfielders, so where was Donny going to play? The manager said he could play him with them... Then he didnt. He wasnt the right type of player to add to what we had, that would have been someone to play deeper

Zirkzee seems like he'd do a worse version of what Bruno was doing for us in our final run of games for the season where we did well and won the cup. Instead of getting someone better to do the supporting runs of McTominay and Mainoo and get goals, Zirzkee would Bruno's part of beeing the deeper player passing to them. Maybe Zirkzee doing the striker role with Bruno supporting will see him score lots of goals and be at his best... I'm not sure thats better than Hojlund starting with Bruno supporting.
 
Onerealunited said:
Bologna 23/24: 12
Bologna: 22/23: 2
Anderlecht: 21/22: 18
Parma/Bayern: 20/21: 0

Above is what he has done last 4 years. He is 23 years old. He is not young. There is no purpose in checking his goalscoring in youth level, if you do so then our own Charlie McNeill would be a world star today given the significant amount of goals he has scored at youth level. There is a huge difference between scoring goals at youth level and continue to do so at senior level. Bar his season at Anderlecht he does not seem to be a good goalscorer. And I would not use 18 goals scored in the Belgium league as a indicator of him being a very good goalscorer. I really hope that in the end that you are right and that he can score +20 goals every season he is with us
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He’s been regarded probably the hottest prospect in Dutch football by the Dutch themselves for some years now due to his goal scoring record at youth level, also at Bayern’s youth team. Now you can argue whether you think he deserved that tag, but not that he was considered as such by the Dutch themselves because that’s a fact.
I’m not usually a fan of judging people by clips on you tube, but one thing that does stand out is his calmness when scoring. That I think is one of the most important attributes of a natural goal scorer.
 
As long as his hold up/link up play is better than Hojlund's he'll be a welcome addition because that's something we really lacked last season with Martial out.
 
Crimson King said:
Who's better? Find the money from where?! Have you not been following the news around the club at all? Sacrifice which position? Because most of them need at least a partial upgrade, but up front we only gave Højlund.

There's obviously a reason they want to sign him, which has been discussed in this thread numerous times already, although I imagine the fact he has a reasonable release clause has pushed him ahead of other potential targets. We're not going to pay silly money for someone like Osimhen, and while I'm sure our scouts have a list of young strikers, it's unlikely any of them would be ready to play straight away, unlike Zirkzee.

We finished 8th last season, can't offer CL football this one, can't guarantee regular CL football at all right now, so it's unlikely any half decent striker will want to sit on our bench.

Zirkzee is basically a replacement for Martial but might actually stay fit for half a season. He probably won't pull up any trees, but offers something different, won't have massive wages, and leaves plenty left in the transfer budget without immediately needing to sell. Which is important, as nobody looks like they're in a hurry to sign Casemiro, Sancho, or Greenwood.

If/when we want to improve on him in a few seasons, selling him on shouldn't be a massive burden, like it has been with some players.
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Again you're talking like we are Everton.
 
Martial was a proper striker for us he was never seen as a false 9 or number 10 so I don’t get how he keeps being compared to Zirkzee. Sure Martial could link up play if he needed to but he was never too far away from the box. Bruno was always occupying the deeper positions and linked with Martial ahead of him.

There are many proper No.9 that can bring others into play and still occupy the role of a traditional striker. Isak, Jackson, Watkins and Toney can all do this.

Thinking we need a false 9 to unlock Rashford and Garnacho is wrong for so many reasons. One of the best attacks we’ve had post SAF is when we had Cavani up front.
 
Deal almost complete.

Have my doubts, and would have preferred a more proven goal scorer, but will get behind and support the player and hope I am wrong.
 
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