Joshua Zirkzee | signed for Manchester United

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Hester_manc said:
I am not so sure that he is better than Højlund. But he since he is dutch he might get an advantage from Erik Ten Hag.
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Like Mainoo who got the biggest advantage this past season due to his overwhelming Dutch-ness
 
We need another player upfront to rotate with Hojlund and it's not a bad price. We're never going to get a particularly great player for that price, you either get a solid option that you know can play to a decent level (which this seems to be) or take a gamble on finding the next potentially great striker (which would be the more fun but risky option), so this isn't a signing that is likely to be that exciting or transformative but makes the squad better than having the corpse of Anthony Martial as our alternative choice upfront.
 
Can’t same I’m too excited about this signing but I’ve never seen him play.
 
Rossa said:
What? I’d say players normally change quite drastically after 25-28, especially forwards. Wingers tend to go from all action dribbling and taking on their defenders, to becoming more efficient. Forwards also conserve their energy more. Most players become stronger and wiser in their play.

Then they lose a little pace and energy and have to either adapt or decline.
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I kind of meant in terms of his style. I rarely see a player who isn’t good at heading at the age, for example, suddenly become good in the air. Hojlund lacks it too so we wouldn’t have much aerial presence up front.
 
He’s a good age and somebody who can rotate the striker position. His record isn’t great but I feel he will be a good addition to the squad
 
dannyrhinos89 said:
Can’t same I’m too excited about this signing but I’ve never seen him play.
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hellhunter said:
Kinda hard to get hyped about
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He’s 23 and I’d never once heard of him. Scoring record isn’t great either.

Seems a very left field one for a team claiming they want to win titles and compete for the CL again.

But we will see.
 
This looks like it must be based on some kind of analytics because on paper or age nothing you'd get majorly thrilled by. Not buying it's about being Dutch as the whole point of paying some very expensive new staff is for them to provide the insight, not the manager.
 
Castia said:
He’s a good age and somebody who can rotate the striker position. His record isn’t great but I feel he will be a good addition to the squad
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We can't complain and whine 365 days a year about not getting young players with potential before they explode and us paying enormous amounts of money for them after they're balling

 
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Surprised about relative reluctance towards this transfer here. From what I have heard he has been highly regarded at Bologna, is still quite young and seems to fit the profile that we need to target.

Also the fee is small enough that we will probably not even lose much money if he were to fail to establish himself here and we needed to shift him 2-3 years down the line.
 
I just can't bring myself to be excited about this transfer, but I think he is going to surprise a lot of people including myself. He seems to have exceptional decision making and football intelligence combined with his link-up ability, I also think he is going to be a very decent signing. Sometimes, it's these type of signings that clubs get the most out of, and not the very highly rated players.
 
Don't forget Van Nistelrooy is going to be coaching him and Hojlund very closely.

I think they'll both do well.
 
Zirkzee is very highly talented. Scored 4 goals in 295 minutes in 19/20 (3 starts, 3 sub appearances) with Bayern when Lewy was injured. But usually did not get many minutes because of Lewy and got first loaned to Parma for half a season and then to Anderlecht. He performed at Anderlecht with 15 and 16 goals in 2 seasons. Then he went to Bologna.
He can be very clutch.

Bayern still has a 50% sell-on-clause...
 
Solius said:
I kind of meant in terms of his style. I rarely see a player who isn’t good at heading at the age, for example, suddenly become good in the air. Hojlund lacks it too so we wouldn’t have much aerial presence up front.
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Fair enough. Haaland has worked wonders on his heading, as did Ronaldo, but neither was/is 23 before they became good at it. You have a point.
 
Voted young Serie A player of the year last season and 11 goals and 7 assists in 34 appearances in Serie A. He's quick and skillful and hopefully does well and fee is not astronomical. Need a CB and CM badly as well.
 
He's exactly the type of signing the club should be making age, profile, market value and potential pedigree. Those stating otherwise haven't a clue especially taking into consideration the individuals involved at the hierarchy of the club.

Many would have turned their nose up at Isak while playing for Sociedad under the same circumstances.
 
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These are the types of signings that i can get excited about. Young, not expensive and already has a good reputation. And if half the Caf doesn’t rate him, then it’s also usually a very good sign
 
Just proves no matter who we sign, some people will always complain.
We have to start improving talent otherwise we are heading nowhere. Any decent striker with a prolific record and you’ll be quoted £70m+ these days.
It’s also funny, some of the people complaining that he isn’t a proven goal scorer will complain that we haven’t signed a player before he exploded on to the scene.
 
honirelandboy said:
Voted young Serie A player of the year last season and 11 goals and 7 assists in 34 appearances in Serie A. He's quick and skillful and hopefully does well and fee is not astronomical. Need a CB and CM badly as well.
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What do they know, we watched him for 5 minutes yesterday and have decided he’s terrible.

We have also decided he is too slow.
 
Abraxas said:
This looks like it must be based on some kind of analytics because on paper or age nothing you'd get majorly thrilled by. Not buying it's about being Dutch as the whole point of paying some very expensive new staff is for them to provide the insight, not the manager.
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His analytics profile is super average, it's not down to that.

It's raw attributes that he has which makes people think he can put it together and have a high potential, but otherwise he has a reasonable release clause, is relatively young, and we have a hole in the squad where he fits. Competition for Hojlund and a different option to change games, while having the physical capabilities to learn how to be a more dominant CF.
 
Adisa said:
This is bizarre. Which player has ETH favoured cause he’s Dutch?
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ETH has preferred quite a few players who have played in the Dutch league, so it is reasonable to believe that he will also prefer Dutch players if possible.

United players from the Dutch league that ETH has signed (or loaned) with in his short time at the club:

Malacia - Dutch left back, who is no way near good enough.

Martinez

Anthony

Eriksen

Amrabat - born in Holland and played there.

Wout Weghorst - Dutch striker, no where near good enough, but had so many chances by ETH.
 
Hester_manc said:
ETH has preferred quite a few players who have played in the Dutch league, so it is reasonable to believe that he will also prefer Dutch players if possible.

United players from the Dutch league that ETH has signed (or loaned) with in his short time at the club:

Malacia - Dutch left back, who is no way near good enough.

Martinez

Anthony

Eriksen

Amrabat - born in Holland and played there.

Wout Weghorst - Dutch striker, no where near good enough, but had so many chances by ETH.
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I wonder if Zirkzee was at Bayern when ETH was a second team coach there.
Anyways looks like the signing seems imminent. Hope he does well. Dennis Bergkamp took a while to adjust to the PL so I wouldn't expect too much from him in the first season.
 
Hester_manc said:
ETH has preferred quite a few players who have played in the Dutch league, so it is reasonable to believe that he will also prefer Dutch players if possible.

United players from the Dutch league that ETH has signed (or loaned) with in his short time at the club:

Malacia - Dutch left back, who is no way near good enough.

Martinez

Anthony

Eriksen

Amrabat - born in Holland and played there.

Wout Weghorst - Dutch striker, no where near good enough, but had so many chances by ETH.
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Eriksen is a known entity and played for many years in the EPL with Spurs and Brentford, played at Inter too in Italy.

You forgot Onana as player who previously played under EtH like Martinez and Antony.
 
greater wall said:
I wonder if Zirkzee was at Bayern when ETH was a second team coach there.
Anyways looks like the signing seems imminent. Hope he does well. Dennis Bergkamp took a while to adjust to the PL so I wouldn't expect too much from him in the first season.
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He wasn't.
 
Could be a useful squad player for us. He improves the current squad, for sure, so that's a positive.

Hojlund is unquestionably a better striker, with a much higher ceiling too, but Zirkzee is a very different profile, and will give us some tactical flexibility, which is good.

For £34m and I presume relatively low wages, there's a slim chance we're making a mistake here. I don't hate it, but we could definitely do better, though.
 
Another thing that worries me is the intensity he plays at. He seems like a Berbatov type of player that can appear to look lazy, I’ve not seen enough of him to know if he actually is but these types of players get on the fan’s bad side the quickest. We saw it with Sancho, Pogba and Martial too. Technical skills are great but you better add some intensity to that.
 
Hester_manc said:
ETH has preferred quite a few players who have played in the Dutch league, so it is reasonable to believe that he will also prefer Dutch players if possible.

United players from the Dutch league that ETH has signed (or loaned) with in his short time at the club:

Malacia - Dutch left back, who is no way near good enough.

Martinez

Anthony

Eriksen

Amrabat - born in Holland and played there.

Wout Weghorst - Dutch striker, no where near good enough, but had so many chances by ETH.
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Preferred to who?

You're wrong about Malacia btw
 
Not a transfer that excites me. Unclear how he fits in this team, and just seems like an average player, not one that moves the needle. But I suppose he could raise the floor a bit, and for that price I guess it's alright.
 
Is he quality? I think yes.
But is he another player (like Mount) who is not a type of a player which we need? We need classic no9 who will bring goals and danger in the box. This guy strikes me more as a second striker/defensive forward.
 
Having never watched a full game of his and therefore only being able to go off his stats, I think this deal flatters to deceive. I’ve heard that he’s very much a creative striker in the Firmino mould, but 13 goals in 53 Serie A appearances is not great. Needless to say though, I hope he proves my concerns to be absolute nonsense and scores a bucketload of goals next season.

Having said that, I can also already see multiple positives in this deal. For one, he’s 6’4, has a pretty big build and as I said, seems to be a striker who enjoys dropping deep, so hopefully he can help us get up the pitch much more efficiently and stylishly with his hold up play, as that is something we really struggle with as evidenced by the number of low percentage long passes Onana was forced to play last season. Signing him will also enable us to rest Højlund whenever necessary without drastically decreasing his game time, which will undoubtedly benefit his development. I’m sure Zirkzee is better than Martial and Weghorst, so the drop off in quality won’t be too large in the games that he plays.
 
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