Would take him, United need a different profile to Hojlund who is more reminiscent of a typical number 9 who's better suited being at the end of play. The problem is United don't have the players to accommodate this systematically and i'd argue Hojlund overperformed last season as a result.
Mentions of speed are of little importance in the modern game for forwards playing against compact defences or teams where the opposition drop two banks of four across defensive areas.
It's why Isak's thread when we was at Sociedad barely got three page contributions on the site, Newcastle identified his profile and now arguably have the second best striker in the league or the best if you account for his overall play compared to Halaand.
When you assess the selfishness of Garnacho, Rashford and Anthony they all play inverted, having a forward who will drop into those pockets of spaces where the wider players are drifting into opens up the opposition, dragging them out of position and the team can play 1-2's or breaking line / reverse passes to exploit.
It's a reason to this date from my own observation that the best United have looked under Erik as a team was season before last towards the new year with Rashford as the center forward and Sancho-Garnacho / Anthony wide. Statistically the team had more possession in games away from home and in the Spurs 2-0 victory it was 28 shots to Spurs's 9, similar with the Chelsea draw 1-1 United had the better statistics in more competitive games.
Top post.
Glad I'm not the only one who can see this.
We don't need another striker in the mould of Hojlund; what we need is a creative striker/forward basically replacing what Martial did in Ole season two where he had Martial playing deeper as a creative forward for two inverted forwards in Rashford & Greenwood. 6 assists and 17 goals.
This is why i think actually Sancho leaving us last year was a bigger problem than people realise because he was aligned to be our False 9 since pre season under Ten Hag and did quite well there, yet he didnt get picked straight away and the rest is history.
Garnacho - Sancho - Rashford
Would have been more balanced than Hojlund playing in between two inverted forwards like :
Garnacho - Hojlund - Rashford
What's interesting is that when playing Hojlund as a striker who basically runs the channels trying to beat the defence - Sancho would have been on paper would have been one of the main creators to Hojlund getting chances from his through balls from out wide.
Amad - Hojlund - Sancho
Is probably the most creative side we have for a player like Hojlund with two players providing through balls to Hojlund to run in and finish.
This is why I would prefer a player like Zirkzee because he is a creative forward that can best out of Rashford, Garnacho, Antony, Amad and even Greenwood depending who stays.
LW- Amad/Gwood/Antony/Garnacho
CF - Zirkzee
RW - Rashford, Garnacho
Two inverted forwards playing on the inside of a creative centre forward/false 9.
This is also why I'm okay with Sancho having another go at United if he can sort things out with Ten Hag -
Because
A) He can create chances directly to Hojljnd from both at LW & RW for him to tap in.
B) He can actually play as a False 9 and create for the inverted forwards too say incase Zirkzee gets injured as seen in last season's pre season
C) He can actually be a better back up LW & RW inverted forward than for example Antony aswell.
However, the main reason i want Zirkzee is because it solidifies a spot in our tactic of playing a creative forward inbetween two inverted forwards similair to how signing Havertz solidfied arsenal's tactics when played between trossard & Saka.
Once the tactic is added to our list of tactics ( it already is because in the final few games Bruno F played as a false 9 whilst Hojlund played off the bench) by signing a player for that role then it will always be part of our gameplan whether its our 1st or 2nd gameplan.
This is why Zirkzee is an important signing and actually can also on paper make Sancho be a bit better than he has been either as another False 9 or even as a creative wide player for Hojlund.
