Joshua Zirkzee | signed for Manchester United

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I hate versatile players, just give me player who is specialist in one position. I am always giddy about new players, but this one just leave me "meh" .

It is probably because of ten years of bad recruiment.
 
You bought a top talent at cheap price. Zirkzee is a number 10 with the physique of a number 9. Next year he will worth the double. Ziikzee - Hoilund is a combo with incredible potential.
Finally for the fist time in the post Ferguson era I can see a project. De Ligt, Ugarte, Yoro, Branthwaite, Zirkzee... And not the Casemiros with cray wages. All your targets are young players with big potential and you can finally open a new cicle.
 
Seems a fair price for a potentially good player. Let’s see how he performs in the PL and judge at the end of the season. I’m yet to impressed by our recent Serie A signing.
 
Added another piece to our young frontline.

Building for the future instead of signing stop gap strikers. You can't complain about that. We are finally acting like a proper club.

Whether or not he can make it in the prem is yet to be seen, but at his size he should be fine.
 
roonster09 said:
No, it's not 2 seasons that prompted the clubs to sign the players. It's their latest season, but then you saw Zirkzee scored only 2 goals in season before that, so you added 2 seasons instead of 1 or 5. To make it worse you even said he was starter when he played just 800 mins.

It was never whether Zirkzee was as good as Salah or his numbers were better. It was 2 clubs signing players who didn't have very good numbers to built awesome attack. It's not really difficult to understand.
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We disagree that Salahs numbers were not good, but again you want to keep making the point so like I said before lets agree to disagree.
In any case though like I have previously said, Zirkzee was a very highly rated talent so lets see what happens. I'm pretty sure we will add another attacker to our lineup because the club knows we are short in attack
There are even rumours of adding a more established striker like Toney or Boniface
 
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Seems like an interesting player, and obviously will provide something different to our attacking setup. But I keep wondering how will he fit in the same team with Bruno. I guess they will occupy the same zones if he drops deep to receive the ball.
Interesting to see, on another hand we will probably be more flexible and can use different shapes accommodating both Zirkzee and Rasmus at the same team, maybe with 3 at the back. Something like 3-5-2 or 3-4-3.
 
LawCharltonBest said:
Hopefully he drops deep like Kane for Spurs and becomes effective in games
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This is his game. He is a forward-playmaker. He reminds me Berbatov or Ibrahimovic. Or also Kane. But he has more dribbling skills than Kane and less gols (but he is young and can improve).
 
With Rashford/Garnacho on each side and Bruno at number 10, playmaking number 9 is a no brainer. It is the kind of striker we definitely need and we are probably betting on his goalscoring numbers to go up a bit.
 
Natener said:
To Kane or not to Kane? That is the question.
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Spurs Kane was good. England Kane is shocking. To be fair though we have willing runners so if him dropping deep creates space then it could work.
 
Jim Beam said:
With Rashford, Garnacho on each side and Bruno at number 10, playmaking number 9 is a no brainer. It is the kind of striker we definitely need and we are probably betting on his goalscoring numbers to go up a bit.
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I reckon Rashford benefits the most from this signing. His and Martials link up was top notch. I hope he doesn’t occupy the positions Bruno will though, that will be an issue for the manager to sort out.
 
Not going to pretend I’ve watched him in full matches. But his highlight reels are promising. Pretty exciting signing. Looks similar to Martial. If he can be consistently good, and get minutes in the pitch, he looks like he could develop into a top player. Decent fee for that kind of summary.
 
For the price, age and being a different profile to Hojlund this feels like a great piece of business. The caf so very negative.
 
Rather than Salah, the better Zirkzee comparison is Firmino. Zirkzee only scored 11 goals in Serie A last season - Firmino only scored more than 11 goals on three occasions in his entire career and averaged 10 Premier League goals a season during his 8 seasons at Liverpool (82 goals scored). He did however bring the best out of Liverpool's wide forwards, with Mane and Salah averaging 53 goals per season between them in the years they played with Firmino.

Zirkzee is unlikely to win the Premier League golden boot, but with his pressing, dribbling and chance creation, he could be the catalyst for Rashford, Garnacho and perhaps Amad to start racking up serious numbers of goals.
 
Infra-red said:
Rather than Salah, the better Zirkzee comparison is Firmino. Zirkzee only scored 11 goals in Serie A last season - Firmino only scored more than 11 goals on three occasions in his entire career and averaged 10 Premier League goals a season during his 8 seasons at Liverpool (82 goals scored). He did however bring the best out of Liverpool's wide forwards, with Mane and Salah averaging 53 goals per season between them in the years they played with Firmino.

Zirkzee is unlikely to win the Premier League golden boot, but with his pressing, dribbling and chance creation, he could be the catalyst for Rashford, Garnacho and perhaps Amad to start racking up serious numbers of goals.
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Firminho was also a wide player for most of his career before Liverpool
Whilst Zirkzee was a prolific goal scorer for Bayern youth teams, he is someone who could step up in goals he has potential, the point was more about him being added to Hojlund vs someone with more goal scoring pedigree given our lack of goals.

Of course if we viewed him like a Firminho we also going to need to add another attacker who can score goals or him being more of a link player isn't going to work that well is it?
 
Cassidy said:
Firminho was also a wide player for most of his career before Liverpool
Whilst Zirkzee was a prolific goal scorer for Bayern youth teams, he is someone who could step up in goals he has potential, the point was more about him being added to Hojlund vs someone with more goal scoring pedigree given our lack of goals.

Of course if we viewed him like a Firminho we also going to need to add another attacker who can score goals or him being more of a link player isn't going to work that well is it?
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Firmino for Hoffenheim
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I love how he is definitely better than Hojlund. Because he hasn't stepped foot on that pitch.
 
Like his age profile but he’s not the clinical striker we need. Hopefully he grows into the role.

Can appreciate the change in recruiting direction (going for younger players with potential)
 
Cassidy said:
Firminho was also a wide player for most of his career before Liverpool
Whilst Zirkzee was a prolific goal scorer for Bayern youth teams, he is someone who could step up in goals he has potential, the point was more about him being added to Hojlund vs someone with more goal scoring pedigree given our lack of goals.

Of course if we viewed him like a Firminho we also going to need to add another attacker who can score goals or him being more of a link player isn't going to work that well is it?
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Firmino was mostly a #10 (behind Anthony Modeste in Gisdol's 4-2-3-1) in the two seasons before Liverpool bought him from Hoffenheim, but, yes, I take your point. The point I was making was simply that Zirkzee's goal record (or lack thereof) is less of a concern if we think he can be the catalyst to Rashford and Garnacho scoring 20+ goals each in all competitions.

Anyway, The Athletic reported earlier in the week that Zirkzee may not be the only forward we bring in, so let's wait and see.
 
Infra-red said:
Rather than Salah, the better Zirkzee comparison is Firmino. Zirkzee only scored 11 goals in Serie A last season - Firmino only scored more than 11 goals on three occasions in his entire career and averaged 10 Premier League goals a season during his 8 seasons at Liverpool (82 goals scored). He did however bring the best out of Liverpool's wide forwards, with Mane and Salah averaging 53 goals per season between them in the years they played with Firmino.

Zirkzee is unlikely to win the Premier League golden boot, but with his pressing, dribbling and chance creation, he could be the catalyst for Rashford, Garnacho and perhaps Amad to start racking up serious numbers of goals.
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Of course the key enabler for that is having Salah who is one of the best players and wide scorers seen in the premier league. Someone has to get the shots off and score the goals. As of now for us, this signing will get more out of Rashford I'd bet but generally just be a good squad/competition thing. Gives us something different to change within games, change from game to game, and get different combinations depending on who is playing.

Out of our wide players, I don't see Zirkzee helping Antony or Amad, both of them like the ball coming into their feet and coming short to playmaker. Zirkzee will likely operate in those same areas. Garnacho still remains to be seen which way he will lean, I think he's kind of one who can work either way, running in behind to be a goal threat or staying wide/coming short to create. But it's good to bring in a young forward who gives us a different option, as it was definitely needed.
 
Is he a good player? Or potentially a top player? I know nothing about him, watched some clips from Bologna last season. Seemed ok, nothing really special. Is this unfair? He couldn't even get picked ahead of Weghorst and that's a worry.
 
RDCR07 said:
Rudiger, Saliba, Van Dijk, Araujo, Ruben Dias just off the top of my head.
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DSG said:
Militao, Marquinhos, Gvardiol, Akanji, Kim min Jae, Bremer… Licha is seriously overrated by Utd fans. Look, I like him too, but he’s really poor in the air at the highest levels of competition, and to be world class you can’t be subpar in such an important part of a CBs game.
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Rudiger, Dias, Militao, Saliba and Gabriel are all currently better than him.

Van Dijk is past it, he drops clangers all the time. Araujo is massively overrated. Marquinhos plays in the French league and never looks that good for Brazil or in the CL, another one that is massively overrated.

Gvardiol he plays at left back mostly and is definitely not better than Martinez. Garnacho had his pants down in the FA Cup final and he always has a mistake in him.

Ake and Akanji both look better than they really are due to Pep's system, they're not all that, definitely not better than Martinez, not even close.

Kim he's just had an embarrassing season for Bayern. He was awful. He's a one season wonder in the Italian league.

Bremer, come on. Now you're just throwing names around.
 
This is a wildcard signing for sure. He could be a sleeper hit or a misfit like Antony, we shall see. I think his skillset is unique though and he's worth a punt.
 
Jeffthered said:
Is he a good player? Or potentially a top player? I know nothing about him, watched some clips from Bologna last season. Seemed ok, nothing really special. Is this unfair? He couldn't even get picked ahead of Weghorst and that's a worry.
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Decent player right now, will give us something different to the squad and get more out of wide people like Rashford even if he himself doesn't score more. You need a squad to be able to change things up and that's the biggest plus here.

Potential wise, yeah he has big potential because he is a big CF with a lot of talent, composure and playmaking ability, but you are hoping the natural goalscoring instinct just pops up out of nowhere and people tend to underrate the difficulty of that attribute. My guess is neither him not Hojlund truly lock down the spot on their own but both provide a good level and we keep rotating that spot for the next few years, but if anything that Hojlund has the better chance of being a truly top CF.
 
Couldn't see much in the sparse appearances for Netherland, but in the footage you can certainly identify an interesting profile of player to be that sort of size but with a lot of skill. That's not something you would have identified with Hojlund in terms of technical play on the footage so it's clear he's a completely different option.

Could.alao see him both doing a recent Martial type role of holding the ball and being technical as a 9 but also playing behind Hojlund if needed. So I wouldn't say this is purely to have a Hojlund alternative, it's to strengthen all options.
 
Interesting signing. For £35-36m I think the chances of him not ending up as a "good signing" are very slim...


...but we need to be patient with him. He doesn't have great numbers for a striker, and I'm not expecting that to change in his first season at Old Trafford, but he brings a lot of tactical flexibility upfront, and can do a lot for the team and play well even if he doesn't score or assist, and often makes his teammates' job easier with the things he does. I also feel like he's someone who can develop into something great, but that should take years and he's definitely not there yet.

I'm also worried that he won't take it well if he just becomes a bench player and Hojlund's sub. I mentioned it in this thread earlier today that according to people who know more about him and watched him extensively, his mental profile suggests that he's not ready to just be an impact sub at this stage of his career, and even before we were seriously linked with him, I thought this transfer doesn't make a lot of sense from Zirkzee's point of view, as making the first big move of your career at 23 should be to a team where you're the starting #9. With Hojlund already in the squad (who's definitely a better player and a bigger prospect in my book), and us looking at strikers in addition to Zirkzee according to the Athletic, I think this could cause issues. I think the best decision from a squad harmony perspective would be to start the season with Zirkzee as our starting striker ahead of Hojlund, unless we sign another attacker (depends who, I don't think Toney could be benched for Zirkzee, for example), and then if he gets benched for Hojlund, I think he will take it better than if it was already the case from the beginning. He should easily get a lot of game time, though, be that as a starter or from the bench, so the overall amount of minutes shouldn't be an issue.

Overall, I like the move, he's a floor-raiser signing that gives us a lot of flexibility and variety upfront, and could also massively improve into a top player in a few years' time. For the price reported, this seems like a low-risk, high-reward investment.
 
Seen YT clips, has the making of a playmaker forward, he is not a final product obviously but let's hope he develops as well as do as well as he can for us.
 
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