The Dutchman showed he can improve the Red Devils’ goal shortage with his own striking prowess as well as unlocking his team-mates’ potential
Manchester United fans were enduring a stalemate on Friday as the their team’s Premier League opener with Fulham entered its final two minutes. But just as the game looked set to end in a 0-0 draw, Joshua Zirkzee produced his pistol and fired his new club to victory.
The Red Devils had lacked sparkle at Old Trafford, and looked particularly toothless up front. Bruno Fernandes and Mason Mount were thwarted from close-range by Bernd Leno while Casemiro took five shots, all of which missed the target.
Zirkzee, coming off the bench, showed his team-mates how it was done, prodding home Alejandro Garnacho’s cross with a subtle finish in minimal space. Fulham players hit the floor and the Stretford End hit the roof.
Zirkzee, meanwhile, whipped out his pistol fingers in homage to Quentin Tarantino and Jamie Foxx. It is his trademark celebration, one he pulled out 11 times last season with Bologna in Serie A, helping propel them to finish fifth and qualify for the Champions League for the first time ever.
“I got it from the movie Django Unchained,” Zirkzee told Gazzetta dello Sport last season. “There is a point where Django learns how to shoot. That’s what I got it from.”
United fans might not have expected Zirkzee to be the solution to their striking woes, and certainly not so soon, but he has already pulled the trigger and hit the target. If he can keep it up, he will help United fix their biggest problem of all – a lack of firepower.
Off the mark
Zirkzee needed just 26 minutes to score his first Premier League goal, which is a vast improvement on the last Dutch striker to play for United. Wout Weghorst ended his five-month loan spell at the club without scoring once in the league, despite having 797 minutes on the pitch across 17 games and 10 starts. Weghorst was preferred to Zirkzee by Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman during Euro 2024, which was a little concerning for United fans.
But the 23-year-old shot down doubts about his striking prowess on his debut, making a start more reminiscent of United’s best-ever Dutch striker, Ruud van Nistelrooy, who is now Zirkzee’s coach. Van Nistelrooy scored on his debut too, also against Fulham at Old Trafford. His two goals got him off to a flying start on his way to 23 goals in his first campaign, which he followed up with a Golden Boot-winning 25.
Zirkzee is a very different type of striker to his compatriot and known more as a facilitator than a prolific striker. But strikers, regardless of their profile or other qualities, will first and foremost be judged on goals. So it was vital that he made a strong start.
Mental block
The longer Weghorst went without scoring in the league, the more it appeared to weigh on his mind. Zirkzee’s fellow striker Rasmus Hojlund also appeared to have a mental block after failing to score in his first few games in the Premier League. And it was telling that, after Zirkzee’s goal had taken care of Fulham, Ten Hag referred to Hojlund’s disallowed goal on his home debut against Brighton last year.
Hojlund looked to have equalised against the Seagulls on his first start for United in mid-September, but a VAR review ruled the ball had previously gone out of play. Although the Dane struck in the Champions League that same week, his first Premier League goal did not arrive until more than three months later.
“Remember last season Rasmus scored a first goal and we all waited for two minutes on the halfway line and then VAR decided it was over the line. He was so frustrated,” Ten Hag recalled. “So we’re very happy for him [Zirkzee], it will encourage him, give him belief. It’s good for the fans, good for him, a very good start.”
Low scoring, low finishes
With Hojlund still injured and not due back until after the first international break, Zirkzee is shaping up as United’s first-choice centre-forward for the trip to Brighton on Saturday and the game with Liverpool the following Sunday.
And now he has the chance to do what Hojlund, Weghorst and even Cristiano Ronaldo failed to do and make United a team that score plenty of goals again. The Red Devils have not managed to score more than 60 times in the league for the last three seasons.
Last season they notched 57, leaving them with a negative goal difference for the first time in 34 years. Their lack of firepower also led to them having their lowest league finish in 34 years and their worst since the Premier League began.
Although their 58 goals conceded was far from ideal and double the amount Arsenal let in, it left United with the fourth-best defensive record in the league, above Aston Villa, Tottenham, Chelsea and Newcastle. All those sides finished above United as they were far more prolific: Villa scored 76, Tottenham 74, Chelsea 77 while Newcastle scored a stonking 85.
Unlike their rivals, United could not compensate in attack for their shoddy defence and subsequently missed out on Champions League football. They cannot afford to do so again. They were more solid against Fulham than last season but still made mistakes at the back and would have been punished by a better team.
Repeating pattern
Last season’s blunt attack was not an exception though, it was merely a continuation of a problem brewing for three years, predating Ten Hag’s arrival, and going even further back. United scored 58 goals in the 2022-23 season, a count which was salvaged by them conceding only 43 goals and keeping more clean sheets than anyone else.
In the 2021-22 season, they scored 57, despite having Ronaldo, who scored 18 times. They conceded the same amount, ending with a goal difference of zero and their lowest amount of points in Premier League history.
The previous season, 2020-21, they scored 73 times, finishing second as a result. In 2019-20 they netted 66 goals and came third. They scored 65 goals in 2018-19, while even in 2017-18, when they finished second under Jose Mourinho and amassed 81 points – their best total since Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge – they only scored 68. Mourinho’s first campaign, meanwhile, yielded just 54 goals.
But in 2015-16, Louis van Gaal oversaw a campaign of just 49 goals, just one goal more than Sunderland, who finished 17th. By way of comparison, United scored 86 times in 2012-13, Ferguson’s final campaign and the last time they won the Premier League title.
For United to get back to where they want to be, they need to score far more goals than they have been lately. And Zirkzee can help them do this in more ways than one.
Inspired by superstars
Zirkzee’s goal-scoring numbers might not have got many United fans’ pulses racing. His 11 goals in Serie A last season was just two more than Hojlund managed with Atalanta before making his big move to United. His assist count of four was also unremarkable.
But it is his movement, his technical ability and his eagerness to dovetail with his fellow attackers which makes Zirkzee stand out. He plays as a centre-forward, but rather like Harry Kane, he loves to drop deep and operate as a No.10.
Zirkzee grew up idolising Zlatan Ibrahimovic and has also hailed the influence of Gabriel Batistuta, one of the greatest centre-forwards to grace Serie A. His former coach Thiago Motta, meanwhile, had someone else in mind when talking up his qualities last season.
“He said that his idols are [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic and [Gabriel] Batistuta, who are two excellent players, but, seeing him day to day, he reminds me of the Ronaldinho I played with at Barcelona,” Motta told Sky Sport Italia. “But I cannot compare him to anyone. He is just Joshua, and he is special.”
Motta also said of his striker: “There are forwards who think only about goals, but not Joshua. He has a big heart and that makes the difference.”
Unlocking potential
Zirkzee said that Motta, who is now the coach of Juventus, turned him into a “nine-and-a-half”, while also admitting that his technique was his greatest asset. “It’s not so usual to see a tall centre-forward with good technique. And, without a doubt, my gift is my technique; it is the way of showing everyone my essence,” he told Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra. “It’s the best way to express yourself. Creativity at the service of the team is a lethal combination.”
Creating chances for his team-mates will be key to Zirkzee unlocking United’s potential. Fernandes and Hojklund were United’s top scorers last season, with 10 league goals a piece. Alejandro Garnacho, Marcus Rashford and Scott McTominay completed the top five, scoring seven each.
In Ten Hag’s first campaign, United leaned heavily on Rashford’s 17 goals, with their next highest scorer being Fernandes on eight. Ronaldo was far and away their top scorer in 2021-22 with 18 goals, Fernandes the second-highest with eight, and Mason Greenwood was third-top scorer with five.
Contrast that with 2020-21, the highest scoring campaign in the post-Ferguson era, when Fernandes struck 18 times, but Rashford also got 11 and Edinson Cavani contributed 10. So United’s top three scorers contributed to 39 goals, 53 percent of their total. Last season, the top three contributed to 27 goals, 47% of the total.
Control and kill
The hope then is that Zirkzee can be among United’s top three scorers with Hojlund, Fernandes, Rashford or Garnacho and that he can help elevate all their goal figures.
“He has some attributes that we didn’t have and straight away he showed it,” Ten Hag said of his new signing. “He is very good in his linking up, combinations. We have some very good ball-playing offensive players so they can benefit from this. But what I want to say is: he has to arrive in the box and to score goals because the main attribute of a striker is to score goals.
“Scoring for a striker is important. He should be there to kill. But he has qualities and we have to have the right balance, he has to be arriving in the box to get his finishes but we want him to link up as well, we have great midfielders all round him to make combinations and take control of the game.”
Facilitator and predator
Alan Shearer also looked on in admiration from the Match of the Day studio. “He gave them a box threat,” the Premier League’s record goal-scorer said. “He got into the positions of the No.10 role but he didnt admire the pass, he takes a defender with him. It’s a really clever finish.”
Hojlund did provide the “box threat” last season, but too often he looked out of kilter with his team-mates, struggling for service from Fernandes and Rashford. Zirkzee should be able to get the best out of Hojlund but, as Ten Hag has said, he should not be shy in scoring himself.
If he can be a facilitator and a predator, then this season United can come out with all guns blazing and shoot their way back into the top four.
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