Manchester United faltered to a disappointing 3-1 defeat at home to Brighton and Hove Albion today as Ruben Amorim’s difficult start to life at Old Trafford continues.
The Red Devils were plagued by individual errors once again, with goalkeeper Andre Onana having a particularly bad day, but it was a flat performance across the board with few positive points.
Leading the line for United has long been a thankless task and following some bright cameos in recent matches, and the nosediving form of Rasmus Hojlund, Joshua Zirkzee started up front for the first time this year.
The Dutchman looked sharper than most of his team mates, and balanced providing an attacking threat with a gritty determination.
No player on either side made more tackles than Zirkzee, who pressed hard to make three tackles during the match – no United defender managed more than two.
He was also involved in the most duels of anyone on the pitch, going head-to-head with a Brighton player 17 times in total as he fulfilled a combative role which required lots of hold-up play.
The 23-year-old won five of 11 ground duels, second only to the tricky Amad Diallo. He contested twice as many aerial duels as anyone else in a red shirt, winning two of six.
Zirkzee was fouled three times, one of which won United the penalty which Bruno Fernandes converted to temporarily pull the Red Devils back into the game.
The pay-off for the Dutchman playing the lone striker role was a lack of time spent on the ball – he only took 33 touches, the lowest of any starting outfield United player.
He completed 12 of an attempted 15 passes, coming out at 80% accuracy, and found his man once with a long ball.
It’s fair to say that Zirkzee did not hit the ground running at Old Trafford, after joining from Bologna in the summer, but he has been gradually finding a degree of form of late.
The Dutchman still has a long way to go, but he is moving in the right direction and is surely on the brink of becoming Amorim’s starting number 9 – at least until a potential new striker arrives.
All stats taken from sofascore.
Featured image Gareth Copley via Getty Images
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Joe Ponting
Joe has spent more than half his life writing about football and all of it following United. As a child he told a doctor his name was ‘Paul Scholes’, but could never pick a pass like him no matter how much he tried.
