After struggling to score last season, Manchester United decided to splurge £36.5 million to land Bologna’s rising sensation Joshua Zirkzee in the summer.
And the signing proved to be an instant hit as the Netherlands international struck the matchwinner on his debut, as the Red Devils won 1-0 against Fulham on the opening day of the new Premier League season.
And fans were excited to see what the 23-year-old could do moving forward. However, that was as good as it got for the forward in red.
He has since missed a glut of opportunities while only registering two assists in the games since. His gameplay involves a lot of clever link-up play but he does not look like a lethal finisher, something Ruben Amorim needs.
Zirkzee dropped
His poor club form seems to have affected his national team prospects with Voetbal International confirming that Ronald Koeman has axed Zirkzee from the matchday squad entirely ahead of Netherlands’ Nations League game on Sunday.
Koeman had named a 25-man squad but needed to trim two players off the list and unfortunately, it was Zirkzee who had to pay the price.
The other player to miss out is Bournemouth star Justin Kluivert. United centre-back Matthijs de Ligt is in alongside former United forward Wout Weghorst.
Zirkzee’s future remains up in the air with plenty of reports revealing that Erik ten Hag was not a fan of his signing while Amorim is reluctant to use him owing to his goal-shy nature.
Future up in the air
In fact, the Portuguese tactician is contemplating playing Marcus Rashford up front while trying to use the Dutch striker as bait in order to land Viktor Gyokeres instead.
His name has also cropped up in swap deal talks involving Victor Osimhen as well and it is clear that Zirkzee needs to improve and fast if he is to save his United career.
For now, the 20-time English league champions have no desire of letting the former Serie A ace leave but if his form does not improve, they will have little choice but to let go.
Plenty of Italian clubs are interested in his services with Juventus leading the pack. Thiago Motta, Zirkzee’s former Bologna boss, is currently managing the Turin outfit and he is keen to reunite with his former protégé.
Ayantan Chowdhury
Ayantan has worked for 10 years in the Indian sports media industry, writing for the biggest newspapers and websites but his heart was always set on writing about his favourite club. Currently an editor at The Peoples Person. You can follow him on X: @ayantanc_25
