Manchester United forward Joshua Zirkzee has been deemed “not good enough” as Netherlands boss Ronald Koeman has commented on his two weaknesses.
Zirkzee was Man Utd’s first signing ahead of this season as he joined the Premier League giants from Serie A outfit Bologna for around £36.5m.
The Netherlands international was recruited to provide competition for Rasmus Hojlund, but the two forwards have struggled with Man Utd’s striker options among the worst in the Premier League.
Man Utd have only scored 19 goals from open play this season as they embarrassingly sit 17th in our Premier League table for this statistic.
23-year-old Zirkzee scored his sixth goal of the season against Real Sociedad last week but he’s been heavily criticised for his poor performance in the 1-1 draw against Arsenal on Sunday afternoon.
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Speaking post-match, club legend Paul Scholes revealed his daming verdict of Zirkzee.
He said: “Both teams are in desperate need of a striker.
“Zirkzee I thought was a little bit disappointing today. I’m not sure he’s a number nine or a number ten.
“I’m not really sure what Zirkzee brings to the team. Rasmus Hojlund is obviously still having his issues but both teams are crying out for attacking players.”
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Zirkzee broke into the Netherlands squad before last summer’s European Championships, grabbing two goal involvements in his six appearances for Koeman’s side.
There is an international break coming up, with the Netherlands facing Spain in the UEFA Nations League.
Koeman is set to announce his squad for this break and he has already confirmed that Zirkzee has not made it into his “preliminary selection”.
The Netherlands boss admits the Man Utd star is not playing “good enough at the moment” and has picked out a couple of his main weaknesses as he’s not done enough to “earn” a selection.
“He wasn’t in the preliminary selection because I don’t think he’s good enough at the moment. Especially scanning when turning or passing often goes wrong,” Koeman said.
“Yes, in principle form and fitness are always leading, but that is not always possible. We have a lot of central defenders and midfielders, but we are somewhat limited up front.
“But even then, I still think that you have to earn your selection, and I think he doesn’t deserve that now, but that could be the case again in another period.”
