Joshua Zirkzee is likely to be benched once more for Manchester United’s clash against Fulham.
The 23-year-old striker, who was signed from Bologna last month in a deal worth £36.5million, didn’t start training with the team until they returned from their pre-season tour last Wednesday. Despite being an international player for the Netherlands, Zirkzee only saw four minutes of action at the European Championship and spent his holiday in Los Angeles, where United were based for their pre-season tour.
Even though he was close to United’s touring party, Zirkzee was told to report to the club’s Carrington training complex on July 29 and mainly trained under former coach Steve McClaren until his new teammates returned.
Zirkzee remained an unused substitute in the Community Shield draw with Manchester City last week, despite being United’s only senior striker. Rasmus Hojlund is sidelined until September due to a hamstring strain.
“I think he is close, so that is one of the complications,” Ten Hag explained. “We don’t have a pre-season with him so we need games to bring him.
“If you see his background, in the last months he had an injury with Bologna. In the end, he made the selection for the Netherlands, so that helped him out of our first few weeks of pre-season.
“So no games – that is his problem in this moment. But now it is his third week in training, you see him stepping up, his fitness levels are improving and he needs more minutes and we can’t do it in a friendly, it has to go into the league.”
Ten Hag has expressed his delight at the attacking options available to him, saying: “I am so happy I have those (attacking) choices, that fit for all units, all positions, we need a number of players going into the season. We think about 60 games so it will be a survival of the fittest, we need squad depth.
“You have to make choices and you need rotation. No player can play all the games but also internal competition and you also need some weapons to use tactically.
“I am very happy we have those numbers and we have quality players so we can make those choices. We also have quality players with different abilities and that is good to have them in the squad.”
The Dutch tactician highlighted the impressive records of Zirkzee and Hojlund in Italy, noting their near-identical stats with Bologna and Atalanta respectively. He pointed out that since Robin van Persie’s 30-goal haul in the 2012-13 title-winning campaign, only Marcus Rashford has surpassed that milestone for United.
Ten Hag also reflected on Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s time at United, acknowledging his pedigree despite an injury cutting short a prolific season. In contrast, he sees great potential in the younger duo, stating: “I think we have two young strikers who have the potential to grow into top class strikers in Hojlund and Zirkzee.”
