Hojlund or Zirkzee as first choice striker?

Walrus

Oppressed White Male
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Aug 25, 2008
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Yes yes, it should be Gyokeres. Yes yes, they are both rubbish. Et cetera.

Between the two, for the rest of the season and assuming we dont sign another striker in January, who gets the nod? Clearly Hojlund is the more athletic of the two and arguably has a higher ceiling, but there are questions about his technique, his game sense and his strange desire to constantly wrestle defenders.

Zirkzee meanwhile has been public enemy number one for most of the season, but there is an argument that stylistically, he fits better in Amorim's system, with the two overlapping 10's behind him. There are serious questions about his languid style and work rate.

Hojlund is younger, and will surely improve over the years to come. That doesnt necessarily mean he should have all the pressure on him right now to be leading the line - we saw last season that he isnt the finished article yet and may never be.

Out of the two, who would your go-to be for the remainder of the season as the #9 in Amorim's 3-4-3?
 
Hojlund. He actually has potential.
 
It really depends on who's playing in the 10 positions especially.

If we keep shoehorning the likes of Garnacho, Rashford and Bruno in those positions, then you need Zirzkee to try and hold onto the ball and knit some attacks together.

However, if we play 10s who take care of the ball and are good passers and decision makers like Amad and Mount, then Rasmus becomes the preferred ST.

This is why Amorim will keep playing both since he can not get rid of all our technically average attackers at once.
 
Can we get Hojlund on a balancing ball or something, he's absolutely awful when it's comes to keeping his balance.
 
Hojlund, but neither of them are good enough to be relied upon as the #9 if we have any aspirations of being a top team moving forward.

Hopefully we'll prioritize a new striker in the summer, keep one of the ones we've got as a backup, and sell the other one.
 
Zirkzee
Better player in every area (than Hojlund).

But new no9 must be priority for next season.
 
I'd still like to see them both together for a game to see how they work together. Hojlund as the 9 with Zirkzee and Amad as the 10s.
 
I would rather go with Zirkzee. Thr performance. The last game we played with him in this system was very promising and he needs a run of games to see if he can reproduce this.

But yes, we absolutely need to go and get Gyokores in the summer, it's an obvious signing.
 
Hojlund easily. Better finisher, can run the channels, has very good pace and power. He will bag a lot of goals IMO as soon as we become a bit better collectively. Much better in the box as well. Overall an incredibly valuable #9 profile, especially for Amorim's system.

Honestly it's the perfect match. If we didn't have Hojlund and started looking for suitable strikers for our new head coach, the Dane would've been on top of our shortlist.

Zirkzee will never be the first choice #9 under Amorim.
 
The thing is Hojlund hasn't actually shown he can score a lot of goals. If you're not going to score bucket loads then he needs to do more to help his team mates in and out of position.
 
Zirkzee, he is more team player, bringing others into the play.
 
Zirkzee because he is much more technical and far more intelligent. Hojlund is very much a blunt instrument.

Realistically it's neither though.
 
Hojlund, there is a player in there, we just signed him too early.

Zirkzee I think works better as a second striker dropping dee.p
 
Hoijund unfortunately would be the one. Hopefully we get a new striker next season, who knows where are the spaces to attack and clinical. Hope to see a new LWB, CM and AM. Maybe 2 of the roles can be filled internally by U23.
 
dubplate warrior said:
I would rather go with Zirkzee. Thr performance. The last game we played with him in this system was very promising and he needs a run of games to see if he can reproduce this.

But yes, we absolutely need to go and get Gyokores in the summer, it's an obvious signing.
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Gyokeres would struggle to find his place here as well - don’t doubt that Hojlund would smash goals in if playing for Sporting.
 
Zirkzee.

Honestly I want to see Garnacho tried in one of those wingback roles so Amad can play as an inside 10. But in general Zirkzee is a better pure footballer at the moment and we don’t have enough players that actually want to “play football”.

Both pretty crap options if I’m honest.
 
Zirkzee doesnt play striker - even when he scored 2 the other day, Rashford was upfront
 
I don't think Amorim even considers Zirkzee as his second choice for that position, it's clearly Rashford. So that's a bit of a moot point. I doubt that Zirkzee will make it here as a starter but he competes for one of those number 10 roles with Bruno, Mount, Garnacho, Rashford and possibly Amad.
 
Personally I think Rashford is the best suited player to the CF position in Amorim’s team, rotating with Hojlund.

Zirkzee as a rotational option at #10, along with Bruno, Mount, and Garnacho.
 
Hojlund. I am always saying people overvalue pace, but Jesus Christ, it is such a sad sight seeing Zirkzee “sprint”.

I’d rather Hojlund and Rashford rotate for the #9 position and Zirkzee can play as one of the 10s against weaker opposition where we expect to camp in the opposition third of the pitch.
 
Neither of them have done enough to move ahead of the other. Rotate them both and see which one does enough to deserve being first choice. Although obviously that raises the problem of them being stylistically so different and perhaps needing different players behind them, but for now that's the best we can do.
 
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