Hojlund or Zirkzee as first choice striker?

I don't think it makes much odds who we have up front outside of prime messi until amorim has the team creating chances. I think haaland would get 15 goals in all comps for us.
 
I’d go with Zirkzee as he has some moments at least, Rasmus is waste of time at the moment.

If there’s a chance to move both on the summer we have to take it.
 
It's gotta be Zirkzee. Hojlund is a net negative just being on the pitch.
 
Crashoutcassius said:
I don't think it makes much odds who we have up front outside of prime messi until amorim has the team creating chances. I think haaland would get 15 goals in all comps for us.
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This is where I’m at. You want to spend on someone proven when the team is functioning at an ok level. If we were creating a lot or a ST was missing a lot of chances, then you can go and take the risk on a huge name signing. But we look absolutely diabolical in build up, so the reality is I think priorities are pick up David on a free (decent if not elite) and focus on adding some real athletes/pace into the CB/CM/RWB.
 
None of them will do anything with the chance creators behind them. Absolute crap being served to our strikers week after week. Besides that, I think Hojlund is the better bet, however it's only down to who is lesser crap from the two.
 
I hope ZZ and Obi can start some kind of partnership up top.
One has great feet and the other can finish.
If they could link up it could be productive.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
This is where I’m at. You want to spend on someone proven when the team is functioning at an ok level. If we were creating a lot or a ST was missing a lot of chances, then you can go and take the risk on a huge name signing. But we look absolutely diabolical in build up, so the reality is I think priorities are pick up David on a free (decent if not elite) and focus on adding some real athletes/pace into the CB/CM/RWB.
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Agree. Think we aren't that bad at the back if we don't have catastrophic injuries, but cm, am and wing back needs injection of legs. Bruno will like like de bruyne with 5 or 6 energetic runners around him
 
Clutching at straws here.. but I think Zirkzee looks okay as an option behind the striker.

Holjund.. make turn into a top striker but he's miles off at the moment .
 
Zirkzee gets on the ball, so that already makes him more useful that Hojlund, who plays hide and seek with it.

However, Zirkzee's game is all about his control, holding the ball, and then passing it off to other players. When he doesn't do those things, he becomes useless as he doesn't offer any real attacking threat at all. There were too many times today where Zirkzee was making poor choices with his passing and giving the ball away too often. In the attacking positions, he should really have done better. It's like he has no power in his shooting or when pulling the ball back for others.

Realistically, neither are good enough and do not solve anything for us. Out of the two, Zirkzee may be more useful for the time being. Scouting department have a lot to answer for, to be honest.
 
I said in the Zirkzee thread today - you can clearly see there is a player there. Not going to make excuses as the performances have not been good enough. Still, a player whose entire game seems to revolve around linking up and bringing others into play... is always going to suffer when in such a dysfunctional side and attacking lineup. A more individualistic, flair player like Garnacho can still sometimes look good even when the rest are shit, because he is a selfish player. A cog only works when there are other cogs it can work with.

Young player, first season in a new team/league etc and the usual stuff still apply. I would be tempted to give him time - although if we got a good offer for him I would take it. I dont imagine Zirkzee's wages are so high that he cant remain as a squad player and rotation option.

Hojlund seems the bigger problem as he seems to have regressed and offers zero, unfortunately. Not his fault that we failed to bring in a proper striker alongside him - he was never meant to come in immediately as our first choice/only #9 option. Still its difficult to see a way back for him at the moment, he just offers so little.
 
I like Zirkzee & currently one of the players i enjoy watching the most but I worry that he is just a dribbler.

His passes are not that good and his shooting is non existing.

Whilst I would rather keep Zirkzee over Hojlund, I think in terms of a squad Hojlund may edge it because he has shown some ability to get goals last season & might do off the bench.
 
Rasmus Højlund rating in Manchester Evening News by Samuel Luckhurst

"If Zirkzee is harmless then Hojlund is hopeless. A boy among men who did very little right all afternoon. Bullied by James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite". 1

I know he's a complete tit but he's not far wrong on those 2.

We will never win enough games if we're relying on them to score us the goals as neither are up to the job. It's that simple.
 
I think in years to come ‘ Hojlund-Zirkzee’ will become a catch-all phrase to sum up how bad we are, for example “at least it’s not as bad as the “Hojlund-Zirkzee days”
 
They keep saying it can’t get any worse…. Can it? Well having this pair as your only two forwards with an academy kid as your third choice is quite simply as bad as it can get. It wasn’t all that long ago we had a firing Rashford, Martial, Greenwood and Cavani in a squad. Unbelievable regression in the forward positions!
 
Waynne said:
I can't anymore with these two

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I have felt for Hojlund at times with the whole lack of service issue but it goes both ways. If he makes the runs but nobody finds him then he has an argument, but stuff like this is inexcusable. SURELY the analysts are highlighting this to him??
 
Hojlund by a mile, but it doesn't really matter. Zirkzee and him can play together with Josh in the 10, Rasmus is better running channels and playing off the shoulder, and he's our most clinical finisher by a long, long way. Not that we ever feed the ball to him.
 
Zirkzee is barely Championship Level. Hojlund all day. No matter how bad he is.
 
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One thing I've noticed in recent weeks - not every match but some - is that Hojlund is getting himself in some great positions and the service isn't there.

There's been a few matches where you can see him in the background on the replay attacking the six-yard box and his team mate decides to shoot, more often than not putting it in row Z.

If you watch the slow-motion replays he's sometimes there punching the goal post because of his greedy team mates.

Yes, I expected a greater return at this stage of the season in terms of goals but it's not all down to him missing chances.

To me, he's an old-fashioned striker so I expect us to provide him with the chances to finish, like RvN for example famously only ever scored one goal from outside the box. I'm not expecting Hojlund to be dropping deep and creating lots of chances for himself or others, it's frustrating me that we paid so much money and don't seem to be playing to his strengths a lot of the time.
 
ChrisNelson said:
One thing I've noticed in recent weeks - not every match but some - is that Hojlund is getting himself in some great positions and the service isn't there.

There's been a few matches where you can see him in the background on the replay attacking the six-yard box and his team mate decides to shoot, more often than not putting it in row Z.

If you watch the slow-motion replays he's sometimes there punching the goal post because of his greedy team mates.

Yes, I expected a greater return at this stage of the season in terms of goals but it's not all down to him missing chances.

To me, he's an old-fashioned striker so I expect us to provide him with the chances to finish, like RvN for example famously only ever scored one goal from outside the box. I'm not expecting Hojlund to be dropping deep and creating lots of chances for himself or others, it's frustrating me that we paid so much money and don't seem to be playing to his strengths a lot of the time.
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Seems like Dorgu has been told to cross it early particularly for Hojlund's near post runs. Didn't quite connect against Everton but there were glimmers of something happening.
 
ChrisNelson said:
One thing I've noticed in recent weeks - not every match but some - is that Hojlund is getting himself in some great positions and the service isn't there.

There's been a few matches where you can see him in the background on the replay attacking the six-yard box and his team mate decides to shoot, more often than not putting it in row Z.

If you watch the slow-motion replays he's sometimes there punching the goal post because of his greedy team mates.

Yes, I expected a greater return at this stage of the season in terms of goals but it's not all down to him missing chances.

To me, he's an old-fashioned striker so I expect us to provide him with the chances to finish, like RvN for example famously only ever scored one goal from outside the box. I'm not expecting Hojlund to be dropping deep and creating lots of chances for himself or others, it's frustrating me that we paid so much money and don't seem to be playing to his strengths a lot of the time.
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Really don't see that at all. I see him constantly making the wrong run usually to the back post or behind two defenders.

I see players looking for him and he moves the wrong way then they get frustrated with him
 
They're making an effort, and Zirkzee, in particular, has shown flashes of real quality—especially considering the tough treatment he endured a few weeks ago. However, at this stage, neither he nor Hojlund possesses the consistency needed to be true game-changers for us.

If we strengthen the second striker (SS) and centre forward (CF) positions in the summer—which, in my opinion, should be our absolute top priority—I'm confident that we'll see an immediate and significant improvement in our performances.
 
Zirkzee isn’t a 9 at all.

Hojlund shouldn’t play again for a while.
 
Zirkzee is crap but he at least possesses a bit of ability to play football. He does something every now and then that resembles something you'd see a decent football do.

Hojlund however. Christ. What is he
 
Neither. As others have said, Zirkzee does have some quality but he has five goals in 40 games or something like that, and Hojlund at the moment just needs a break from the first team because it's horrendous and it's just not getting any better.

I honestly don't think we're going to make any improvement from now until the end of the season unless the manager can work out some other solution for the forward line.
 
AndySmith1990 said:
Zirkzee is crap but he at least possesses a bit of ability to play football. He does something every now and then that resembles something you'd see a decent football do.

Hojlund however. Christ. What is he
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Just offers nothing. Shouldn’t be playing. His movement is terrible. Today he was positioned center at the top of the box. Maz had the ball out wide with just a defender and no one behind. Literally 15 yards of green space with on one around. Rasmus is nearest. Just stands there. Ball gets cycled back. Just no awareness. I can’t with him anymore.
 
Neither. Zirkzee offers nothing either, i'd rather play a player from the youth side to gain experience in an attacking midfield role than him. Should have sold him in January at least his value was more or less on par with his purchase price, it's gone down now. I like Rasmus but he needs a loan move somewhere in the Prem to see what he has to offer at this level.
 
Zirkzee looks a decent footballer, Hojlund looks like he has no idea what's happening
 
I hate how our only option is either a former Atalanta striker or a former Bologna striker. I swear the Glazers have been putting us under managed decline since the summer we signed Maguire.
 
Zirkzee does his best work by linking midfield to attack. He’s not really better than Højlund at #9.

I’d probably start Højlund next in the EL, as he has been better in Europe, and then start giving Obi-Martin as many minutes as we can up front. Use Zirkzee as one of the #10s along with Bruno, Garnacho, Eriksen, etc.
 
Kopral Jono said:
I hate how our only option is either a former Atalanta striker or a former Bologna striker. I swear the Glazers have been putting us under managed decline since the summer we signed Maguire.
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They've been putting us under managed decline since they bought the club mate.

Lest we forget in one summer we saw Ronaldo and Tevez leave and they were replaced with Obertan, Valencia and Michael Owen.
 
I don't think either of these are even close to being the answer and it's really depressing. I would have loved to see us go in for Sesko but I suspect the days of spending £60m on individual players may be in the rear view mirror for a while.
 
Mike Smalling said:
Zirkzee does his best work by linking midfield to attack. He’s not really better than Højlund at #9.

I’d probably start Højlund next in the EL, as he has been better in Europe, and then start giving Obi-Martin as many minutes as we can up front. Use Zirkzee as one of the #10s along with Bruno, Garnacho, Eriksen, etc.
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Obi-martin is too young and not shown much to suggest he should be first choice in the league.
 
How did we get to this point where our top 2 strikers are unproven with alot of polishing to be done?
This has to be by far the worst United team ever. Year of mismanagement has finally caught up with us. I've never seen such a fall from grace as Man Utd. Its been so hard to watch. I cried in 2013 when SAF retired. I knew it would be tough, but this has been way worse then I envisioned.
 
We could have signed Kane for the same money we splashed on Højlund and Zirkzee.

Transfer targets before we bought Højlund:​

  1. Kane
  2. Osimhen
  3. Kolo Muani
And yet, somehow, we ended up paying €70 million for Højlund…

  • He spent most of his time on Atalanta’s bench, scoring just 10 goals in 32 games.
  • In Austria, he managed 12 goals in 21 matches—which, compared to English football, is basically League Two level.
  • Even FC Copenhagen let him go without hesitation, despite him being a homegrown academy talent.
We seriously need to track down the scout who convinced the board that he was "the next big thing"—and make sure they never touch a scouting report again.
 
stepic said:
It's gotta be Zirkzee. Hojlund is a net negative just being on the pitch.
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Watching Real Sociedad game can't believe how poor he is. seams to be running at half pace.Is he injured?
 
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