Joshua Zirkzee’s first touch as a Manchester United player after coming on as a second-half substitute was a simple lay-off to Bruno Fernandes. There was then an awkward attempt to control the ball from a throw-in, styled out with a backheel to retain possession.
A pass followed that did not have enough on it to properly send away Alejandro Garnacho down the right. Despite Zirkzee’s intelligent off-ball movement as the move progressed, overlapping Fernandes on the left to dart into space behind Fulham’s defence, the attack came to nothing.
By and large, that was it for the first 26 minutes of Zirkzee’s Old Trafford career — neat, tidy and what we had been told to expect — but not the most action-packed, in all honesty. Especially when this was a €42.5million (£35.7m; $46.3m) striker introduced off the substitutes’ bench by Erik ten Hag to win a game.
At that stage, Zirkzee was still waiting for his first shot, but that was not especially surprising. United have signed a 23-year-old striker who will not solely concern himself with finishing off attacks. He will try to start them too, by dropping deeper and linking up play.
That was certainly what happened in the build-up to the goal that earned United the three points their performance largely deserved.
Zirkzee dropped at least 20 yards deep of a retreating defensive line as United came forward with the ball, leaving Garnacho and Marcus Rashford to run at or in behind opponents. A pass wide to Garnacho had Fulham back-pedalling, unaware of and unable to stop any late runs from deep into their penalty area.
But what will especially please Ten Hag about his new signing’s debut was that, when Zirkzee dropped deep to link up play and create that space on the edge of Fulham’s box, he was also the player arriving late to exploit it, finding the winner from Garnacho’s cross with a brilliantly instinctive, poked finish.
As The Athletic recently detailed, there was a time when United’s new striker would not celebrate his goals. The hundreds he racked up at amateur club Spartaan’20 while growing up in Rotterdam were often met with the self-assurance and cold indifference of a kid who, quite frankly, knew he was good.
But it is difficult to act cool when scoring an 87th-minute winner on your debut in front of the Stretford End, and out came the celebration that Zirkzee has adopted in recent years — firing two hands of finger guns, which he told Gazetta dello Sport earlier this year was inspired by a scene from Django Unchained.
Ten Hag threw Zirkzee into action after an hour against Fulham (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
Ten Hag wants to see plenty more of that celebration this season. The United manager spoke glowingly about Zirkzee post-match but also stressed the importance of his new signing finding a balance between his tendency to drop and link up play and the need for him to score the goals all centre-forwards require to justify their selection — the same goals all managers require for their job security. In the past three seasons, United have scored 57, 58 and 57 league goals. Ten Hag, who was in charge for two of those campaigns, knows those figures need to improve.
In some respects, Zirkzee was not the natural transfer target to increase United’s goal tally. He is still developing, but his shot volume is average compared to other strikers across Europe’s top five leagues and his underlying expected numbers are nothing to write home about.
Still, among United’s squad last season, only Garnacho and Antony took more shots, and only Garnacho, Rasmus Hojlund and Scott McTominay were regularly getting on the end of better chances.
In a squad short of out-and-out goalscorers, despite being thought of as more of a link-up player than a focal point, Zirkzee is one of United’s best in front of goal. United need him to chip in regularly this season, potentially at a greater rate than he showed at Bologna, where he hit 14 goals in 58 appearances.
At least he has expertise on hand to help him. “Ruud is waiting for you,” Ten Hag told Zirkzee on their first encounter at Carrington this summer, and it would be easy to draw the link between the return of one Dutch goalscoring great and the ideal start his compatriot made against Fulham.
“Ruud is waiting for you!” 🤝🇳🇱#MUFC
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) July 18, 2024
In time, it could prove to be a fruitful partnership but, as Ten Hag detailed post-match, Zirkzee has largely trained on his own since arriving as he has needed to build up his fitness. “He had some deficits there,” Ten Hag said, with the forward only recovering from a hamstring issue shortly before the European Championship.
There has not been much opportunity for Van Nistelrooy to offer Zirkzee any pearls of wisdom. Ten Hag sees any connection based on their shared nationality as too simplistic anyway. “It doesn’t matter if he is Dutch or English or Russian or South American,” he said.
What’s more important is that Zirkzee is off the mark. Ten Hag contrasted the 23-year-old’s goal on debut with Hojlund’s long wait to open his Premier League account last season, after seeing one narrowly disallowed on his first outing at Old Trafford.
Zirkzee did not have to wait nearly as long for his first and so will not have to endure the same scrutiny Hojlund did during that period. There may still be times when United supporters grow frustrated with a striker who drops as deep as he does, who seeks out others rather than fending for himself.
But on this first outing, Zirkzee showed he is not just a facilitator. He is a finisher too.
(Top photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images)
