Erik ten Hag makes Joshua Zirkzee admission amid Manchester United’s striker problem

Erik ten Hag has made an admission surrounding new signing Joshua Zirkzee as Manchester United scramble to find a striker to start against Manchester City.

Manchester United‘s pre-season four of 2024 has seen the club play five fixtures, against Rosenborg, Rangers, Arsenal, Real Betis, and Liverpool, with varying results.

While the football has looked good, there have been a few concerns, with a couple of Erik ten Hag‘s key men falling victim to injury, especially against Arsenal.

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During the tie against Mikel Arteta’s men, both Rasmus Højlund and Leny Yoro had to be withdrawn through injury. Later assessments confirmed that the striker would be out for six weeks, while the new French defender would be injured around for three months.

With Højlund injured, United were without a senior striker for the remainder of their tour. Jadon Sancho filled the gap as the club gears up to face Manchester City in the Community Shield next weekend.

“Yes, otherwise we wouldn’t play with him there,” Ten Hag said after the Liverpool game when asked if Sancho was an option as a striker. “That is what we can do if we don’t have the availability of Rasmus.”

However, the club do have a new forward signing, Joshua Zirkzee, at Carrington, who has been training with a few of his new teammates, such as Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot.

But Ten Hag has admitted that he may not be able to start Zirkzee against City as the 23-year-old first needs to adjust to playing English football, which the Dutch manager feels will take time.

“But of course, Joshua Zirkzee, he is coming in, he has started training, but also consider that he is not so long in training, so that will take time, and he has to adapt to English football and our way of playing as well.

“But there is also, of course, Jadon, as a striker. We know he can play in wide areas, but also as a false striker, he’s an option.

“I think that Marcus has done it before and he can do it, and it’s definitely an option. But I think he is most productive from the left, starting wide and coming inside. So when he can arrive there, he is most effective.

“But we have other options. We have Bruno Fernandes who can play as a striker as well.”

United will play City at 15:00 BST on Saturday, 10 August. They will then kick off the 2024/25 Premier League season against Fulham at Old Trafford six days later, on Friday, 16 August.

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