Joshua Zirkzee was made to wait for his Manchester United chance by Ruben Amorim this season, but it’s been a remarkable turnaround for the Dutchman in the space of just a week when a departure in the upcoming January transfer window had earlier looked nailed on.
Prior to last Monday night’s surprise start for the visit of Everton—prompted as a result of Benjamin Šeško and Matheus Cunha absences—Zirkzee’s entire season had amounted to just 90 minutes spread across sporadic substitute appearances. Most of the time, he couldn’t get off the bench.
After 90 minutes at Old Trafford, in which Zirkzee was only denied two late goals by Jordan Pickford’s heroics in the Everton goal—one likely the best save you’ll see in the Premier League this season—he kept his place for Sunday’s trip to Crystal Palace and bagged another full 90.
Suddenly, he’s trebled his minutes for the campaign in just two outings and has made a positive impact. After going so close against Everton, Zirkzee fired in a clinical equaliser against Palace, allowing him to bring out the ‘machine gun’ celebration borrowed from Gabriel Batistuta in a Premier League setting for the first time in a full year minus one day.
Zirkzee told afterwards that being a Manchester United player means “you have to perform,” going on to acknowledge the mental toll of such a long drought—indeed, there were moments in the second half of last season when he looked devoid of confidence. This was also a player brutally jeered by his own fans at one particulaurly low moment last December.
“If you don’t score for a long time, it can get to you, but I’m surrounded by great players, great people, and we help each other every day. They made it quite easy for me.”
He added: “[The goal] was just a reward I think for patience, hard work, trying to be consistent, and I’m just thankful to them, the manager as well, staff, everyone. [It’s] a good environment.”
