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.
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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 TNT Sports 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.”
Benjamin Šeško (Brentford, Sunderland), Bryan Mbeumo (Liverpool, Brighton) and Casemiro (Brighton, Nottingham Forest) are the only United players to score in back-to-back Premier League games this season. No one has yet managed goals in three in a row.
We’ve also been here before with Zirkzee. His brace against Everton in Amorim’s first home Premier League game in charge on December 1, 2024, gave the impression of being a catalyst moment, only for him to not find the net again domestically until this past weekend.
Football is all about confidence, and with Šeško potentially sidelined until the middle of December, the opportunity is there in front of Zirkzee right now if he’s ready to take it. You feel he has to, truth be told, if he wants to remain a Manchester United player beyond this season—a January departure surely out of the question despite RUMOURS to the contrary.
United need a consistent figure up front, delivering the goals week after week.
The mark of most good teams—not even great ones—is that they have a regular goal-getter. Somebody who goes through a purple patch of form once or twice a season at least, propelling their club to important three points. In 2025–26, Brentford have Igor Thiago (11 in 13 games), Brighton have Danny Welbeck (7 in 13) and Crystal Palace have Jean-Philippe Mateta (7 in 13). United’s top scorer is Mbeumo with five and he’s not the main guy up top.
During Sir Alex Ferguson’s storied 27-year reign, United were the standard bearers of English football that everybody wanted to beat. They had great players to power them to their successes, but they also had great goalscorers. Wayne Rooney, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Andy Cole, Robin van Persie, Dimitar Berbatov, Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Dwight Yorke some of the greats to have put Premier League defences to the sword.
Zirkzee, at 24, has enjoyed one goal-laden season in his career (16 in 38 league games), though that was in the Belgian Pro League with Anderlecht. His move to Old Trafford came off the back of scoring 11 in 34 for Bologna. Not numbers that will move the needle over the course of a season.
That’s why United must seek another addition to complement Šeško, United’s first choice striker, long-term. Zirkzee will only offer so much, even if things are looking brighter now, and it’s something Amorim and the club’s recruitment team must bear in mind before they throw all of their financial eggs into the central midfield basket.
