Erik ten Hag believes Manchester United have two forwards who can become ‘top class’ strikers.
This will be music to the ears of United fans because we’ve lacked goalscorers since the manager arrived from Ajax, and we’re no longer relying on finishers who are past their best. Instead, we are building for the future with players who have the potential to be the best.
United waved goodbye to Anthony Martial earlier this summer in a well-overdue exit. That was before Joshua Zirkzee arrived from Bologna.
Zirkzee is set to get his chance against Fulham in the first game of the season while Hojlund is ruled out through injury.
Ten Hag is mindful of not throwing Zirkzee into the deep end too soon, which means he could feature on the bench for tonight’s game at Old Trafford.
“I think we have two young strikers who have the potential to grow into top-class strikers in Hojlund and Zirkzee,” Ten Hag told reporters in his pre-match press conference, as quoted by Manchester World.
“I think he [Zirkzee] is close so that is one of the complications. We don’t have a pre-season with him so we need games to bring him.
“If you see his background in the last months he had an injury with Bologna, in the end he made the selection for the Netherlands, so that helped him out of our first few weeks of pre-season so no games that is his problem in this moment. But now it is his third week in training, you see him stepping up, his fitness levels are improving and he needs more minutes and we can’t do it in a friendly, it has to go into the league.”
Ten Hag added that he is happy with his options in attack, even though United are being linked with a late move for Brentford striker Ivan Toney.
“I am so happy I have those choices, that fits for all units, all positions, we need a number of players going into the season. We think about 60 games so it will be a survival of the fittest, we need squad depth. You have to make choices and you need rotation. No player can play all the games but also internal competition and you also need some weapons to use tactically. I am very happy we have those numbers and we have quality players so we can make those choices. We also have quality players with different abilities and that is good to have them in the squad.”
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