Two Manchester United pundits were in full agreement over the outstanding performance of a player who has started to turn his Old Trafford career around, following the Europa League draw in Spain on Thursday night.
The Red Devils earned a hard-fought 1-1 draw at Real Sociedad in the first leg of their last-16 tie, with summer signing Joshua Zirkzee netting his first European goal for the club and his sixth in all competitions this term.
The result could have been even better after a strong showing from Man Utd up until the hour mark, with Alejandro Garnacho missing a huge chance.
But it was the impressive Zirkzee who stole the show, with MUTV pundits naming the Dutch forward as United’s best performer on the night and raving over how he is starting to turn his career around in Manchester after a tough start.
After this performance, Danny Simpson and Sammy McIlroy were asked who got their vote for player of the match and there was only one winner.
“He’s overturned his performances from the start of the season to now,” Simpson began. “And I think there’s a player in there. It was a great finish and he should have had the winning goal to come back here with the win.”
McIlroy then continued to explain why Zirkzee got his vote, adding: “Forget the goal and I would still give it to Zirkzee. I thought he was the one player that looked like he could create or cause them havoc which he did on a few occasions. I thought his passing and positional play tonight were excellent. I’m glad he got the goal.”
Simpson then added: “I agree. His goal, he deserves it for his recent performances. He was working back and his workrate for the team hasn’t gone unnoticed from us.”
McIlroy then concluded: “His character, his strength… it’s unbelievable how he’s turned it round cause many a player would have wanted out of here when things weren’t going right for him. The crowd were against him and other players might’ve told their agent to get them out. He’s rolled his sleeves up and said ‘this is what I can do’.”
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Amorim also singles out Zirkzee
The former United players were not alone in praise for the Dutchman, with Ruben Amorim also impressed with the forward when he spoke to the press after the game.
“He [Zirkzee] deserves it,” the United boss explained. “Because he works very well. He improves a lot of things in his game.
“He deserves this moment. He was very important for us today.”
It’s certainly a far cry from just a matter of weeks ago when Zirkzee, along with fellow forward Rasmus Hojlund, were being roundly criticised for their lack of end product.
Indeed, former United striker Dimitar Berbatov stated that both players looked ‘lost’ playing under Amorim following the Premier League defeat at Tottenham.
Speaking to Premier League Productions after that game, the Bulgarian said: “You are being judged on how you play in that system and you are able to see you are not giving your best because either the system is not good for you or you play out of position.
“We go back to Zirkzee playing out of position, running all over the place, looking lost so you cannot use his best qualities.”
Those qualities were certainly on show at Sociedad though as Zirkzee starts to prove the doubters wrong.
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