Frank de Boer slammed Joshua Zirkzee’s performance in Manchester United’s defeat to Tottenham, calling the striker a ‘champion in losing the ball’.
Zirkzee has scored one goal in eight appearances for United since joining in a £36.5 million deal from Bologna in the summer transfer window.
The Netherlands international was substituted at half time after United were reduced to 10 men against Spurs on Sunday as Ten Hag’s side slipped to a 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford.
And De Boer was less than impressed with the 23-year-old’s display against Ange Postecoglou’s men.
‘Look at Joshua Zirkzee. He was having a nightmare. He was absolutely shocking,’ De Boer told Viaplay.
‘How many times does he make the wrong choices on the pitch? Okay, he did have one shot at goal and the keeper saved it. But all in all he was champion in losing the ball.
‘During the warm-up before the game, I was watching him and he was shooting on goal but he was blasting it anywhere but on target.
‘Honestly, he did not hit the target once in the warm-up. That was terrible. When you are a good striker, you don’t have to blast every ball, you have to make sure your shots are in the corner. During the game Marcus Rashford tried to shoot like that. Zirkzee never did.’
De Boer also said he was ‘stunned’ by the manner of United’s latest defeat at Old Trafford.
‘United look like a team that are wobbling everywhere,’ De Boer said.
‘They have been totally outclassed, and I am talking about being outclassed tactically, in quality, in effort and energy. Where weren’t they outclassed?
‘I was looking at the players, and one after the other they made such stupid mistakes. So many players are making poor passes. I was trying to count the amount of big things that went wrong in the first 45 minutes and it was impossible to count those big mistakes on the fingers of two hands.
‘I am stunned by what I saw in Manchester. It became even more clear how bad United are when I looked at the way Tottenham played from the back, how they built things up, always finding a free player, showing guts on the ball and having the right power in a fight for the ball. I found it remarkable how an opponent of United’s could play like that.’
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