Rio Ferdinand says he is ‘really gutted’ for Joshua Zirkzee after the forward’s first-half substitution against Newcastle and hopes Manchester United’s senior players offer their team-mate the support he needs.
Zirkzee arrived at Old Trafford with weighty expectations on his shoulders on the back of a £36.5million move from Bologna in the summer transfer window.
But the 23-year-old attacker has largely flattered to deceive in the intervening months, managing a total of just three goals in all competitions since his dream cameo on debut against Fulham.
Ruben Amorim singled Zirkzee out for criticism after his opening match in charge against Ipswich last month and the Dutchman is still some way from winning over his manager with his performances.
On Tuesday night, Zirkzee’s difficult start hit a new low, with Amorim hauling the Netherlands international off just 33 minutes into the Red Devils’ 2-0 defeat at home to Newcastle.
Loud boos and jeers could be heard around the Theatre of Dreams as a despondent Zirkzee walked off the field to be replaced by Kobbie Mainoo.
On his decision to haul Zirkzee at such an early stage in the contest, United head coach Amorim told Sky Sports: ‘Josh is a player of Manchester United that we want more power sometimes in front.
‘We are suffering always the first goal at set-pieces so today we had more guys towards set-pieces.
‘We are trying to cope with every problem in the team but sometimes we have a lot of problems. Sometimes you push one side and the other side is open.
‘It’s really clear that Newcastle was the better team.’
Analysing the game on his Rio Ferdinand Presents YouTube channel, Ferdinand described United’s performance as a ‘disgrace’, even admitting that he struggled to sleep as a result.
But turning his attentions to Zirkzee’s 33rd-minute substitution, Ferdinand said: ‘I feel for him. I’m really, really gutted for him as a former professional footballer.
‘To be dragged off after 30 minutes is hard to take and then the reaction in the stadium as well, there was some boos and stuff like that. It’s difficult, man.
‘My heart goes out to him and I hope he can recover and I hope he gets rebuilt from within, from the players and the manager.
‘The manager said, “I’m going to go and speak to him because it was a tactical decision”, but what I would say is that this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this happen.
‘We’ve seen better players come back from this, we’ve seen some bigger and better players dragged off at these times in a game and it’s about having the resilience to come back as well.’
Ferdinand encouraged United captain Bruno Fernandes to get an arm around Zirkzee and ‘set the right example’ for the rest of the squad.
‘This is a tough situation, I know that, but he needs people like Bruno, the captain of the team, who needs to set the right example discipline-wise but also in terms of a reaction to certain situations,’ Ferdinand continued.
‘We need people like him [Fernandes] to go and get around Zirkzee and make sure, “You know what, this ain’t the end for you, there’s a future here”. One thing I would say is we’re not seeing the best of any of our players right now and we’ve been saying that for a long time anyway.
‘But I think the manager needs to get to a pre-season and to really hammer home his ideas and then we can have a real judgement on him as a manager.’
Does Zirkzee have a long-term future at Man Utd?
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