Manchester United have been urged to sell Joshua Zirkzee this summer after his lacklustre performance against Sunderland.
Zirkzee has found minutes hard to come back by under Michael Carrick, but was handed a rare start with Benjamin Sesko injured and Bryan Mbeumo lacking form.
Nonetheless, the Dutchman didn’t profit from the chance, delivering a largely anonymous display before being withdrawn after 65 minutes.
The 24-year-old has been widely linked with an exit from Old Trafford this summer, and former Sunderland player Micky Gray believes the Dutchman simply is ‘not a Man United player’.
Speaking on talkSPORT, Gray said: ‘For the lifetime of me I don’t know the way Bryan Mbeumo has not come on at half time for Joshua Zirkzee.
‘He’s just not a Man United player. I’m sorry to say it, but every little thing bounces off him as a striker.
‘He’s an enormous guy but for someone who’s so big and tall and robust as he’s, he’s just so weak.
‘And I can’t imagine he’s actually still playing for Manchester United. I believe he’s definitely certainly one of the players that you simply’re attempting to move on in the summertime.’
Paul Merson also believes a summer exit for Zirkzee is probably going, but said the style of United’s 0-0 draw with Sunderland shows how much depth the Red Devils must add to their squad over the summer transfer window.
‘It wasn’t result,’ he told Sky Sports. ‘It wasn’t performance. What it was, was worrying his next season.
‘This season, I said before, they’re only playing once per week. Now, swiftly, you realize, next season, they’re going to be in Champions League football and their squad looks very shallow.
‘Mason Mount is playing centre midfield today with Mainoo. Zirkzee up front, sorry, but he’s not going to do it for Man United, in my view. So he’ll probably be moved on. So it just shows you where they’re.
‘So it’d be a worry for them. They need to speculate in some players. Otherwise, they’ll be fighting for top 4 next season.’
Merson continued: ‘They’ve got to purchase a centre midfield player, top, top draw central midfield player. The one which involves mind is [Elliot] Anderson, but Anderson’s still young.
‘They haven’t got a centre forward. I mean, Sesko plays up front, but they still need one other one because Zirkzee, for me, just hasn’t got it, in my view. I believe he’s a pleasant player, but I just don’t think that is the club for him.
‘But they should sort something out because I believe next season, watching that today, and I don’t need to take anything away from Sunderland because I believed Sunderland were really, really good.
‘But they may have to speculate and I don’t know the way it’ll work with a good play rule, how much they will invest, but they need some players.’
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