Manchester United and Erik ten Hag have second wind after their 3-0 win away to Southampton powered by Matthijs de Ligt, Marcus Rashford, and Alejandro Garnacho’s goals.
There were plenty of positives to take from the performance. From De Ligt’s maiden goal for the club, to Andre Onana’s match-turning moment, it was a game full of heroes.
Lisandro Martinez shone alongside De Ligt, while Manuel Ugarte had as perfect a debut as a defensive midfielder could ask for.
However, a player who wasn’t on the or assisted was one of the most impressive performers on the pitch in a role that seemed tailor-made for him.
Joshua Zirkzee- The creative striker
For the first thirty minutes, when United were under the cosh, it looked like a feeling of deja vu had set in for Joshua Zirkzee.
Miss a good chance, the opposition dominates, Zirkzee gets pushed to the periphery, and the pace of English football leaves him in a daze.
That’s what happened against Liverpool and the game was trending in a similar direction vs Southampton.
Of course, United took back control of the game, and a confident United side allowed Zirkzee to showcase the best version of himself.
When United dominated the game, Zirkzee could be seen dropping deep, linking up the play, and sending his teammates free with raking passes after holding the ball up.
United knew they were not getting a prolific goalscorer when they signed Zirkzee, but his ability to almost function as an extra attacking midfielder who crashes the box was at its best in this game.
Many times Zirkzee would drag the centre-back with him, and play a nonchalant pass to his teammate in space that is far more difficult than he made it look.
There was a Dimitar Berbatov-like control and royalty to his game that could form the basis of a great partnership with Rasmus Hojlund.
The Zirkzee-Hojlund connection
Ten Hag plays with a 4-2-3-1 formation, and the striker is only one, so the choice is to rotate between Zirkzee and Hojlund, right?
That would be the case if Zirkzee was like any other striker but he couldn’t be far away from that prototype.
In fact, Zirkzee’s game is perfectly aligned with playing alongside Hojlund in a partnership of brute and beauty.
Hojlund is the freight train who runs through defenders with the single-minded objective of putting the ball into the net, and Zirkzee is the creator who is all too happy unlocking others around him while pitching in with the odd goal at times.
Played together, they can create magic once they understand each other’s game. Not many teams play two strikers in the team these days, but if any two were suited to changing that, it’s Hojlund and Zirkzee.
The game against Southampton was this tantalising potential on full display from one-half of that potential pairing.
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