Erik ten Hag reveals Joshua Zirkzee absence against Fulham

Manchester United are set to begin their 2024/25 Premier League season with a clash against Fulham, however, £36.5million new signing Joshua Zirkzee is likely to be benched once more.

Dutch striker Joshua Zirkzee joined Manchester United last month in a £36.5million move but has yet to feature for the Red Devils. Signed from Bologna, Zirkzee didn’t start training with the team until they returned from their pre-season tour last Wednesday.

Even though he was close to United’s touring party, Zirkzee was told to report to the club’s Carrington training complex on July 29 and mainly trained under former coach Steve McClaren until his new teammates returned.

However, despite being United’s only senior striker after Rasmus Hojlund’s injury, Zirkzee remained an unused substitute in the Community Shield draw with Manchester City last week. He is now set to continue in a similar role on Friday.

“I think he is close, so that is one of the complications,” Ten Hag explained. “We don’t have a pre-season with him so we need games to bring him.

“If you see his background, in the last months he had an injury with Bologna. In the end, he made the selection for the Netherlands, so that helped him out of our first few weeks of pre-season.

“So no games – that is his problem in this moment. But now it is his third week in training, you see him stepping up, his fitness levels are improving and he needs more minutes and we can’t do it in a friendly, it has to go into the league.”

Ten Hag has expressed his delight at the attacking options available to him, saying: “I am so happy I have those (attacking) choices, that fit for all units, all positions, we need a number of players going into the season. We think about 60 games so it will be a survival of the fittest, we need squad depth.

“You have to make choices and you need rotation. No player can play all the games but also internal competition and you also need some weapons to use tactically.

“I am very happy we have those numbers and we have quality players so we can make those choices. We also have quality players with different abilities and that is good to have them in the squad.”

United will be eager to start the season with a win as they hope to compete for the Premier League this season having end last season eight on the log.