‘He’s just not a Man United player’ – INEOS told ‘weak’ star has to go in brutal assessment | OneFootball

Manchester United have been urged to sell a £36.5million signing who one pundit “can’t believe he’s actually still playing” for the club, in a brutal assessment following Saturday’s goalless draw with Sunderland.

With a Champions League place already secured, interim boss Michael Carrick opted to shuffle his pack for the game at the Stadium of Light, with the likes Mason Mount and Joshua Zirkzee handed rare starts.

However, the latter, who is expected to be offloaded in the upcoming transfer window, following the arrivals of Bryan Mebumo, Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko last summer, came in for brutal criticism after the contest.

Zirkzee, 24, delivered a largely anonymous display before being withdrawn after 65 minutes on Wearside, and former Sunderland player Micky Gray believes the Dutchman is simply ‘not a Man United player’.

Speaking on talkSPORT, Gray said: “For the life of me I don’t know how 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 everything bounces off him as a striker.

“He’s a huge guy but for somebody who’s so big and tall and strong as he is, he’s just so weak.

“And I can’t believe he’s actually still playing for Manchester United. I think he’s certainly one of the players that you’re trying to move on in the summer.”

Merson questions Man Utd squad depth

While fellow pundit Paul Merson agrees with Gray’s verdict on Zirkzee, the Sky Sports man also highlighted United’s need to improve their overall squad depth over the summer.

“It wasn’t a good result,” he told Sky Sports. “It wasn’t a good performance. What it was, was worrying his next season.

“This season, I said before, they are only playing once a week. Now, all of a sudden, you know, 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 opinion. So he’ll probably be moved on. So it just shows you where they are.

“So it’d be a worry for them. They need to invest in some players. Otherwise, they’ll be fighting for top four next season.”

Merson continued: “They’ve got to buy a centre midfield player, top, top draw central midfield player. The one that comes to 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 another one because Zirkzee, for me, just hasn’t got it, in my opinion. I think he’s a nice player, but I just don’t think this is the club for him.

“But they need to sort something out because I think next season, watching that today, and I don’t want to take anything away from Sunderland because I thought Sunderland were really, really good.

“But they will have to invest and I don’t know how it’ll work with a fair play rule, how much they can invest, but they need some players.”

Adding more forward depth is certainly not out of the question for United this summer, indeed the Manchester Evening News claims they have begun ‘discussions’ with huge Leicester City talent Jeremy Monga