After having decided on Paulo Fonseca as their new head coach, the AC Milan management have also settled on the striker that they would like to ‘gift’ him as per a report this morning.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) report this morning, there is one certainty regarding Zirkzee and that is that he will be playing Champions League football next season. He just has to decide which team he will do so for, and Milan are pushing strongly.
Zirkzee has always been at the forefront of the minds of the directors and continues to be so while alternative targets like Viktor Gyökeres and Benjamin Sesko already seem to be way out of reach in terms of a transfer fee.
Milan, like all the other teams, can sign the Dutchman by paying €40m (his release clause) plus commissions to his agent. Unconfirmed but logical rumours say that those commissions wuld be very substantial, as always for a player who can be purchased at a reduced price.
The motive is clear: Zirkzee can decide where to go and two circumstances help the hopes of the Milan fans. The first: Joshua would prefer to stay in Italy to continue his development. The second: Milan really tries.
The obstacles
The issue, in this story, can come from the north west. Juventus have Thiago Motta, who can entice Zirkzee. Of course, they must also decide what to do with Dusan Vlahovic, which is not a simple topic at the start of the transfer window.
Even further north west, the Premier League is the big threat. Arsenal are very interested, Manchester United have moved early, while many other clubs have great spending power that clubs within Serie A do not have.
It is believed that things will become clearer soon, because Zirkzee was not called up by the Netherlands for the European Championship, perhaps somewhat surprisingly.
It means that no one will fall in love with him between June and July. Paulo Fonseca, Milan’s chosen coach for the post-Pioli era, observes everything from afar.
Would it work?
Fonseca at Roma used Edin Dzeko as a centre-forward a lot and alternatively Nikola Kalinic and Borja Mayoral. At Lille, however, the striker was by Jonathan David, so very different profiles.
Zirkzee has been described as a ‘9.5’ for his playmaking tendencies, which means he would be a fascinating and original experiment for Fonseca. Zirkzee moves around the pitch, seeks combinations, and has no problems exchanging positions with the other attackers.
On the one hand, he can be perfect for enhancing Rafael Leao, Christian Pulisic, Samuel Chukwueze and Noah Okafor, who would love to exploit the space. On the other hand, he leaves a question mark on his presence in the area, which Zirkzee and Leao frequent much less than others.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek attacks the goal with great pleasure, but the problem of his presence in the last 16 metres could arise, especially with deeper defences. The Milan fans looking for a 20-goal striker would also point out that Zirkzee only scored 11 in the league.
Timing is a factor in this story. Milan, by taking their No.9 early, would send a signal to the world and allow Fonseca to work immediately with the man who would lead the line. If he convinced Zirkzee and his agent, he would burn out the competition.
> Hire the cheapest possible coach to manage the whole squad, because you can save money by giving him 3mln EUR instead of 5mln for better one
> Spend 40mln EUR on one-season-wonder striker who can easily by Piatek v2
I’m not saying Zirkzee is bad, but this money management is just ridiculous.
I hope our management try to focus on buying the right players to suit whatever system the new coach intends to use. Not like last summer buying players for 433 and then switching formation and struggling in midfield every game.
We need a centre forward, a goal scorer, a finisher. Zirkzee is a creative player who likes to drop deep or go wide and take part in the build up.
He has 11 goals this season in the league ELEVEN.
2 of those were penaltied, so that is NINE goals from play, while playing no. 9 for one of the best teams of the season.
There is absolutely no way he is worth 40m plus as a striker, as a creative player, perhaps, for a team who needs that profile, we don’t.
I’d rather get Scamacca at that rate.
I want to see targeted signings this summer, a true 9, a true DM.
I don’t think Atalanta is gonna let go of Scamacca that easily, otherwise he could be worth it.
I don’t know much about Zirkzee, but a striker who likes to drop deep and contribute to the build-up is very useful. We did sometimes struggle with teams that play low block and like to tighten up and in those games, Giroud was pretty much non-existant. Heck even Haaland was isolated in many games against teams that park the bus.
A striker who drops deep and like to contribute to the build-up can help to beat this types of tactics. And in the end, we need Milan to score. If Zirkzee ends up scoring less but helps Leao, Pulisic and Chukwueze to score more, I’ll be fine with it.
Exactly and it makes us even more unpredictable. Okafor is already such a striker but somehow no one has faith in him to take over. I’m sure he’d deliver if given more starting chance as a striker and not a winger.
Yes indeed, Okafor has looked very sharp as striker, also good on the wing. He just needs a run in the team.
I’d be quite happy to see him given a chance
It’s very annoying he wasn’t played more towards the end of the season when Giroud’s form was terrible, and he was leaving. Especially given we are looking to spend money on a striker, wouldn’t it make sense to try the options we had first and go into the summer with a clear picture of what we do and don’t need.
Thats on Pioli
I agree with what you say.
If he was like H. Kane who helped in build up and scored ok. Or if we had high scoring wingers like Liverpool with Salah etc or Madrid back in the day when Benzema worked hard for Ronaldo.
But our wingers are not big goal scorers.
Giroud has always been static and age made that worse. I love a dynamic striker, but most of all we need a finisher.
In the CL group we battered Newcastle and could not score 0-0
We created loads of chances v Dortmund in the 1st meeting and could not score.
We got beaten 3-0 by PSG
So that was the first 4 games of the CL and we had no goals – The only team in the tournament to not have scored by them.
We desperately need a goal scorer!
THIS! what good is a “true #9” if we can’t get him the ball. we need a more mobile “9.5” zirkzee would be much more involved than giroud ever was. he would take attention off Leao freeing him up to run amok. he’d do the same for puli and chuk. we would have a much more unpredictable attack.
I agree with that… Zirkzee has only 11 goals in a whole season and suddenly he is worth 40mln euro…
Okafor has 6 goals and played like 1/3 of the minutes that Zirkzee played (870 minutes Okafor vs 2770 minutes Zirkzee), not to mention that most of these minutes Okafor played as a winger, not even a striker.
Okafor is better than this guy let’s be honest please and the money is much oh
We keep beating the dead horse…