I played with Joshua Zirkzee - this is how Ruben Amorim can get the most out of him

Ruben Amorim has received advice from Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski on how to get the best out of the struggling Joshua Zirkzee.

Former Sporting CP head coach Amorim will manage his first game for United this weekend against Kieran McKenna's Ipswich Town, marking his debut in English football. His predecessor Erik ten Hag left several problems for him to fix, and few are more urgent than the Zirkzee dilemma up front.

Dutchman Zirkzee was signed from Bologna in the summer for a £36million fee and handed a five-year contract. Despite scoring on his debut against Fulham, he has failed to find the net in the 16 games since. The 23-year-old's time at Old Trafford has quickly turned into a nightmare, and he's struggled to land minutes of late.

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And with the 6ft4in forward hoping his fortunes will change under the new manager, Lewandowski - once Zirkzee's strike partner at Bayern Munich - has told Amorim how to get the best out of him. The legendary striker pinpointed how effective Zirkzee can be outside of scoring goals through his build-up play when players run off him.

Lewandowski said: "He plays amazing with the back to the goal. He can hold the ball. He can play with one touch or two touches and bring the wingers to behind his back.

"He has also good finishing in the box because he's big. He's young, but he's big and I think he can keep the ball, hold the ball very, very strong. Of course, he needs a little bit of time."

The Poland star added: "It's normal if you join this kind of club, a big club with a huge expectation. He scored a lot of goals in Serie A. For him, that was the first season that he was involved as a typical striker. But you know that now the time for Manchester is not so brilliant.

"But he's the striker. He can really help team-mates and the team if you know how to use him. Also, he can score the goals. I think he's not a typical goal-scoring striker. He's also the player who can help the team-mates to create the space for them."

The arrival of a new manager offers Zirkzee a clean slate and an opportunity to win favour with Amorim, who is said to reward hard work with game time. However, players signed by previous managers can sometimes struggle to assert themselves and fit into a new coach’s ideas, meaning Zirkzee must adapt swiftly or risk losing patience from the outset.

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