Erik ten Hag 'didn't want to sign Man Utd star' and fumed at star's condition

Erik ten Hag didn't even want to sign - and was then fuming that he arrived at overweight.

The Dutch forward was as he arrived in the summer from Bologna after an impressive season in Italy, where he was among the leading scorers. The transfer though was driven by the club's new hierarchy - not the club's former manager.

They saw Zirzkee as being good value for money at £36.5million, but already questions are being asked about the recruitment decision. When the 23-year-old rocked up in Manchester it is claimed he was a stone overweight and he's struggled to shift that excess.

reports that Ten Hag was fuming as the striker was not his preferred signing and also arrived in a poor physical condition.

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Zirzkee came off the bench to score the winner on his debut as the Manchester outfit saw off on the opening weekend. It wasn't a sign of things to come though with the Dutchman firing blanks since that strike back in August.

Ten Hag's patience quickly wore thin and Zirkzee found starts hard to come by. He's been unable to find the net since notching against the Cottagers, a period which spans 15 appearances across all competitions, the majority of which have come from the bench. His last league start came against at the end of September.

Rasmus Hojlund has since come back into the team and Zirkzee has failed to impress when he's been given the opportunity with Ruben Amorim about to come in and cast his eye over United's floundering attacking options.

A lack of goals has been a major problem with the Manchester outfit, who have endured their worst ever start and sit in the bottom half. After ten games they've managed to score just nine times with Ten Hag accepting their efforts in the final third weren't good enough.

He said: "Not scoring goals, not scoring goals enough. That's the problem, the key area. We have to score more goals as a team. I think we have players across the team who have the ability to score. That's clear. You see all the opportunities we are creating, we are not scoring enough."

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