Dan Ashworth knows Man United's dream Viktor Gyokeres alternative to usurp Joshua Zirkzee

The distance from Bologna to Manchester is around 865 miles but it is the gap between Serie A and the Premier League that Joshua Zirkzee is finding most gruelling.

Questions were raised this summer when Manchester United decided to splash £36.5million on the Dutch attacker, who had scored just 12 goals in 37 matches for his Italian employers last season.

An average of goal in every three games for Bologna has now turned into one goal in 18 matches for United, the last 17 of which have been barren. As a result, senior United figures now fear they have made an expensive mistake.

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Zirkzee celebrated his debut goal against Fulham on the opening night by producing what seemed to be gun gestures with his hands, often used by scorers to allude to their sharp shooting. Zirkzee has been misfiring ever since.

The 23-year-old has mustered just 12 shots in 11 subsequent Premier League games with an accuracy (efforts on target) of just 42 per cent. The official Premier League website scores him as having missed four ‘big chances’, having given away three times as many fouls as goals.

December is not yet here and there is already talk of United seeking another striker in 2025. Much discussion has inevitably centred around Viktor Gyokeres.

The Swede scored 10 times in his final five Sporting CP games under Ruben Amorim, three of which came against Manchester City. Two of those were from the spot and he really should have ended the match with four goals after squandering a gaping one-on-one situation.

Two 19-year-olds were in Man City’s defence for the tie.