It was wrong of Manchester United fans to cheer when the board went up for Joshua Zirkzee to be substituted after 33 minutes of Monday’s defeat against Newcastle United, but it was not just about the Dutchman. He was struggling to hold the ball up and wasn’t exactly shining, but the same could be said of most of the home team’s players. Would they have been given the ironic cheer treatment had their number come up? Probably.
Shock and frustration were in the air as United’s season went from bad to worse and an impressive Newcastle led 2-0 after 19 minutes. Head coach Ruben Amorim had to change something — a player as it happens — and there were cheers when he did.
It was not all personal towards Zirkzee, no matter how it came across. It was frustration with the collective, but fans really hoped Zirkzee could improve United when he arrived from Bologna before this season. He was welcomed, scored the winning goal on his debut against Fulham and those making quick judgements felt he was evidence that United’s new footballing structure was heading in the right direction with more intelligent signings.
It has not quite worked out as fans hoped, but consider this: Zirkzee is 23. He’s living in a new country playing in the world’s toughest league for a struggling side. Playing in front of 32-year-olds Christian Eriksen and Casemiro against Newcastle’s legs and power in midfield would have been a challenge for any player.
Grumbling about him — and plenty were — in private is very different from the reaction he got when he was substituted, but does playing poorly make him fair game for public criticism? It clearly had an adverse effect on Zirkzee, who looked visibly upset when he went down the tunnel to the changing rooms before the half was up.
Credit to substitute Alejandro Garnacho — who was frustrated with online trolls himself in November and felt maligned — for urging fans to applaud the crestfallen Zirkzee as he headed into the tunnel. Some did and almost all in the Stretford End sang ‘Ruben Amorim’s Red and White Army’ during the break; defiance amid another desperate defeat.
“This isn’t just about Zirkzee and there’s a whole raft of factors here,” Brian McClair, who played 471 times for United and headed up the club’s youth system, tells The Athletic. “None of the players were signed by the current coach. So he’s working out what they are capable of.
“People look at Zirkzee and assume, because of his physique, that he’s a different type of player to what he is. He’s a skilful No 10 who links play, not a big old-style centre-forward. The coach has created the situation because he’s asking Zirkzee to play in a different position and formation. There could be a certain culpability from the coach — and that’s fine, he’s allowed to say he got it wrong. I don’t see a huge difference to taking him off at half-time — he wasn’t the only player struggling in a team that didn’t have a shot on target in the first half.
“Secondly, you have years of frustration and false promises to fans. It led to United fans doing what they don’t usually do and getting on a player’s back — because Manchester United fans have traditionally been very supportive of their own. They’re more than fair.”
In the cold light of day, there are fans who have come to regret what happened, but some reacted straight away.
“I walked out tonight at half-time, ashamed of the fans booing Zirkzee, a f****** disgrace — l don’t care how bad he was, you don’t boo your own,” said Anthony Wilson on X. “Properly fell out with some lads around me about it, don’t care what you say, it’s piss poor and not United.”
Plenty will agree. Wilson left Old Trafford, but Zirkzee remained — unlike some other players who have stormed out of the stadium when things haven’t gone their way — and he emerged for the second half to take his place with the other substitutes on the bench.
Zirkzee, with his hood up, during the second half of the Newcastle game (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
He’s tasted disappointment before and he’ll taste it again. Indeed, United tell their young players that the reality of being a top footballer is that most of your career is spent in low moments or the monotony of practice. The highs are few and far between, but they are amazing when they happen. Most players adjust to that reality and while Zirkzee — so happy in red three weeks ago as he came on for the final 12 minutes of the Manchester derby — may have a laid-back persona, he’s not daft.
“He wanted to be (in the dressing room) and then he returned in the second half,” said Amorim of Zirkzee. “It was a very difficult moment. He’s a human being, but then he felt the support of the fans in the end. So everything is OK.”
If Zirkzee is one part of this story, what of the fans, who are the other? Most football supporters — including Manchester United’s — pride themselves that they’re above the behaviour of what rival fans would do and that extends to not castigating your own while they wear your team’s shirt.
It is true that fans at matches are far more supportive than the criticisms you see online and every post-Sir Alex Ferguson Manchester United manager will testify to the support they have received from those at games, even when their teams are failing. They are there in person in the real world and if you abuse a player, you might have a real-world reaction from other fans, but what fans say they do and what they do can be very different.
I’ve witnessed numerous United players booed and jeered by their own, even some of the greatest players in the club’s history. As part of my book Bring on United, I spoke to Ryan Giggs about the 2002-03 season, a difficult one for him when he started to get stick from fans. Did that make him consider leaving the club?
“No,” he said. “It’s part of being a footballer. It was a bad time, though. I missed an open goal against Arsenal, I wasn’t playing well. There were reasons for that and one of the reasons was simply that I just wasn’t playing well. It happens. Another was that I was no longer that flying winger and I was trying to find a game where I could still be effective and relevant while still staying in the team. It’s like a golfer trying to change his swing while still going out to play golf and hit the good shots. I had to take the hurt while I went from being a flying winger to being a left-midfield player who played more in pockets of space. I was still quick and could still be effective. I could still run in behind defenders, just not like I could in the 90s. At 18 and 19, I felt I could beat anyone. Anyone. That changed.
“Overall, my relationship with the fans was positive. You’d get stick if you were losing, but we didn’t lose a lot. Fans were supportive when I was a young lad who came into the team and did well, even though my performances were up and down. Then I set a high standard. But I also put myself in a position where I met fans away from football and interacted. I’d go to the local pub, clubbing in the Hacienda or the Boardwalk and fans would speak to me. That wouldn’t be the case now for a footballer.”
“Dealing with criticism is part of being a professional sports person,” adds McClair. “I can’t remember getting it, but sometimes you are deserving of it. If you play really badly then you might get stick.
“Maybe part of the beauty of Sir Alex Ferguson being in management for so long was that he would have been aware of what the reactions would have been had he taken a player off in the first half. He would’ve come out publicly and taken the blame for the decision — yet in the dressing room he might have been telling the player how hopeless he was.”
A big problem is that the current team are losing a lot. Zirkzee wouldn’t have been substituted if the game was going how Amorim hoped, yet I’ve watched Michael Carrick get hammered by his own fans for the crime of being a different type of player to Roy Keane.
We keep seeing that United are in a worse position for this period of the season than at any time since 1989-90. I remember that winter of discontent so clearly — the team didn’t win between November 18 and February 10. The abuse towards the players was real and one of the targets around that time was defender Colin Gibson. Years later, I asked him about it.
“Overall I had a good relationship with United fans, but I had a few iffy games and went through a patch where fans booed,” he said. “I didn’t take that very well because I’d never had it at Aston Villa. It really put me off my game; I just didn’t want the ball because I was frightened of making mistakes. It was hard. I retreated into a shell and would go straight home after a game. Then I decided to toughen up and in one game I went down the wing, past two or three players and crossed for Brian McClair to score. The fans all started chanting my name, but the whole experience made me negative against the people who pay your wages. Yet I can also understand that when people pay their money, they’re entitled to their opinions.”
Striker Alan Brazil took some stick a few years before Gibson.
“I came off and two fans spat at me as I walked up the tunnel,” he told me for my book on United in the 1980s. “They were kids, but they were still out of order. It got to the stage that I used to look forward to away games more than those at Old Trafford, which is crazy. At home, I used to get some nasty comments and I didn’t like it.”
These are tough times for United fans; unprecedented in the modern era. These players may not be greats, but they’re not going to get any better being criticised by their own. Support could help them and how they need it right now.
(Top photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
