The £64m signing Manchester United must ‘sacrifice’ to get a landmark swap transfer deal done

For weeks now, stories rolling of the rumour mill have hinted that Manchester United are seeking a sea change up front, with Napoli striker Victor Osimhen at the very top of the club’s list as they work to reshape a struggling squad to Ruben Amorim’s requirements – but a fresh angle to the story has now emerged from Italy.

Transfer website Calciomercato has claimed that United are prepared to “sacrifice” one of their existing strikers – either Rasmus Højlund, who has struggled over the course of his sophomore campaign, or Joshua Zirkzee, who has failed to hit the ground running since signing from Bologna last summer.

There’s little doubt that getting hold of Osimhen, who is currently on loan at Galatasaray after a semi-successful attempt to force his way out of Napoli, would represent a coup and give United the high-class goalscorer they’ve lacked for some years now. But which of their underperforming players would make the most sense to get rid of, and could either come back to haunt United if they do get moved on?

Could Joshua Zirkzee still shine at Old Trafford?

It’s fair to say that 23-year-old Dutchman Zirkzee has not had the impact many at Old Trafford would have hoped since arriving in a deal worth a reported £36.5m last summer. Having scored 11 goals for Bologna as Thiago Motta’s side qualified for the Champions League, Zirkzee has managed just three league goals for Manchester United in 27 appearances. It’s not exactly been the ideal start.

Then again, if United signed Zirkzee as a pure goalscorer in the first place, they were probably misguided. Although he typically occupied the number nine position for Bologna, his role was more about working the channels and creating space for other forwards than about getting on the end of the final pass, and there’s an extent to which he has continued that work with his current club.

Although Zirkzee’s end product has been limited, his knack for finding space and drawing defenders out of position has remained in evidence, at least occasionally, and while he hasn’t created chances in volume, his ability to carry the ball forward and to pick a pass have proved useful at times, even if he hasn’t consistently found ways to open defences up for those around him. There have been flashes, but not too much more.

Zirkzee has also been getting into scoring positions just as often as he did with Bologna, and is earning 0.30xG per game compared to 0.29xG in Serie A – in other words, he’s getting into good areas just as often as he did before. Where he has struggled is with his finishing, undershooting his expected goals and ultimately scoring at a rate of just under one goal for every four full matches he’s played, compared to better than one in three in Italy.

Not that anyone watching him play needs the stats to tell them that he looks bereft of his confidence in front of goal. There is a palpable uncertainty to his finishing that didn’t exist at Bologna, and that needs to be resolved for him to become the player United need.

Nevertheless, there are at least some positive signs, even if you have to scratch around for them a little. His capacity to get open in the final third has been clear in recent games, even if he hasn’t made much use of it, and there is the sense that if he can regain his faith in his own final touch, there could still be a useful player in there. The question is whether Amorim can prise that out of him quickly enough for it to be worth holding on to him.

Can Rasmus Højlund get hot again?

Between December and February of last year, the Dane – signed from Atalanta for a fee rising to as much as £72m – scored in six consecutive league games and was starting to look like a first-rate goalscorer. Since that hot streak ended, however, he has scored just five in 32 matches. The wheels came off and don’t look like coming back on.

Højlund was largely signed on the strength of a couple of similar hot streaks in Serie A, but has never been a consistent threat in front of goal, not that there isn’t time for that to develop given that he’s only 22. He has the pace and physicality to succeed – he just isn’t finding ways to apply it.

Worryingly, Højlund has only managed to get into positions worth an average of 0.17xG per game, an extremely low mark for a Premier League striker and nearly half of that achieved by Zirkzee. While those rather unimpressive statistical markers can be put down to the lack of quality service to a certain extent, the simple fact is that Højlund simply isn’t finding space of losing his man often enough.

Throw in a lack of self-belief in front of goal very similar to that Zirkzee is dealing with, and you don’t have a recipe for scoring too often – just twice in the Premier League since the start of the 2024/25 season. That’s not good enough, by any stretch.

The argument for keeping hold of Højlund over Zirkzee in any negotiations over Osimhen is that the Dane has, at least, proven that he can score goals in the top flight, even if he hasn’t done it on a regular basis. A counterpoint, however, is that he may not suit Amorim’s system – based on his style of play at Sporting, he wants a striker who can hit the channels down the edges of the box and create space for others while providing chances, not just an out-and-out goalscorer. Højlund has at least briefly shown us the capacity to be a genuine number nine, but he doesn’t have the off-ball movement or creative skill that Amorim wrung out of Viktor Gyökeres at Sporting.

There is, of course, a case to be made for jettisoning both. At some point, it’s best to cut losses and earn some cash back to reinvest rather than clinging on to a player that isn’t making the grade – but there are perhaps more red flags being waved by Højlund right now.

Then again, if any kind of swap deal does take place, it may be that Napoli dictate terms. They’ve got the most important player in the deal, after all, and can pick and choose – and it’s worth remembering that they also bid for Alejandro Garnacho over the winter. The two clubs couldn’t agree a fee, but there’s a case to be made for selling the Argentine, too.

Whatever the price they must pay and whichever sacrificial lamb needs to be brought to Antonio Conte’s altar, a deal for Osimhen is one that United surely must get done if they want to challenge for European placings once more. There are a host of issues to deal with, but right now they’re a team that simply doesn’t score enough goals. Osimhen would fix that, and perhaps neither Højlund nor Zirkzee will based on the way they’re playing right now.