Erik: Zirkzee is motivated

Zirkzee, who joined the club from Bologna in July, was granted an extended summer break due to his international endeavours with the Netherlands at Euro 2024.

He recently returned to Carrington ahead of the new season and Ten Hag was quizzed on how our new no.11 is progressing in his efforts on the training pitch.

Speaking to MUTV's Zarah Connolly, Erik explained that the 23-year-old could perhaps be in contention to feature at Wembley Stadium on Saturday.

"Yeah I think he can [feature], he is really hungry to do this because he is looking forward and he is also very excited to be coming into the Premier League," replied Ten Hag.

"To come to Manchester United and on his first occasion go to Wembley, of course that will highly motivate him, that's for sure.

"But he is also short in training, he had a break, he trained individually but he has now had a couple of days in the team training."

Ten Hag didn't down play the challenge at hand, especially given the quality Manchester City possess in having won the Premier League last season.

United did of course beat Saturday's opponents in the FA Cup final as recently as May and the boss called for cohesion in the camp on our return to Wembley Stadium. 

"First we have to be unified and we have to fight with each other," added Erik.

"That is the mentality we need on Saturday, we need a very good game plan of course because we are playing against a very good team.

"They have a lot of skills and we have to be ready for that game.

"So that's a big challenge because for the first time we are all coming together this season and then you have a couple of days to be ready as a team to face a very good opponent.

"But we are looking forward [to it], everyone is very excited about this game and going to Wembley always gives us good vibes, it gives us good memories that will absolutely motivate the players."