Bruno: Zirkzee deserved his special moment

During Manchester United’s 3-0 defeat against Newcastle a couple of weeks ago, Joshua Zirkzee was jeered by the Old Trafford crowd when he was subbed off in the first half to make way for Kobbie Mainoo to add numbers to the midfield.

While the frustration was largely felt for the team as a whole, it was clearly a horrible moment for the young forward.

When United travelled to Anfield last weekend the travelling support made an effort to make Zirkzee feel supported by chanting his name. The same occurred at the Emirates on Sunday evening, ahead of him scoring the crucial penalty to send Arsenal out of the FA Cup.

Speaking to Sky Sports News, Bruno Fernandes discussed his desire to make everyone in the team feel included and praised Zirkzee for the turnaround.

I like everyone to be happy. I want everyone to feel a part, to feel involved. When you are in a good moment, in a high moment, I rather give that to other players – not because I don’t want to have that moment, because obviously every player wants to have his credit, his flowers and his moments of joy – but this is just the way I live my life. I do really think for a team to be successful, it needs everyone to be at the same level of happiness. Even knowing that some players will play less than others, you need to find a way to push them in certain moments for them to feel that they are as much important as I am.

The script was already there for a long time. You know, when when you are a good person, when you do the right things, you can have bad moments but at the end everything will come through strong.

It was a decision by the staff to pick the five players to have the penalty and they put Josh last. And the only thing it came into my mind was to tell the players that the script is done. So everything is done since that moment against Newcastle that prepared us to, in this moment, give Josh his moment and his credit and his flowers.

We can talk about whatever people want to talk about, like ‘penalties, it’s easy.’ It’s how we got to penalties. Altay saved the penalty from Martin Odegaard who hadn’t missed one in his professional career yet. And then Josh, in a moment of pressure with everything he’s been through in his mind, steps up and and gives us the win.

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The post Bruno: Zirkzee deserved his special moment first appeared on Republik Of Mancunia: A Manchester United Blog.