Bryan Mbeumo 'surprised' by Man Utd team-mate who almost left in January

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Manchester United summer signing Bryan Mbeumo has surprisingly identified forward Joshua Zirkzee as the team-mate who has impressed him most at the club since his arrival. Mbeumo has made a strong impact since completing the switch from Brentford to United for a £65million fee during the summer transfer window.

However, it's proved a more challenging time for Zirkzee, who joined the club from Bologna for £36.5million a year prior. The Dutchman has managed nine goals in 67 outings across all competitions for United thus far.

By contrast, Mbeumo has already netted 10 goals in 23 appearances across all competitions for the club. It's hardly surprising, therefore, that Mbeumo has been favoured over Zirkzee in the starting XI this season.

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Despite the competition for a starting place between the two, speaking on Inside Carrington , Mbeumo has praised Zirkzee's ability . The 24-year-old was named as the player who has surprised him most.

When questioned whether anyone had caught him off guard since joining the club, he gestured towards Zirkzee sitting next to him and said: "This guy on my left.

"To be honest, I'm not watching football a lot, so obviously, when I joined, I knew the players but I didn't know really how they were playing and I was really impressed with Josh because he's a lot more skilful than I would have thought, with the ball and he can just hold the ball very easy with his body and a good strike."

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The comments come roughly a month after Zirkzee was strongly linked with a departure from United. Serie A outfit Roma were demonstrating an interest , and there were even claims in Italy that the player had reached personal terms to sign.

However, Zirkzee – who also had interest from West Ham in the back end of 2025 – was ultimately determined to remain and compete for his spot at Old Trafford.

United also held a firm position on any prospective sale, with Roma director of football Frederic Massara stating: "Man United said no quite clearly a couple of weeks ago and they have not changed their minds."

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Speaking back in January, prior to his dismissal, then United manager Ruben Amorim , also made his position clear. "I want to keep Josh because he gives everything and he's trying in training but we don't know," he said at the start of the month.

"The window is open and we will see what happens. We just need to focus on training and to take this for the other games."

Despite staying at the club in January, Zirkzee has found consistent playing time difficult to secure over recent weeks.

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