Gert Verheen: “Joshua Zirkzee’s working point is the number of high-intensity runs” | Jupiler Pro League

With 13 goals and 7 assists, Joshua Zirkzee is a pioneer in Anderlecht. Geert Verhein is a fan too, but something is missing from the 20-year-old striker’s game. The thing modern football is more and more about: high-intensity running, or high-intensity sprinting.

“If there is an improvement point with Joshua, it is, I think,” Verhein said of the overtime schedule.

“Your end goal is not Belgium, so we are talking about the European summit. Then I think it will be necessary to increase the number of intense races.”

“Pair that with more depth, I’m convinced you’ll get more chances and score more.”

As a deep striker, Zirkzee often comes to ask for the ball in the foot. That sounds great, because the Dutchman has excellent feet, but his numbers show that for a deep striker he has very little ball contact in the last third of the field.

Just with a quick sprint in the rear, Zirkzee scored 1-0 against Antwerp with the help of Ashimiro. Gert Verheyen’s advice is simple: do it often and work on it in training.

“Joshua is only 20. At this age, you can still push yourself to do more. It’s different when you’re 26. The weird thing is that young guys often do this kind of running a lot.”

“It is best to step back now and then to prevent unnecessary loss of strength.”

“I’ve hired a dietitian since late last year and started paying more attention to my diet,” Zerkzy replied. “Since then, my high intensity rides have gotten better. They could be a lot better, but for someone with a profile like me, it’s going in the right direction.”