Personal insult? Really? I obviously do not literally think you are insane, I just think your assessment in this case is.
Even outside Hojlund, who as I've pointed out has been available for quite a bit of time, we certainly have enough quality and have had enough luck with injuries to key players like Rashford, Bruno, Garnacho and Antony to not be 13th worst offense in the league. It's not even like we've lacked the striker to finish off chances, we simply have not created them at a high enough rate.
Please make that clear in future. Post not poster and all that.
Available in terms of on a bench and on the pitch able to make an impact are very different. Højlund can’t score being “available” he has to be playing minutes but those have had to be managed due to injury, adapting to a new league and the lack of a back up meaning we can’t risk him being in the red zone too much. Hence 58% vs other forwards.
Rashford has been poor this season. I wonder why our LW has found it more difficult to play this season. Could it have anything to do with not having a LB overlapping him?
Bruno has created but we’ve not had a consistent presence in attack. When we have, Højlund has scored.
Garancho is having a good season for a 19 year old
Antony has been really poor in terms of output.
We have reasons for our key threat (Rashford) being in sub optimal conditions. We know from previous seasons our attacks were left side biased. We have struggled without that side being effective.
So conceding so many chances is actually the plan? That’s even worse.
And United’s striker situation isn’t really “worse than the starts and appearances suggest”. It’s just that those stats don’t say what you want them to say.
PL Starts
(Arsenal) Jesus - 13
(Liverpool) Nunez - 17
(City) Haaland - 22
(Villa) Watkins - 28
(Spurs) Son - 23
(United) Hojland - 17
(Brighton) Ferguson - 15
(West Ham) Antonio - 12
(Wolves) Jimenez - 17
(Newcastle) Isak - 17
(Chelsea) Nkunku - 2
I only went down to 11th as those are the five teams above and below United in the table. Hojlands 17 starts from 20 appearances is pretty standard. In fact, only 3 teams have their main striker starting more games. And his playing less minutes likely has more to do with his not scoring or assisting in his first 14 games than it does his fitness.
You did the same thing in that thread you started. Minutes played are not the same thing as minutes available for. United’s injuries have been bad, but not at all unprecedented.
It’s not the long term plan but I’m at the point where I think Ten Hag is accepting we defend the box well so we’re happy for pot shots or blocked shots to come our way.
Let’s look at top scorers in the PL (% mins):
- Haaland 76
- Watkins 99
- Salah 72
- Bowen 96
- Solanke 99
- Son 82
- Saka 67
- Isak 56
The vast majority there are all on pitch having impact regularly in games.
It’s completely disingenuous to assume that just because a player is on a bench or starts a game that they are fit and fully ready to go which hasn’t been the case with Højlund’s season.
Mins played is a fairer reflection of what impact a player has actually been able to make vs a hypothetical one where they are listed in a match day squad.
A combination of arriving with a back injury, being young, adjusting to the PL and having no back up (Martial) has meant we’ve had to be very cautious with Højlund’s minutes.
A combination of injuries to all our left sided defenders (constant) and key midfielders (on and off) has meant our build up and attacks down the left have made Rashford’s job harder too.