Question for the Hojlund haters and doubters

Two things can be true at the same time.

He's in an unwinnable situation here, with next to no support and service, and also, it's not quite clear yet whether he'll ever be good enough anyway.

If we're serious about fixing this squad and competing he should not be our starting striker. We need an elite striker like a Kane or an Osimhen or a Lautaro.
 
Name one striker at the age of 21 leading the line who is supposed to score without getting any service?
 
Big Ben Foster said:
His debut season has been decent, all things considered. Won't complain about that. I do think he has a very limited ceiling due to his poor technique though - that's one of those things that doesn't get any better with age or experience.
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That is the main cause of worry with Hojlund. His touch, his passing, his link-up, his ability to make runs - they all seem lacking. Obviously, he is young and will get better at certain things but it is hard to see him become a top striker with that touch and lack of instincts as a striker. He shouldn't be leading the line for us. We need to bring in a top quality striker next season and have him as a second choice. Unfortunate that we spent so much on him. He is player you take a punt on for 20m-25m, not someone you make the focal point of your attack.
 
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Don't bother, you can't convince the resident moaner specialists to use some common sense. They already decided he will never make it and that's it. You can only laugh. :lol:
 
There's no point trying to justify or debate this topic imo as people's mind are set.

I'm choosing to bite my tongue and revisit this next season.

I see clear positives in his skillset and the clear deficiencies but overall he's a big talent for me. However, if we continue to play like this, nobody can play well. Look at Garnacho's performance today, who had the ball about 20 times and delivered maybe 2 decent crosses and messed up everything else.

You can't really objectively assess. It's all on the manager for me.
 
His movement and touch may not be therrle yet but how much more he can do when our wingers keep going infield and giving pot shots instead of trying to find an assist for him. He is no young Rooney who can make things happen on his own.
 
Sassy Colin said:
Exactly
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Yeah but considering 5 of them came in 5 games in Europe and then 7 in 6 games (with one against Villa)...that's 26 games of the season with no goal contributions. A 1 in 3 striker cannot lead the line at a club which wants to be challenging for titles - it's not on him and it's probably the level he should be at in his first prem season but he's not been good enough to lead the line for us.

He's been good enough to be a decent young striker but nothing about it suggests a) he's a phenom and b) that he's ready to be our starting striker if we want to get back to the top

Stats aside, his all round play is often very poor too
 
Skills said:
He always looked like a massive work in progress. The problem is that we're actually a terrible fit for developing players.

The fanbase doesn't have the patience for them so there were always going to be inevitable calls to bench him for a more experienced top level striker (we're the only club that apparently needs prime Harry Kane to have a shot at finishing in the top 4).

He needs game time to develop and a competent coach to gets his hands on him.
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What a total cop out, and frankly, nonsense. We’ve literally got two others in the team right now who get FAR less stick than Rasmus. We’ve always been a fanbase that gives time, and frankly, excuses to talented young players. The key is the talent part. Being young isn’t a talent. It is possible for Hojlund to show more, without looking as good as Harry Kane. There’s a LOT in between. He’s been poor in the vast majority of his games for us.
 
Who is Hojland?

One thing for sure is that our own Rasmus Hojlund is unfortunately not part of the list.
 
His goal record is absolutely fine for his age, the quality of service and the general ineptitude around the club.

However his all round game is quite poor, shows the odd flash of good footwork and dexterity, he is really not offering much other than goals, looks highly one dimensional at this stage.
 
I like Rasmus but he’s been given a real sh*tty hand. Not having any alternative to him has been a pox.

I’d give him a pass
 
What's worrisome is that he is terrible at being in the right spot or appearing where the ball is so I feel like he never end up in scoring chances. I would prefer it if he was more like Nunez instead because he seems to have good instincts when it comes to finding chances. I think it's easier to improve finishing than it is to improve your football IQ so I'm getting a bit worried, but I would ofcourse like to see Hojlund in a team that actually creates alot of chances before I really panic about him.
 
Sassy Colin said:
To have a discussion, did you read the OP?

Add to the discussion.
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The OP isn’t any better. His critics generally critique his performances and attributes, recognizing the limitations of the team around him. Most know that ‘successfully leading the line’ — whatever the heck that means — is too much to ask at this point.
 
Paul778 said:
Nicely balanced. How do you fix the lack of support?

It was a different era with a manager who had complete autonomy and respect, but allegedly SAF told his senior players "pass to RVP or you're dropped"
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Fixing the lack of support is a tough one. Rashford is a very selfish player, and may not be here next season, but Garnacho is also quite selfish and definitely will be here.

Having a pre-season will do him the world of good, and he'll naturally improve anyway. We shouldn't forget how young he is, and he'll have some support/competition next season which will help.
 
It was obviously breathtakingly idiotic making him the main striker. Plus thinking we could rely on Martial to offer even the slightest alternative to occasionally play instead of him.
Am amazed he's not utterly burnt out physically and mentally.

Add in wingers who are utterly obsessed with cutting in and having digs themselves, it's amazing he's scored any goals.
 
I don’t see how you can judge him yet. People just like to make rash judgements. Part of me thinks he’d be thriving with City or Arsenals structure behind him and people on here would be talking about how he wouldn’t come to United with the team such a mess on here.

I could still see him being very good; it certainly wouldn’t be one of my most immediate worries if I was Ineos.
 
Too many excuses. He's just ain't it. He may be it in 5 years but you shouldn't get 2, let alone 5 seasons like his first one at a club of our size. Just look at the hype Odegaard and he still needed years and a complete change of club, scenery and manager to reach his once hyped-up pontential.

For me, he's a Darwin-type 'striker'. He's not good enough technically like Martial to play the modern striker role and should be tried on the wing but that's as much leeway as we should give him and only because he cost us such an exorbitant sum.
 
Ronaldo, Haaland, Martial, Owen, Rooney, Isak, Mbappe, Osimhen, Leao, Lukaku, Benzema, Henry, Neymar....
 
Fairly typical fare today, he gets what...a half chance here and there. Well, probably a decent chance, should have done better. But apart from that very few crosses, very few passes between the lines. Most of what he had to do was battle a centre back, typical scraps of opportunity. At United you should be getting plenty of goalscoring chances, then if you fluff them you have to take responsibility, but if a young striker is getting little opportunity to shine it becomes explainable that his season wasn't tremendous. Then the confidence isn't quite there and it's a battle.

It will be a big year next season. You would hope we improve and then he also has to come along with that and improve.
 
kouroux said:
That ain't gonna change the fact that he struggles to keep the ball under pressure and do basic linking up. I don't expect much more than that
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He could improve that for sure but 9/10 he has no one to link up with anyway.

We have so many more bigger issues to fix than Rasmus, getting additional strikers in would be a good start, getting wingers who are unselfish, sorting out the midfield after 10 years of mismanagement, getting a couple of full backs who can overlap and cut it back into the box are others. We have ZERO patterns of play, strikers feed of knowing the passes/crosses to expect, we create virtually nothing for him.
 
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He is young and raw. Very unfair that he has been thrust into this position.

Currently though, clearly not at the level required. He has been totally mismanaged.
 
I dont understand this "he is only 21" excuse at all because players like Rooney, Lukaku, Rashford, Owen, Ronaldo, and Greenwood were all a lot better than Hojlund before they even turned 21.
 
Context matters because I can think of two not far from Manchester.

Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen.

But they weren't doing it in successful teams challenging for the biggest honours every year either. Liverpool were on the downward spiral and at best a cup team. Like United are now.
 
There’s lots of examples like R9, Raul, Owen, Rooney, Benzema and even Lukaku but I do get what the OP is saying as it’s very hard at the age Hojlund is at to lead the line as the first choice striker let alone at one of the biggest clubs in the world.

The main problem though is we’re a fecking shambles and completely disjointed, can you imagine being a striker and no one ever passing to you or ever putting the ball in the box ? The fact Hojlund has even got double figures this season is a near miracle.
 
Sassy Colin said:
Name the strikers, in the history of football, who have successfully led the line at a 'top' European club at the age of 21.

Haaland springs to mind as an obvious one.

I was surprised that RvN was already 25 when he came to United, because I thought we wanted to buy him when he was 19, until he had that serious injury.

Obviously, there are going to be several, of course there is, but it's a big ask of any player, considering he's had no strike partner nor anyone to rotate with him to give him a rest.

btw, the answer to this question isn't "but he cost £70M".

Name names.
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Fowler
Owen
Mbappe
Anelka
Henry
Alvarez
Defoe
Cole
Palmer
Rooney
Aguero
Torres
Benzema
Osimhen
Lukaku

Could go on tbh.
 
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