[James35]

Great stuff. Hopefully our only other remaining buy, the new second choice goal keeper will be fit and ready to play.

 

[L1nk]

Some of you really have trouble thinking more than a few months ahead of you don't you? Hojlund wasn't signed to push us to win the title this season, this is a multi year project and Hojlund was signed with the potential of being our leading forward for the next 10 years plus.

With this in mind, a few weeks out at the start of the season is nothing.

Not sure where you all got it in your head that we were pushing for the treble this season, our squad is still woefully underequipped for a title charge, we're looking to build something long term not this season.

 

[Stack]

Some of you really have trouble thinking more than a few months ahead of you don't you? Hojlund wasn't signed to push us to win the title this season, this is a multi year project and Hojlund was signed with the potential of being our leading forward for the next 10 years plus.

With this in mind, a few weeks out at the start of the season is nothing.

Not sure where you all got it in your head that we were pushing for the treble this season, our squad is still woefully underequipped for a title charge, we're looking to build something long term not this season.

Who is pushing for the treble??

 

[Robocrap]

Who is pushing for the treble??

One must be pretty deluded to think we have the capacity for a treble.

The way it is going we will be happy if we finish in the top 6..

 

[Chief123]

Im not sure it’s as bad news as some are making out.

He was scheduled to be back for the Arsenal game. He would have only come on as a sub then anyway. No chance he would have started. If it’s been delayed till after the international break, all he’s missed out extra is one sub appearance. Not ideal but not a big set back either.

 

[flameinthesun]

Having a look at his goal record....I think its actually very very good, almost a great record for a teenager. I think Erling Haaland's numbers as a kid is skewing things a bit. He spends 1 and a half seasons at Copenhagen aged 17-18 scoring 5 goals in 32 games, with all goals coming in his second season there before he transferred to Sturm Graz in the winter window. He then spends the rest of the season there and a little bit of the start of the next season scoring 12 goals in 21 games aged 19. Then moves to Atalanta, is behind Zapata and Muriel who he then overtakes as a starter and scores 10 in 32 (20 of them starting). Adding to that he has scored 6 goals in 6 games since joining the Denmark national team..... that seems like a pretty good record/trajectory to me. Personally I have a sneaky feeling that given time the kid will surprise a lot of people.

 

[croadyman]

Bring him on for 10 minutes on Saturday.

That's what I would like,however my gut feeling is Luckhurst is probably right on this

 

[jasveron]

Want to know if he will play for Denmark... good to gain some match fitness. Highly doubt it though... sigh...what a long wait...

 

[Milos1817]

Having a look at his goal record....I think its actually very very good, almost a great record for a teenager. I think Erling Haaland's numbers as a kid is skewing things a bit. He spends 1 and a half seasons at Copenhagen aged 17-18 scoring 5 goals in 32 games, with all goals coming in his second season there before he transferred to Sturm Graz in the winter window. He then spends the rest of the season there and a little bit of the start of the next season scoring 12 goals in 21 games aged 19. Then moves to Atalanta, is behind Zapata and Muriel who he then overtakes as a starter and scores 10 in 32 (20 of them starting). Adding to that he has scored 6 goals in 6 games since joining the Denmark national team..... that seems like a pretty good record/trajectory to me. Personally I have a sneaky feeling that given time the kid will surprise a lot of people.

I have a habit, of following my fellow countrymen in football, and I am very excited about this kid. I have had some concernes whether it was too early for him to make a move as big as the one to United might be, it probably might have been good for him to stay another year at Atalanta, and get more experience, more goals under his belt, but sometimes an opportunity arises, and you just can’t say no, and just need to seize the moment, and I have absolutely no doubt about his qualities. A former youth coach was asked to describe, where Højlund stood out, apart from the obvious, he said, that Højlund continually tried to improve himself, via extra training, extra hours in the weight room, learn more about the importance of diet and so forth. He is described, as being very focused, confident in his abilities, but with an understanding, that success as a pro footballer is not a given, and that he needs to work hard to improve.


I have watched most of his matches for Atalanta, and seen, as you describe, how he gradually was integrated over the first 4-5 months, started showing better and better form, and began scoring on a more regular basis and became a bigger and bigger factor in their attack as he got more continuous minutes on the field. For the national team he was more or less thrown in the team, and from the get go was asked to carry a heavy load because we seriously lacked goals, and he has scored 6 goals in his last 4 games, as a starter, maybe not against elite teams, but for a 20 year old, I think that is impressive. It's not certain that he will break through in United, or become a world class footballer, it never is, and it will take time, he is a long term investment for sure, but he has all the tools to succeed in my opinion. One thing he will contribute with, from his first minute on the field, is, determination, aggressiveness, and youthful eagerness, and with his physique, speed and technically abilities, other players will naturally benefit from his presence, because he will create space.


Højlund doesn't have a history of being injurie prone, so I'm not overly worried about his injurie, if treated right, but, whether he can handle the pressure from the media, fans and so forth, only time will tell, but, from what I’ve seen until now in his short career, I don’t see a reason why he shouldn’t be able to, again, I just hope, that he will not be rushed into games before he is absolutely ready physically, football fans and media are very unforgiving these days in regards to “bad” performances, and for a young person, it might be harder to recover, from a bad start.

 

[Superunknown]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Luckhurst saying the opposite

Not shocked if this is the case. The noise around him being potentially ready for the Arsenal clash has died down and there hasn't really been a substantial update for a while.

When he is available, I'm also expecting a handful of substitute appearances.

 

[FerociousCorgis]

been a super fecking annoying start for our new signings. Hojlund hasnt played, mount injured, and onana now could be gone for international duty for all of january.

 

[lex talionis]

No one would ever accuse of United of being stocked with geniuses who mastermind our transfer business.

 

[croadyman]

Not shocked if this is the case. The noise around him being potentially ready for the Arsenal clash has died down and there hasn't really been a substantial update for a while.

When he is available, I'm also expecting a handful of substitute appearances.

Yeah looks very much like Custis is going to be eating humble pie on this one

 

[sglowrider]

Start Martial against Forest and bring Højlund on after 60-70 mins. when Martial succumbs to his injury.

fixed.

 

[L1nk]

https://x.com/lauriewhitwell/status/1695051140969160831?s=46&t=g438F5d3vv4cEROUdH7Fug

In team training, bench against Arsenal is my guess

 

[laughtersassassin]

Terrible first game to be back for.

Really could have done with it being this week's match

 

[croadyman]

Terrible first game to be back for.

Really could have done with it being this week's match

True but it's a somewhat positive update on what Luckhurst was saying yesterday

 

[Tony247]

Will he be ready to play against Arsenal?

 

[Tony247]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Luckhurst saying the opposite

Damn!

 

[AndySmith1990]

Very excited to see him in the team

 

[Dansk]

When signing a player who's injured and unavailable for potentially the first two months of the season, you would really have hoped that the club could have negotiated a slightly less extortionate fee. Overpaying significantly for an injured player whose credentials lean more towards potential than certainty. Typical United. Unless he fully lives up to that potential, it'll be hard to call it a good deal. When paying like 50% above value for a player who's injured at the time of transfer, the bar is quite high for what constitutes a worthwhile signing.

 

[sglowrider]

When signing a player who's injured and unavailable for potentially the first two months of the season, you would really have hoped that the club could have negotiated a slightly less extortionate fee. Overpaying significantly for an injured player whose credentials lean more towards potential than certainty. Typical United. Unless he fully lives up to that potential, it'll be hard to call it a good deal. When paying like 50% above value for a player who's injured at the time of transfer, the bar is quite high for what constitutes a worthwhile signing.

You are creating a strawman argument and then making up your own conclusions. Typical caftard.
Unless you are in the delegation, there is no way you would know the terms. How do you know the negotiation team didn't renegotiate the terms?

Besides, it was clear that United wanted to buy more than Atalanta wanted to sell. So we had to offer them a price that they couldn't refuse.

Out of curiosity, how long do you give him before deciding whether he has lived up to his potential? And how do you define what his deliverables are?

 

[Levi1]

Is this guy crocked or what?

Ivan Toney will be available soon. Not sure what the thinking was in signing this guy.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Is this guy crocked or what?

Ivan Toney will be available soon. Not sure what the thinking was in signing this guy.

We should sign multi million pound players based on who is moren available for the fist 2 months?

 

[sglowrider]

Is this guy crocked or what?

Ivan Toney will be available soon. Not sure what the thinking was in signing this guy.

Yeap. He was last seen moving around Carrington in a wheelchair. How Murtough and ETH were so dumb to buy him when the wheelchair was a red flag in my humble opinion. Typical United.

 

[Levi1]

Yeap. He was last seen moving around Carrington in a wheelchair. How Murtough and ETH were so dumb to buy him when the wheelchair was a red flag in my humble opinion. Typical United.

I can't tell of you're kidding. Someone tell me he's kidding?

 

[SAFMUTD]

I can't tell of you're kidding. Someone tell me he's kidding?

He's not. He won't be able to play football again hopefully he'll be able to move with a walker in a couple of years. It's only about him regaining mobility in his lower body at this point and give him, some, life quality.

 

[tenpoless]

Once he's back, someone from the first team will have to go out due to reasons... it's all too predictable.

 

[Redcy]

You are creating a strawman argument and then making up your own conclusions. Typical caftard.
Unless you are in the delegation, there is no way you would know the terms. How do you know the negotiation team didn't renegotiate the terms?

Besides, it was clear that United wanted to buy more than Atalanta wanted to sell. So we had to offer them a price that they couldn't refuse.

Out of curiosity, how long do you give him before deciding whether he has lived up to his potential? And how do you define what his deliverables are?

The caf have already decided, we should have just paid the extra 30m for kane, and unless he is scoring in every other game he is shit.

also he should be fully formed 2 games in

 

[sglowrider]

The caf have already decided, we should have just paid the extra 30m for kane, and unless he is scoring in every other game he is shit.

also he should be fully formed 2 games in

Sadly, I think you are correct. He will be pronounced a flop after 2 games.

 

[L1nk]

When signing a player who's injured and unavailable for potentially the first two months of the season, you would really have hoped that the club could have negotiated a slightly less extortionate fee. Overpaying significantly for an injured player whose credentials lean more towards potential than certainty. Typical United. Unless he fully lives up to that potential, it'll be hard to call it a good deal. When paying like 50% above value for a player who's injured at the time of transfer, the bar is quite high for what constitutes a worthwhile signing.

Is this guy crocked or what?

Ivan Toney will be available soon. Not sure what the thinking was in signing this guy.

He is not injured, he is not crocked. How many times must it be spelled out on here

He has a couple of stress points on his back currently, so what does that mean? It means if we played him as soon as we bought him we run the risk of it turning into an actual injury - as we did with Rashford when we ran him into the ground and his stress point turned into a fracture that he needed surgery on. So clearly we’re taking the time to let the stress points heal and get him up to fitness levels before playing him so we don’t run a risk of it turning into an injury that will require him to be out for a few months.

The stress points are a fairly common occurrence in younger players who are physical because their body is still growing, it’s not a career threatening injury, his back is not broken, he’s not about to be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

This is not United’s fault as this is something Atalanta obviously didn’t know or at least didn’t report, but it’s likely they didn’t know as he was playing in their preseason games, he couldn’t do that if he was injured now could he. The club obviously felt that the potential for a 10+ year quality investment was worth the risk of him missing a couple of weeks of this season letting him rest a bit.

 

[Zed is not dead]

Sadly, I think you are correct. He will be pronounced a flop after 2 games.

Funny thing is he’s already starting to be considered a flop before even touching the grass

 

[lex talionis]

Obviously we have no “performance” to judge him yet on, but after what we saw Anthony Martial yesterday the impact of Rasmus Hojlund should be massive. All we can be sure of in terms of an instant impact is high energy on and off the ball, which Martial is neither physically or mentally capable of providing. We were playing with 10 men yesterday, as we were when Rashford was played out of position in the prior two matches, and once Rasmus is fit to play we’ll at least be playing with 11 men in positions which they have been trained to play.

 

[sglowrider]

Funny thing is he’s already starting to be considered a flop before even touching the grass

That's because you aren't appreciative of the number of football experts we have here. I bow to their Rinus Michel-level genius every day.

 

[One Night Only]

He's done more than Martial so far this season

 

[stw2022]

He's done more than Martial so far this season

Think I have too.

Any chance he's fit for Arsenal?

 

[Baxquux]

I trust Laurie and Athletic much more (if not as unequivocally as some other posters here) than M.E.N and Luckhurst in particular. Like Ogden at ESPN, for every scoop or insight M.E.N get through proximity to club sources, another three reports will be skewed towards clickbait (either about how many players we're signing or how catastrophic the changing room/training ground mood is) or heightening the severity of real existing problems...

 

[stw2022]

I trust Laurie and Athletic much more (if not as unequivocally as some other posters here) than M.E.N and Luckhurst in particular. Like Ogden at ESPN, for every scoop or insight M.E.N get through proximity to club sources, another three reports will be skewed towards clickbait (either about how many players we're signing or how catastrophic the changing room/training ground mood is) or heightening the severity of real existing problems...

MEN definitely bait hard

 

[united for life]

I’m worried about him coming into the team especially with our poor start to the season. We’ve badly needed a striker for some time now, the expectations are so high from him and it’s unfortunate that experienced players like Martial are continuously underperforming and will in no way help ease the pressure off Hojlund.

 

[Nani Nana]

Great goal.

Just kidding.