What about his goals in the PL?
9
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 43
- Goals
- 16
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 2
- Status
But you pay for potential where its beyond reasonable doubt that he's something special. And I don't see that - this time I've even watched him a lot more wheraes before I relied on youtube videos from Atalanta.
Maybe I'm wrong but I honestly dont know what it is about him.
We paid for potential, his G&A tally was not impressive yet. He's far from a finished product, but unfortunatelly as many of you pointed, our current situation requires a more self-suficient player, because our gameplay is completely disjointed.
He might come good, but we got fleeced as per usual.
He's been really poor lately though. Barely offering anything out there.
He's been really poor lately though. Barely offering anything out there.
His potential doesn't even look that impressive though. There's nothing about him that stands out as being potentially world class.
Felt very sorry for him. Kid is learning the game yet had a thankless task against two experienced physical CB’s
If he was special, he'd be closer to £150m. This is the market we're in, especially since there is a lack of great strikers these days, so Atalanta knew they could up the price. Osimhen is a similar striker to Højlund in that he relies on service, and struggles to impose himself on games if he isn't getting serviced, so he wouldn't be much better here in this team.
It is the combination of physicality, pace along with his movement and natural instincts that made him highly rated in the first place. These aren't common qualities, and strikers like Kolo Muani or Goncalo Ramos aren't particularly known for these traits. I think he struggles right now because he isn't used to this pace in the league. He will have defenders all around him and he is going to have to get used to that in terms of holding the ball up. Look at Kane, for instance, he is world class at hold-up play, but he isn't stronger or quicker than Højlund. He has just gotten used to it with experiene and found a way to effectively hold off defenders. Kane wasn't particularly good at hold-up play when he first broke through.
Additionally, no striker will function up top alone. You need runners in behind, players to be decoys, and the rest of our attackers being a threat as well. There is no point for the opposition defenders to mark Antony, for instance, because he isn't a threat, so they can just focus on marking Højlund and following him wherever. Put Højlund in Real Madrid with Vinicius on the left and Rodrygo on the right, and he will immediately be given the chance to make quick movements to escape the defender, as he has shown previously.
No one ever pays £150m for potential. Even Nunez wasn't a full 100m and he wasn't that long ago, and he had 30+ goals to his name at least.
His arial ability is actually quite average for his height. Hes strong enough but always looks like hes off balance, and sometimes looks like hes about to fall over whilst dribbling. He makes forced flicks and tires out a lot.
He does a lot of other good stuff, but he has maybe driven with the ball at a defence 2 or 3 times? Im not really impressed with him.
There were better options in the market. Markus Thuram, 25yo French international, was free contract. Went to Inter for 0. Benzema was free. Zaha the same. The latter a proven forward in this league and very physical.
We turned our noses up on that spend 75m on someone with half a good year for Atalanta.
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He's played a similar total amount of professional games as Garnacho by the way, you guys need to chill out.
Our wingers don't create enough for him, none of them do. They prioritise getting their goal before making something for him.
Good at pressing, fast, strong and good at dribbling. His passing a bit erratic though.
How many strikers can you remember looking potentially world class at the age of 20 with a few professional performances behind them?
The thing about him is that he has everything needed to be an elite striker with physicality, pace, movement and natural instincts. He is actually decent at hold-up play too, but today his inexperience showed against two extremely good centre backs.
He’s been disappointing lately but the lack of service is shockingly bad. Our 1st choice RW hasn’t scored or assisted in 24 games so what is supporting him is basically shite
I thought he did have a poor game as I mentioned above, but yeah thinking back on it, you're asking this 20 year old kid isolated upfront to basically chase after nothing balls and hold up play against 2 of the best and strongest centre halves in the world, not really surely what I or anyone else was expecting here. The way we play totally isolates him, completely thankless task
Those replacement options are laughable. Just says how much you know about the market.
There seems to be a lot of people in this thread that don't really think about this simple fact. Nothing he can do, really.
I have no issues with poor form or inconsistency as this are to be expected from any youngster of his age, but I have huge issue of him yet to score a single league goal by December despite playing almost every game.
May as well be playing with 10 men when he starts.
Have you ever in your entire life watched Marcus Thuram play?
Zaha ffs
Have a word with yourself lad
Have you ever in your entire life watched Marcus Thuram play?
Zaha ffs
Sad thing is Rashford aside he’s probably on the level of our other attackers
If you say so pal
KMJ looks like the second coming of Jaap Stam and there's no shame for any CF to lose out to him; you could see Hojlund's confidence drain as he realised just how far out of his depth he was coming up against a wall on one side and his athletic superior on the other. No idea how he did vs Kim in Serie A, but tonight was the kind of lesson he'll take with him for a career and will ultimately make him a much better forward.
He would have needed a tremendous amount of support and teammate occupation and distraction to make any mark in this game, instead he got the opposite and was left to the slaughter most of the game.
He's simply not ready for that level of opponent and we've paid a heavy price for this purchase so prematurely because he needs a responsible veteran sharing the load and offering guidance, instead he's left to simply learn on the job here, which is disastrous.
Feel for him because it's not going to get any better any time soon.
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The more this season has gone on the more I think this club has made a big mistake signing him in our current state. He is not going to be able to develop with this current squad and management and he is clearly not mature or good enough to lead the line for United.
Just complete and utter gross mismanagement from the club once again and i do think we are going to ruin yet another promising young player.
Just complete and utter gross mismanagement from the club once again and i do think we are going to ruin yet another promising young player.
When a mate calls you to tell you how shit a player is you know he’s had a stinker.
Looked like a bad version of Welbeck.
Looked like a bad version of Welbeck.
I don't think he looks that special a talent. He could become a good striker, but I'm not seeing a top level striker in the making. His general play is quite sloppy but he also seems to lack that top strikers instinct to be in the right place. People say he has no service, which is true as chances aren't flowing. But when they do come, he's not there. So many times the ball has flashed across goal and he's been too slow or not anticipated it. The best strikers take chances when they come.
Perhaps that's harsh, but I've seen many strikers that you knew would become top class and he isn't at their level. I can't escape the comparison with Ferguson who is a year younger and is showing exactly what I'm talking about. I do feel bad for him because he's clearly not ready for this and he's not coming into an environment for a young player to thrive. We'll probably ruin him. I suspect we'll stumble across another striker eventually who will keep him out. If it's another young striker then he'll be in trouble really.
Perhaps that's harsh, but I've seen many strikers that you knew would become top class and he isn't at their level. I can't escape the comparison with Ferguson who is a year younger and is showing exactly what I'm talking about. I do feel bad for him because he's clearly not ready for this and he's not coming into an environment for a young player to thrive. We'll probably ruin him. I suspect we'll stumble across another striker eventually who will keep him out. If it's another young striker then he'll be in trouble really.
"What about"
Good player, wrong club and set of team mates. This team is set up for a high scoring 10 and wide forwards.
Special potential example: Mbappe. He only had one full very successful season for Monaco for close/world record fee, before making that move to PSG, after winning the World Cup.
Off course that talent level is extremely rare. We're only looking at lower level of prospect.
70 million!
And he had the same agent as Ten Hag!
That agent is so lucky! He made a killing.
And he had the same agent as Ten Hag!
That agent is so lucky! He made a killing.
He’s the last thing I’m worried about. He got zero service tonight. Was feeding on scraps. His all around game is good. He’s a quality player. Everything about our build up is fecking shit and predictable though. ETH is just a terrible, terrible coach. At least that’s what he’s showing.
We’ve been goal shy since he arrived and his only solution to that is to play kamikaze football. When he doesn’t, we can’t score to save our lives. We have to face facts, that we hired the wrong guy.
We’ve been goal shy since he arrived and his only solution to that is to play kamikaze football. When he doesn’t, we can’t score to save our lives. We have to face facts, that we hired the wrong guy.
Still think he'll come good. But it's pretty safe to say he's no where near that atm imo. And won't likely to be one in another year. We absolutely need to fecking buy/loan a good goalscorer this Jan. Else it's basically impossible to reach top 4. We simply can't expect Garnacho or McT to score 20 goals a season.
I know some would be very against recalling Greenwood. But he's pretty much what we really need right now imo. Can play both #9 and RW and most importantly can fecking create & score. Especially considering how dire the striker market is and how hard/expensive to find a good goalscorer these days. This also will help to take Hojlund out of the spotlight and give him the much needed time/patience to develop.
I know some would be very against recalling Greenwood. But he's pretty much what we really need right now imo. Can play both #9 and RW and most importantly can fecking create & score. Especially considering how dire the striker market is and how hard/expensive to find a good goalscorer these days. This also will help to take Hojlund out of the spotlight and give him the much needed time/patience to develop.
The problem with what you're talking about is it generally refers to more prodigious talent who are showing spikes and accelerated development in their late teens to very early 20's, which is not necessarily the trajectory of a great striker. At the age Rasmus is now, non-prodigious forwards are generally floundering around at lowly clubs or being bounced around on loans with no particular certainty they are going to mature into monstrous strikers.
An example of two differing careers from the exact same age point is Kluivert and Van Nistelrooy. Born on the exact same day in the exact same year, one was a prodigy who had the world at his feet in his teens and early 20's and the other was nothing of note until exploding into a prolific striker at 22/23 - Van Nistelrooy was just getting started as Kluivert's peak was coming to an end. There's no way at the age of 20 Van Nistelrooy would've been predicted or projected to become the better striker, let alone by far.
Non-prodigious forwards don't tend to get their big move at such a young age and in that sense, Hojlund could be filed under the other poor summer signings in regard to our immediate needs. He should be learning and growing under the tutelage of the guy who is taking on the major body of our goalscoring burden and that was said even in the summer and still we went in raw.
For any player to eventually come good at United,
they'll need to have incredible mental strength and the ability to perform brilliantly when others around them play like shit (I'm essentially predicting that we will keep being crap for the foreseeable future.)
It's just a huge ask from anyone.
United is a bad career choice for a 19-year-old striker with a huge price tag and tons to prove.
He- or maybe some other young and promising striker who would have been cheaper- should have been bought as an understudy to a proven, ready striker who leads the line.
Not that I think that Rasmus fecking Hojlund has the potential to reach the same heights that Cristiano Ronaldo reached,
but just imagine us signing Ronaldo from Sporting as our designated first-choice winger;
Even someone of that ability and mainly that unbelievable mentality would have struggled immensely and most likely would have failed.
TLDR - I wish I could be as optimistic as you are.
People are posting against a kid who was absolutely alone in fighting against 2 world class CBs and recieves virtually no service.
You want him to grab the ball, dribble past 4-5 people and score. Because that's literally the only thing he can do.
He ran his socks off and he's the last one to blame we are crap in attack.
Reading your posts one would think he misses 10 chances per game.
You want him to grab the ball, dribble past 4-5 people and score. Because that's literally the only thing he can do.
He ran his socks off and he's the last one to blame we are crap in attack.
Reading your posts one would think he misses 10 chances per game.
I kind like his style. He’s never gonna be truly elite in my opinion due to his lack of passing ability, close control and lack of freakish poaching ability ie Haaland.
He’s a 35m player to my eyes given he’d never played much football and has some potential.
I consider even 35m quite high for his ability. Double is just United doing United things. We do things any sane club would laugh at and walk away from consistently in the market.
He’s a 35m player to my eyes given he’d never played much football and has some potential.
I consider even 35m quite high for his ability. Double is just United doing United things. We do things any sane club would laugh at and walk away from consistently in the market.
Not happening for him at the minute. I don’t even blame him to be fair. Ferdinand made a good point. He’d have more goals if we had wingers that wasn’t selfish. All our wingers want to try and score them selves. We don’t have wingers that’s first thoughts are to cross it or play it to the ST. That’s probably another reason we don’t score as many as we should. Pure greed. This needs to get worked on. I suppose it’s harder for us if we’re playing inside wingers/forwards. We’ve got players with only 1 foot like Antony so he’s forever having to cut in which makes it harder for him to play it to Hojlund.
He's just another very limited player that I don't see much potential. Sure he looks like a good finisher and is pacy, but this isn't enough to play on the highest level in modern football.
I also feel for him, should have never been brought as main striker, I consider this to be another shocking decision by the club. At best he's a couple years away from being a backup striker for us.
I also feel for him, should have never been brought as main striker, I consider this to be another shocking decision by the club. At best he's a couple years away from being a backup striker for us.
Whilst it's true we don't play to the guys potential, it is also true that his involvement in games is criminal.
You can allow the likes of Haaland 9 touches in a half as you know it will take one chance for him to get a goal, with Hojlund you don't have that ruthlessness.
He doesn't do enough to get involved and when he is involved it's hardly ever anything to make the opposition think.
Plenty more work needed individually and as a team on the training ground to make this happen.
You can allow the likes of Haaland 9 touches in a half as you know it will take one chance for him to get a goal, with Hojlund you don't have that ruthlessness.
He doesn't do enough to get involved and when he is involved it's hardly ever anything to make the opposition think.
Plenty more work needed individually and as a team on the training ground to make this happen.
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