[Lyng]

He is definitely raw, but I am very doubtful that he is a talent. There is not a single attribute of him that I can say to be elite, or even above average (maybe he is above average when it comes to pace but that is it).

He is the typical backup striker of some team like Crystal Palace or Fulham that makes news cause he scored a brace at 19, but you know that he has a journeyman career written over him.

Again you clearly have only seen him here and thus youd think that. Having seen him for other teams and the national team I have seen him at his best, which proper players around him and he is a different player.

 

[Lyng]

It’s what our fan base does, won’t be surprised to see people here saying Kambwala is better than Lindelof. Only for the former to end up playing for Charlton.

Hojlund doesn’t show enough movement, as much as we can blame the service. We get to the final third and there’s no movement from anyone and we hit and hope a cross which will most likely be cleared. When Cavani was playing he’d create chances just by being sharp.

His movement is excellent for the national team and was very good when he started with us, and has been good next to Rashford. But it has gone extremely bad.

 

[Lentwood]

There's little point trying to evaluate our players this season, they're all floundering badly because the system is a complete mess and it's getting the best out of literally nobody.

Hojlund can't be terrible. He's scored Serie A goals, European Championship goals, Champions League goals...all by the age of 20. He's suffering because we're a total mess tactically.

 

[Revan]

Again you clearly have only seen him here and thus youd think that. Having seen him for other teams and the national team I have seen him at his best, which proper players around him and he is a different player.

I hope you are right. Maybe you are cause even the likes of Rashford and Bruno whom we know to be top players look equally bad.

Indeed, I have watched him only here.

 

[Tony247]

If you want your CF to score, then play wingers who want to pass. This inverted winger shite is taking this team nowhere for years now. Either have prolific inverted wingers who can score for fun, or don't have them at all.

We have wingers who can't score, can't pass, can't cross, can't bring attacking midfield into goal scoring position, can't feed the strikers. And then have makeshift wing backs who also can't cross. This is unsustainable. Year after year, manager after manager sticking with this same philosophy and then wonder why we can't score open goals, why our GD is a shame.

 

[RedRocket9908]

If you want your CF to score, then play wingers who want to pass. This inverted winger shite is taking this team nowhere for years now. Either have prolific inverted wingers who can score for fun, or don't have them at all.

Maybe them not passing to him is down to the fact he is hardly ever in position to recieve a pass or maybe they have seen how easilly he gives the ball away or misses it completely when its passed to him and have no confidence in his abilty to do anything with it if they do pass to him.

 

[Unam333]

Are the Hojlund fans not concerned about his lack of ability to create a shot for himself?

I'm confused, I'm reading not a natural finisher but I'm also seeing with my eyes a guy who doesn't create himself space to make his own chances.

Honestly think we've signed a 20 million pound striker for more than triple his value.

A bit worrying. His finishing is a bit off as well. Very mishit. Either off target, weak shot or straight at the goalkeeper. He doesn't seem natural to me.

 

[Tony247]

Maybe them not passing to him is down to the fact he is hardly ever in position to recieve a pass or maybe they have seen how easilly he gives the ball away or misses it completely when its passed to him and have no confidence in his abilty to do anything with it if they do pass to him.

I am not saying Hojlund is not part of current problem. But if you play Kane in this set up, even he will struggle to score.

 

[Matt Varnish]

If you want your CF to score, then play wingers who want to pass. This inverted winger shite is taking this team nowhere for years now. Either have prolific inverted wingers who can score for fun, or don't have them at all.

We have wingers who can't score, can't pass, can't cross, can't bring attacking midfield into goal scoring position, can't feed the strikers. And then have makeshift wing backs who also can't cross. This is unsustainable. Year after year, manager after manager sticking with this same philosophy and then wonder why we can't score open goals, why our GD is a shame.

My feelings exactly, if you play an inverted winger you need them to have the ability (and intelligence) to swap wings, and to have a good opposite foot, none of ours have either of these attributes.

 

[Unam333]

I am not saying Hojlund is not part of current problem. But if you play Kane in this set up, even he will struggle to score.

Possibly, but Kane has a lot more in his locker than Hojlund. Kane is like a Swiss Army Knife: if he doesn't score goals, he will provide assists, capable of fulfilling the playmaker role, will drop deep, get the ball and move it forward, has great linkup and holdup play. He would instantly improve our team's overall play, would make his teammates better and would make our football less one dimensional.

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

If you want your CF to score, then play wingers who want to pass. This inverted winger shite is taking this team nowhere for years now. Either have prolific inverted wingers who can score for fun, or don't have them at all.

We have wingers who can't score, can't pass, can't cross, can't bring attacking midfield into goal scoring position, can't feed the strikers. And then have makeshift wing backs who also can't cross. This is unsustainable. Year after year, manager after manager sticking with this same philosophy and then wonder why we can't score open goals, why our GD is a shame.

This is one of the reasons Ten Hag doesn’t help himself (like persisting with McT and the knock on impact that silly decision has)… playing a 9 who would prefer faster passes and crosses, but two wide players who hold the ball and don’t go wide.

Either make the players suit your tactics or make the tactics suit the players you have.

Do neither and club will always sack a manager over numerous players… however useless some are.

 

[RatPack]

Possibly, but Kane has a lot more in his locker than Hojlund. Kane is like a Swiss Army Knife: if he doesn't score goals, he will provide assists, capable of fulfilling the playmaker role, will drop deep, get the ball and move it forward, has great linkup and holdup play. He would instantly improve our team's overall play, would make his teammates better and would make our football less one dimensional.

Fully agree Kane is a much better player, but:

He wont score unless he takes the ball him self from the defense.
He wont make assists as no other of our players can score.
He will have to drop down to our defense to get a pass, none of our midfielder can play a 10-20 mtr pass.
Once every 3-4 matches he might be lucky to get a great pass from Bruno when one of his "hail mary" passes actually connects.

If we want to score goals again the real problem is in the midfield. and this has been the problem for more than 10 years now. If the engine of the team is not running nothing will work.

We need 3 new midfielders suited for the exact positions we want to play (6-8-8) or (6-6-10). Should keep Mainoo and Eriksen for the bench the rest should go.

Once a real midfield is in place we can look for a new starting wings and striker.

 

[Irwin99]

Some good posts in here about the ridiculous pressure on him and the illogical recruitment. I'm honestly not sure about his technique or his eye for goal and i expected a bit more but what a ridiculous set of circumstances to find himself in.

Think back to Rooney when he came into the team at 18 with Ruud as the top striker, supported by Louis Saha, and players like Giggs and a young Ronaldo on the wing. Compare and contrast to Hojlund who has Rashford and Martial as his fellow strikers and Antony, Garnacho and Pellistri as his wingers. What a completely dysfunctional attack that he's somehow expected to fix.

 

[RedRoach]

We had one of the greatest strikers and players in general playing for us who was maybe at the end of his career but still more than capable of hitting the back of the net and he couldn’t score in this team.

Maybe just maybe the striker isn’t the problem?

 

[Kostov]

Maybe them not passing to him is down to the fact he is hardly ever in position to recieve a pass or maybe they have seen how easilly he gives the ball away or misses it completely when its passed to him and have no confidence in his abilty to do anything with it if they do pass to him.

Or maybe like in the majority of things they attempt to do, they are just pure shit quality especially Antony?

 

[Tony247]

This is one of the reasons Ten Hag doesn’t help himself (like persisting with McT and the knock on impact that silly decision has)… playing a 9 who would prefer faster passes and crosses, but two wide players who hold the ball and don’t go wide.

Either make the players suit your tactics or make the tactics suit the players you have.

Do neither and club will always sack a manager over numerous players… however useless some are.

Bunch of misfits.

You have useless wingers so entire burden of creating chances fall on attacking midfield. And we have just two of that kind. One is injured, the other is having mare working alone. Even if both plays, one of them supposed to be making runs in the box for providing scoring opportunities. But without passing wingers, both had to stay outside of the box. And now we have inexperienced 20 year old CF, who in first place not supposed to be carrying such weight, is now looks like a deer in the headlights.

 

[Tony247]

Possibly, but Kane has a lot more in his locker than Hojlund. Kane is like a Swiss Army Knife: if he doesn't score goals, he will provide assists, capable of fulfilling the playmaker role, will drop deep, get the ball and move it forward, has great linkup and holdup play. He would instantly improve our team's overall play, would make his teammates better and would make our football less one dimensional.

Of course, an experienced and clever player like Kane will definitely improve the team. Will he be able to score regularly in this set up? I highly doubt. Regardless, you don't get a Kane that often or that easily. So your set up should be such that it can accomodate average, above average strikers. Usually a good set up makes a striker looks better than he is, rather than the other way round.

 

[Westerkerk]

I certainly feel for him because we are not good enough to serve him properly and are so poor going forward we can't possibly have properly worked out how to bring him into the game at all. He's feeding off scraps and the scraps are none existent.

Subbing him off never works in our favour, but keeping him on you just can't see him scoring one.

I've been underwhelmed with him if I'm honest but in the context of what is happening to us as a club overall and the standard of the weekly performances, he is currently the least of my concerns .

 

[Tony247]

I certainly feel for him because we are not good enough to serve him properly and are so poor going forward we can't possibly have properly worked out how to bring him into the game at all. He's feeding off scraps and the scraps are none existent.

Subbing him off never works in our favour, but keeping him on you just can't see him scoring one.

I've been underwhelmed with him if I'm honest but in the context of what is happening to us as a club overall and the standard of the weekly performances, he is currently the least of my concerns .

He has his own problems too. May be that's down to his inexperience or may be he is instictively not that good. But that's difficult to judge in this set up.

Usually from my experience of watching, if a CF doesn't/couldn't get service then he falls back and get involved in build up, start dictating player movements. He has not shown that. May be he is learning, may be he doesn't have it in him. Who knows. We are judging a 20 year old here.

 

[Unam333]

Fully agree Kane is a much better player, but:

He wont score unless he takes the ball him self from the defense.
He wont make assists as no other of our players can score.
He will have to drop down to our defense to get a pass, none of our midfielder can play a 10-20 mtr pass.
Once every 3-4 matches he might be lucky to get a great pass from Bruno when one of his "hail mary" passes actually connects.

If we want to score goals again the real problem is in the midfield. and this has been the problem for more than 10 years now. If the engine of the team is not running nothing will work.

We need 3 new midfielders suited for the exact positions we want to play (6-8-8) or (6-6-10). Should keep Mainoo and Eriksen for the bench the rest should go.

Once a real midfield is in place we can look for a new starting wings and striker.

Depressing, but the reality.

I would put all our money in a new proven striker. We need goals. We saw last season with Rashford that even with an average midfield we can score goals. If we get an player like Oshimen we should train and give instructions to our wingers and midfielders to find and pass to him more frequently. Similar to SAF instructing the others players to pass it to RvP.

 

[PSV]

Depressing, but the reality.

I would put all our money in a new proven striker. We need goals. We saw last season with Rashford that even with an average midfield we can score goals. If we get an player like Oshimen we should train and give instructions to our wingers and midfielders to find and pass to him more frequently. Similar to SAF instructing the others players to pass it to RvP.

Osimhen isn't a very rounded striker like Robin. He's all about finishing, doesn't do much else. Has less passes than Rasmus this year (which is already a depressingly low number) the last two seasons at Napoli.

Unless we have world class service (read: actual wingers) Osimhen is probably one of the striker choices that almost certain would flop here.

 

[RedRocket9908]

I am not saying Hojlund is not part of current problem. But if you play Kane in this set up, even he will struggle to score.

Kane would have scored some of the chances Hojlund has missed and also knows how to get on the end of a corner kick or cross.

 

[RuudTom83]

It will be interesting to see if he can be moved to a more squad/support role once a more experienced CF arrives.

Then see him develop slowly over a few years. Or has rushing him into the team this season already broken him? would he even accept a smaller role next season etc.

Difficult spot he has found himself in .

 

[El Jefe]

Keeping with the ridiculous theme from some in here I'm assuming prime Messi would also struggle to score here right?

He's pretty one dimensional and that's why he's had no impact. A striker doesn't just score goals, he can create for other players too and he isn't doing that. He's not been able to win penalties, be a threat at set pieces, have any linkup play,

Put it this way, since Bruno has arrived he's formed a good partnership with all of our strikers but for some reason it hasn't clicked yet with Bruno. That isn't a coincidence to me, Hojlund is obviously doing something wrong in how he shows for the ball and his timing of runs.

No one denies that he's suffering from having Antony and Garnacho as his wide players but he isn't helping himself either. Shaw is a fantastic crosser and since he's been back nothing has come Hojlund's way.

He's just far too inexperienced to play the role for us right now.

 

[Bondi77]

Please dont tell me you are comparing Rooney and Garnacho....

Is that how you interpret my post...seriously?

 

[jem]

Maybe them not passing to him is down to the fact he is hardly ever in position to recieve a pass or maybe they have seen how easilly he gives the ball away or misses it completely when its passed to him and have no confidence in his abilty to do anything with it if they do pass to him.

Frankly, if Garnacho and Antony are taking it upon themselves to make such judgment calls, then they should be benched.

 

[antonyrightfoot]

I am not saying Hojlund is not part of current problem. But if you play Kane in this set up, even he will struggle to score.

Yet almost all of our defenders scored (maguire, varane, dalot, lindelof) , Mctominay scored 5-6 goals, even Evans has one world class assist. I don’t remember Rasmus even winning a header from a corner, he is really poor. If he was an academy player we would probably loan him to a mid table championship team

 

[antonyrightfoot]

Fully agree Kane is a much better player, but:

He wont score unless he takes the ball him self from the defense.
He wont make assists as no other of our players can score.
He will have to drop down to our defense to get a pass, none of our midfielder can play a 10-20 mtr pass.
Once every 3-4 matches he might be lucky to get a great pass from Bruno when one of his "hail mary" passes actually connects.

If we want to score goals again the real problem is in the midfield. and this has been the problem for more than 10 years now. If the engine of the team is not running nothing will work.

We need 3 new midfielders suited for the exact positions we want to play (6-8-8) or (6-6-10). Should keep Mainoo and Eriksen for the bench the rest should go.

Once a real midfield is in place we can look for a new starting wings and striker.

I disagree, just look at Harry Maguire when he is playing upfront for us in the last 5-10 minutes when we are trailing, he is winning headers and usually causes havoc in the opposition area, and Mctominay as well when he is upfront, he tends to be in the right place at the right time (and those two aren’t prime Pele). A lot of posters here believe that if Rasmus has 0 shots on goal in a game it means any other striker will have the same “achievement”, this is just not true. Currently he is probably the worst forward in the EPL imo

 

[Anustart89]

Frankly, if Garnacho and Antony are taking it upon themselves to make such judgment calls, then they should be benched.

Yeah bringing Rashford back into the fold might at least have one of his 600 random 30-yard shots per game deflect off a defender into the path of Højlund.

 

[Scottynaldinho]

He plays very similar to how Fernando Torres used to play when he lost his form during his late Liverpool, early Chelsea years.

 

[Lyng]

Yes, let’s bench multiple better players rather than the crapper player who offers even less than them…

Hojlund ISN’T RvP - the reason Fergie said that about Robin was because he was a special player and a genius talent who was ready to deliver. Hojlund is not that - he’s currently a Championship / League 1 level striker who the club has massively overpaid for.

You don’t rip up a team in order to try and justify a daft transfer - if you’re gonna ditch anything, you ditch the dud player.

So much nonsense in one post. Impressive. Antony is probably the worst transfer this club has made since Bebe.
Then again the tagline gives it all away I guess.

As long as we play with Antony our strikers will fail.

 

[Lyng]

Keeping with the ridiculous theme from some in here I'm assuming prime Messi would also struggle to score here right?

This is such a downright idiotic thing to say. Messi is the best football player to ever grace the game. He would score anywhere.
But if its Messi we expect from Rasmus then yes, he will always be a massive dissapointment.

Kane would also score more. But he would still struggle a lot more with this setup and these wingers then a lot of other places.

 

[sebsheep]

Maybe them not passing to him is down to the fact he is hardly ever in position to recieve a pass or maybe they have seen how easilly he gives the ball away or misses it completely when its passed to him and have no confidence in his abilty to do anything with it if they do pass to him.

To that be the cause of him receiving a combined 2 passes a game from them he'd have to practically be in a bad position nearly every time they have the ball, and they would need to be good enough to recognise that he's not in a good position to receive a pass every time. You'd be talking better than Messi levels of judgement.

It's more a combination of him sometimes being in bad positions, which is pretty normal and both of them not passing when the option is there, again pretty normal. What you will find with Antony, Garnacho and Rashford is that they will put a lot of effort into trying to create space for shots for themselves even when there are much better passing options.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

So much nonsense in one post. Impressive. Antony is probably the worst transfer this club has made since Bebe.
Then again the tagline gives it all away I guess.

As long as we play with Antony our strikers will fail.

Why does Bebe keep being brought up as if he were some massive flop? He was a £7m punt - the kind of cheap signing we used to frequently make that sometimes panned out but usually didn't.

 

[TMDaines]

Antony yet to create a single chance for Hojlund all season.

 

[Stuu]

The lack of goals is more than simply a striker problem. Imo, the main issue is that our wide forwards are glory-hogs who only want to cut in and shoot. For them crossing is secondary and only something that they do once the attempt to shoot has failed. This usually results in a last ditch, often poor cross, and/or a defence that has had time to settle into position, ready to intercept. Also, if you are a striker for Man Utd at the moment the UNPREDICTIBILITY of the service is a major problem. For example, a Man City striker knows the majority of the time where the likes of Grealish, Doku, and Bernardo are going to be putting the ball. So if you are Haaland you keep making that run over and over and you get lots of goals. Remember the ball that Anthony put in yesterday with his right foot that Hojlund was a few yards behind? That was probably as big a surprise to Hojlund as it was to the West Ham defence and that surprise and hesitation meant he wasn't on the end of it. At this point, Hojlund is probably questioning himself and not making the runs he's been taught since the ball never arrives. Bottom line: if you KNOW the ball is coming you make that run.

It sounds stupid, and maybe it is unworkable, but Ten Hag needs to ban these guys from cutting in and shooting. If they do it then it either goes in the net or they spend the next 5 games on the bench. What is left to lose? Second lowest scorers in the league and it's Christmas.

 

[Rhyme Animal]

Antony yet to create a single chance for Hojlund all season.

It’s all Antony’s fault.

 

[TMDaines]

It’s all Antony’s fault.

Having your right winger yet to create a single chance all season for your centre forward is a good symptom of our dysfunctional attack, yeah. You can pretty much guarantee more end product out of any winger in the league, sadly.

Whether that is Antony’s fault or that of those who decided to buy him in the first place is up to you.

 

[neon_badger]

It’s all Antony’s fault.

Non of those figures reflect well, they're all shocking, what we're looking at is who is the worst of a very bad bunch. These stats we constantly see don't even make sense, there's contradiction somewhere in all this.. for example people use stats to defend Bruno yet he's only created 6 chances for our main striker at this stage of the season? And Rashford has created 8 so that's ok? Antony is bad but I'd argue he's been better than Rashford this season, as is Garnacho who doesn't fair well on that list. Let's be honest all our attacking options are awful some are slightly less awful than others.

 

[Mwooyo]

Guys, let's not blame everyone else...hojlund can do much better. I don't know if people actually watch him nowadays...he doesn't run in behind anymore...and he never comes short to link-up play (like martial). Even his movement in the box is non-existent nowadays. He is only doing the backup and hold-off thing that only works against lower-tier defenders. For a player who is good with his feet, he rarely uses his footwork anymore and he never does one-touch layoffs or one-twos. Yes. we can blame Anthony and Garnacho or Rashford but to me...hojlund himself can do alotttt better. He is letting games pass him by...and it will end badly.

Right now, he is getting away with it because we have no alternative. The moment we get an alternative option who does all the above...they will displace him permanently even if the new alternative also doesn't score goals. I think ETH is not highlighting these issues to him, but rather also believes it is the crossing to him that is to blame...however, The way hojlund is playing now is the worst way you want your striker to play...basically, he remains behind defenders in the box and expects the wingers to make magic pin-point crosses that find him behind the defenders. He can and needs to do a lot better.

Compare the effect someone like Gabriel Jesus has on a game to hojlund. Both are not scoring many goals and hojlund is bigger and faster than Jesus but by God, you would never know it. Gabriel Jesus runs the channels, chases down defenders, constantly moves in the box, etc. It's night and day and Hojlund needs to up his game...I like him but he needs to step up