Rasmus Hojlund image 9

Rasmus Hojlund Denmark flag

2023-24 Performances

View full 2023-24 profile

5.5 Season Average Rating
Appearances
43
Goals
16
Assists
2
Yellow cards
2
Status
Not open for further replies.
He has been bad since his return from injury. Was good before injury though. He has some nice touches and the odd good play which gives you belief he has the potential, but it'll take time. The box movement definitely needs a lot of work.
 
It’s why a senior/experience CF would be my choice in the summer.

Being the only CF at the club isn’t the environment for a 21 year old to learn.
 
All this talk of service - somehow McTominay continually manages to be found in the opponent’s box. Not only does he score goals, but he also nearly scores goals far more often. I remember a game not too long ago that I put Scott on my acca to get 2 shots on target and he had that by halftime, in a game he didn’t score in. 2 shots on target for Hojlund seems a rarity in any football match.
 
Rozay said:
All this talk of service - somehow McTominay continually manages to be found in the opponent’s box. Not only does he score goals, but he also nearly scores goals far more often. I remember a game not too long ago that I put Scott on my acca to get 2 shots on target and he had that by halftime, in a game he didn’t score in. 2 shots on target for Hojlund seems a rarity in any football match.
Click to expand...
CBs aren't accounting for him I guess? Other midfielders are as lazy as ours maybe
 
Rozay said:
All this talk of service - somehow McTominay continually manages to be found in the opponent’s box. Not only does he score goals, but he also nearly scores goals far more often. I remember a game not too long ago that I put Scott on my acca to get 2 shots on target and he had that by halftime, in a game he didn’t score in. 2 shots on target for Hojlund seems a rarity in any football match.
Click to expand...
To be fair, much easier to find space as a midfielder than 9.

Hojlund is a kid, should he be leading the line for team who wants to win the PL/CL? No. Is he good enough for top 4 team? Probably not. Is he someone it’s worth gambling on being one of those things in a year or two? I’d say yes.
 
Confidence through the floor, I genuinely had him down for missing the pen. Was a very good winning pen though, hopefully that gives him a boost, as he has to do so much better.
 
He was really poor, did liven up a bit in extra time at least and took penalty well. Lack of service is a problem but he is clearly a work in progress we massively overpaid for and are too reliant on.
 
Can't be arsed with anymore excuses. Call a spade a spade. The lad is rubbish and it's another waste of £70m
 
While I rate him but he isn't really gelling well and has different movement. There was a game in the first half of the season nothing was happening, McTom came on as a late sub and was instantly found by a great Garnacho cross, this type of movement wasn't coming from Hojlund so the cross chance never opened up, he's more give and go at Atalanta while McTom can probably lead a line better at this stage.

Sad thing is he 's a 30-40 million project. Antony rated 25m by the club, we just can't do deals.
 
Rozay said:
All this talk of service - somehow McTominay continually manages to be found in the opponent’s box. Not only does he score goals, but he also nearly scores goals far more often. I remember a game not too long ago that I put Scott on my acca to get 2 shots on target and he had that by halftime, in a game he didn’t score in. 2 shots on target for Hojlund seems a rarity in any football match.
Click to expand...
McTominay finding space in the box is mostly thanks to Højlund and him being a midfielder arriving into the box late. Højlund makes a run, defenders follow, McTominay runs into open space. If Dalot or Bruno have the ball that's a decent chance at scoring.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
To be fair, much easier to find space as a midfielder than 9.

Hojlund is a kid, should he be leading the line for team who wants to win the PL/CL? No. Is he good enough for top 4 team? Probably not. Is he someone it’s worth gambling on being one of those things in a year or two? I’d say yes.
Click to expand...
Snow said:
McTominay finding space in the box is mostly thanks to Højlund and him being a midfielder arriving into the box late. Højlund makes a run, defenders follow, McTominay runs into open space. If Dalot or Bruno have the ball that's a decent chance at scoring.
Click to expand...

I appreciate that in principle, and did consider, but in real terms, a lot of the opportunities he does get in the box could and should be easily replicated by a centre forward. They are not all third man runs, Scott often positions himself as a striker in our games anyway, and is already in the box waiting when crosses come in. I don’t see why that can’t sometimes be Hojlund.

Our players are passing to Scott because he is easier to find I think. Even Weghorst, rubbish as he was, was at least regularly missing chances in what is virtually the same team. He also has nowhere near the speed as RH but was still getting chances.
 
When Bruno gave him the ball in the box late in normal time he took four touches. Not good enough. One touch and shoot with whatever foot is free. That's the requirement. Hit the target even if you don't score. Too slow to react too often.
 
Think he had one ball played into him, in the box, during the 90 minutes? That pass from Bruno^

Give the guy some service wtf do we do in training?
 
Generally starved of service but that one opportunity that he got he had to at least get the shot off. No idea why he wanted to drag it back on to his left. He’s looked comfortable enough before taking things on his right foot.

We do need to find a way of getting him into the game more.
 
He is a nothing player, we said that about Anthony last season and here we are again. Happy to give him next season but as a back up
 
I think he blossoms quite a lot if you replace Rashford with someone like Pedro Neto (not necessarily him).

it’s like having two negatives when Rashford is on. Rashford delivers nothing by the chances he dribbles in and tries to either dribble more or shoot through 3 defenders.

If Rashford goes all others will thrive if he’s replaced by a team player who crosses and passes more.
 
Rozay said:
I appreciate that in principle, and did consider, but in real terms, a lot of the opportunities he does get in the box could and should be easily replicated by a centre forward. They are not all third man runs, Scott often positions himself as a striker in our games anyway, and is already in the box waiting when crosses come in. I don’t see why that can’t sometimes be Hojlund.

Our players are passing to Scott because he is easier to find I think. Even Weghorst, rubbish as he was, was at least regularly missing chances in what is virtually the same team. He also has nowhere near the speed as RH but was still getting chances.
Click to expand...
Don't disagree with that. Both can be correct. His movement benefits others but he's not able to do it for himself.
 
The Irish Connection said:
I think his movement needs a lot of work. Several times today he made the same runs as Mctominay instead of going for the near post etc.
I think it’s safe to say we need a starting centre forward or at least one to really push him.
Cant keep going through barren runs of 7 or 8 games without a goal from the striker.
Click to expand...
I mean, it's common sense to create another option rather than just follow another player. Doesn't show much intelligence.
 
Rozay said:
I made the point when and since we signed him, but I really believe that the explosion of Haaland seduced us into buying him. Which is poor if true. Stick to the script. I say that because before one started scoring 50 goals, I would not have seen Haaland’s profile as the sort of player that a top team signs. We’re even seeing the pitfalls of this with Haaland himself IMO. Football was moving towards teams trying to build total football sides, but City and Pep almost ‘sold out’ because maths is maths and Haaland represented a cheat code. The thing is, if the guy doesn’t score 50 goals, or even loads of goals, then it doesn’t work. Hojlund has to score a high number of goals to justify, as he’s not a creator or top link player.

This talk of players like Zirkzee or Sesko spells real danger for him. At the current bar, another promising young striker hardly has to do too much next season to move ahead of him. He’s spent the vast majority of his games here not posing any real threat NOR offering any real creativity. Work rate and hard running gets you a gig far lower down the table than our aspirations.

As you alluded, way too early to cast the dice, but at the same time I’m also not in favour for just putting what we’re seeing down to perfectly normal and expected progression, and just taking for granted that if we just sprinkle some more time, we’ll have a top striker. What we are seeing is a huge let down.
Click to expand...
Agree with a lot of this. The Zirkzee links are interesting in particular, just down to how interesting of a player profile he is. Rarely see a forward so tall be so good in the buildup and carrying the ball.

Only thing I worry about is just pure numbers on the board. Especially if we lose Rashford. Wouldn't be opposed to being the big team who finally gives Toney his time in the limelight.
 
Glad he put that last pen away at least.
He's had such a lack of service and been out of form, you wondered if he'd forget how to onion bag it.
 
I don't mind the barren runs, all strikers have them, but what separates the best strikers from the mediocre is that even when not scoring they are still a threat and missing chances. Ability to get on the end of things is more important than pure finishing ability. Hojlund goes weeks without getting a decent shot off, and while yes you can point at sub optimal service his movement and instincts for the ball are a problem.
 
Why did the team not celebrate with him? I only saw the YouTube highlights, but from that I only saw Eriksen there to congratulate him
 
jem said:
Why did the team not celebrate with him? I only saw the YouTube highlights, but from that I only saw Eriksen there to congratulate him
Click to expand...

it looked a bit odd, but I’m guessing they all felt like prats for being part of a shootout in the first place.
 
He’s been invisible recently. His all round game has dropped off massively.
 
How can people make the excuse that it's down to lack of chances in a game like today when we put plenty of balls in the box that others scored from but not him, his runs, positional sense and timing are bang average, we see other players in our team able to break the line but he struggles to do so, God helps if he is going to be our main striker for the next few years, martial can be frustrating but even when he doesn't score his link up play and general hold up play is far better and we do genuinely look better in attack with him over hojlund
 
jem said:
Why did the team not celebrate with him? I only saw the YouTube highlights, but from that I only saw Eriksen there to congratulate him
Click to expand...
I don't think it was anything personal against Hojlund. His teammates were embarrassed about being taking to penalties. They would have had the same reaction had it been any other player.

I remember the same thing happened when Dan James scored the winning penalty in a League Cup shootout vs a lower league team. I think it was Rochdale.
 
E-mal said:
He is a nothing player, we said that about Anthony last season and here we are again. Happy to give him next season but as a back up
Click to expand...

Lets be fair here, he has got way more potential than Antony, and isn't a 'nothing' player

He's been injured too much, has had no support to take the pressure off, had very average service from his team mates, etc.

But he's still managed bursts of goals when things have gone right, and overall 13 goals given the circumstances isn't that bad.

If he doesn't progress next season then I might agree, but he looks darn sight better than some of the crap we've bought down the years so far.
 
Rozay said:
I appreciate that in principle, and did consider, but in real terms, a lot of the opportunities he does get in the box could and should be easily replicated by a centre forward. They are not all third man runs, Scott often positions himself as a striker in our games anyway, and is already in the box waiting when crosses come in. I don’t see why that can’t sometimes be Hojlund.

Our players are passing to Scott because he is easier to find I think. Even Weghorst, rubbish as he was, was at least regularly missing chances in what is virtually the same team. He also has nowhere near the speed as RH but was still getting chances.
Click to expand...
From memory most of McT goals this season have been either like today - where the defensive issue becomes handing him over from midfield to defence (not really something Rasmus would ever encounter) or him doing the Fellaini special of coming in on an FB. I’d class these all as arriving ‘late’ in the box

Then there’s also been some plain weird goals you can’t really plan for where it’s been deflected to him or that one where someone (Bruno I think) played the worst pass ever to him at 100mph from about 2m away, it ballooned up in the air then he volleyed it. Think a few flick on headers/pin ball in the box goals as well.

One thing I would say about Hojlund is he is quite traditional in his movement, he usually commits to the near or far post without much in the way of decoy movement or staggering/pausing his run etc. That is bread and butter for any decent CB, it’s a dream to defend against because despite his size he’s not that aggressive in the air.
 
He just never looks like scoring. He's like an opposite Haaland in he seems to get on the ball quite a bit yet you never expect anything to happen
 
golden_blunder said:
He was poor today. He’s 21, it’ll happen
Click to expand...


It's weird how he has looked so poor since he came back from injury when before it he was looking like the player we want him to be.

I wonder if he has to feel 100% mentally to deliver and if so he could be at the wrong club
 
Given the comments in here you would think he didnt score at all this season. He was poor today, or at least until Rashford was subbed off. Not surprisingly he looked much better with Amad.
Either we change to a more possesion based system that tries to utilize a proper striker or we might as well sell Højlund and get a different profile player in.
 
I think that some clubs are literally taking the piss with transfer fees.
"What price should we set for XY player? Well, lets see who is interested. If Lazio comes then price is 15 mil but if Man Utd or PSG come then lets start with 100 mil".

Absolutely no bloody way that player with this many flaws should be payed more than 20-30 million. Murtough was absolute clown as a DoF.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.