[Zlaatan]

I've never seen a forward who is so often tangled up with a defender as much as him. He very rarely seems to find open space no matter if he drops deep to get involved in the build up or when he makes runs in behind, most often there's someone right on him and he needs to fight them off to just to receive the pass, let alone do something constructive with the ball.

It feels as if he could save so much energy if he found a way around that, and obviously make it much easier for himself to contribute more.

 

[frostbite]

A top striker is a priority this summer.

 

[Rossa]

He’s fast and quite strong, but he never gets a clean run through on goal. Like never. Look at any other team and the striker will sometimes have a freeway towards goal, but he never runs into space. He should be great on the counter or ball over the top, but it never happens.

 

[Andycoleno9]

He’s fast and quite strong, but he never gets a clean run through on goal. Like never. Look at any other team and the striker will sometimes have a freeway towards goal, but he never runs into space. He should be great on the counter or ball over the top, but it never happens.

That "strong" trait is often repeated here but when he showed that? I can't remember when he won a header and during the game he was bullied by defenders in every duel. His every shoulder to shoulder duel ends with him on the ground.

 

[Bobski]

Just looking at the stats and in the PL he is averaging 1.55 shots per 90 mins, there are 94 players shooting at a higher rate. He has 31 shots all season, the same as Lewis Dunk, 102 players have more attempts.

His finishing is actually good when he gets a chance, 7th for goals to shots but he and the team are awful at getting him on the end of things.

 

[LDUred]

Not great today. As poor as Jackson's finishing was yesterday, he offered a lot more against a stingy defence than Hojlund did against Coventry.

 

[3KDré]

That "strong" trait is often repeated here but when he showed that? I can't remember when he won a header and during the game he was bullied by defenders in every duel. His every shoulder to shoulder duel ends with him on the ground.

His issue is not actually strength. He's definitely strong enough. His issue is he's so focussed on holding the player off the ball becomes secondary to him.

 

[mu4c_20le]

We paid 76m for an MMA fighter

 

[kouroux]

We paid 76m for an MMA fighter

 

[Herschel Krustofsky]

Not great today. As poor as Jackson's finishing was yesterday, he offered a lot more against a stingy defence than Hojlund did against Coventry.

Which crosses are those mate?

 

[The United]

ETH wanted a forward to free up Rashford and this guy takes the job far too extremely by tangling up with defenders all the time. As someone above said, his off ball movements need to be better and he is still young to learn that.

But then again, (most) top strikers usually learn those pretty early.

 

[Malone_Post]

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.

It’s because his technique & first touch is really poor. He’s very much like Lukaku in that respect. His strengths are that he’s fast, relatively two footed, works hard & has a powerful shot. That’s about it at the moment. For me the worrying thing is touch & technique can’t really be improved on that much. Quite a few posters on here who had seen a bit of him for Atlanta did point out that he had a poor first touch before we signed him.

I think he can go on to be a decent squad player who will score goals in the right set up. But I don’t see him having the ability to become anything more than that. I just don’t think his ceiling is that high.

 

[The Irish Connection]

Disagree with people saying his all round game is crap. He carried the ball well at times today and his hold up play is better than the likes of Haaland or Nunez but his movement in the final 3rd at the moment is average and our wingers barely cross.

 

[groovyalbert]

Injury killed his momentum. Insane to have him as our first choice striker at his age/development this season. Should be learning from an established strike partner. Sign of the times sadly.

 

[Piskin]

His overall game is poor for this level. His brain and his feet are seriously out of whack. Would rather he was sold on sooner than later.

 

[Rozay]

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.

Indeed, this has been my view with regards to Rashford too. I’ve been speaking out against selling him for a while due to a concern with numbers on the board, however, I’m less sure that he’s worth keeping now. But a player like Hojlund can only have the role of being the numbers guy in a top side. Similar to RvN. He’s not Firmino. He simply needs to score 20+ goals or be sold, frankly (not yet, necessarily).

I agree with Toney too, although I’m not sure he’s the goalscorer he’s made out to be once penalties are removed from the equation. But he might be the best option.

 

[Marwood]

Wish we'd let him off the leash a bit more.

A big, mobile guy buy we play him as a strict target man. Static, central, back to goal. Very rigid.

When we need a goal we suddenly see him pulling wide, running at defenders, mixing it up. He looks so much better when he does.

 

[Blood Mage]

Again, massive concerns over his technical ability. He is quick and strong though but Ten Hag's system doesn't play to those strengths at all.

 

[Dominos]

The chance he had at 3-2 to seal it for us and he didn't even get a shot away was bad.

Other than that, no service again. But he just can't be taking up the right positions or making the right runs to be getting so few opportunities. I'm aware how bad we are, but the fact our striker almost never gets a chance to shoot can't be right.

 

[L1nk]

Not great again, but honestly sometimes I wonder if he's being asked to sacrifice himself a little to let McTominay make runs, whenever McTominay plays they often clash in the box i've noticed.

 

[criticalanalysis]

I have no doubts he will come good. His overall skill set, athletic attributes and mentality are at a good potential. The only issue is if we continue with this crap football under ETH or another manager.

 

[FootballAI]

His first touch is not great. I swear at times today I saw Lukaku

Agree, selling Lukaku while keeping Martial and then this shows the management how poor their decision making can be. When you sold a proven striker to prioritise unproven ones, you choose gut rather than brain and it often turns to the worse outcome. Back then I was shocked to see the news when we departed Lukaku.

 

[statpadder]

Agree, selling Lukaku while keeping Martial and then this shows the management how poor their decision making can be. When you sold a proven striker to prioritise unproven ones, you choose gut rather than brain and it often turns to the worse outcome. Back then I was shocked to see the news when we departed Lukaku.

Don’t know what you were watching but the Lukaku we had was Mark Henry with the first touch of a trampoline.

 

[Red Royal]

Don’t know what you were watching but the Lukaku we had was Mark Henry with the first touch of a trampoline.

And for once we got a good offer for him, brought for ~£80M and sold for ~£70M. Wish we could get near that for some of our other flops.

 

[Devil81]

Similar to Antony if you are talking a 30 million pound fee then you are getting closer to his actual value.

I was shot down in the match day thread yesterday for suggesting he doesn't create himself space to create his own chances. I get he's not receiving the passes but when he's in and around the box why can't he turn a defender or create and angle for a shot, he literally is going through matches with zero chances.

Even Harry Maguire was able to bomb down the left hand side and create space with his strength for a shot.

 

[RussellWilson]

We keep hearing he gets no service. Even Wout Weghorst used to get shots off in a game.

He's clearly not doing enough to get open and get in the right positions. It's unbelievable that he's probably gone 4 games without even getting a good shot off.

Defo need a new lead man next year and let him sit back and develop.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Pretty amazing that we paid 70 odd million on him. There was an air of excitement when he went on that goal scoring run but taking the near full first season into consideration, he’s clearly not ready to start for us (big shock), and has to prove himself to be good enough for this level first before he’s anywhere near good enough as our main number 9.

If you break his game down, he spends far too much of his time wrestling (losing) with centre backs, losing his balance and generally being a scrappy forward waiting for the game to “feed him”. That’s not enough for Manchester United forward. How often does his quality on the ball stand out? How often does he make a yard for himself and get a strong shot away? We need quality and hard work alone will not make you a success here.

The point of him being the wrong profile is a fair one too. For a team as rubbish as in the buildup to have a CF who contributes little to it is worrisome. We’d be better team with a fit Martial starting and we all know that - and that’s a problem.

 

[sugar_kane]

Weghorst was a giant who couldn't win a header, Hojlund is a unit who can't hold off players who look physically weaker than him.

I like him because he seems to have a strong mentality and works hard, but he needs to develop his game.

 

[Chaky_Best]

He's still young and will improve for sure.

He's courageous and runs a lot, but it's absolutely not enough at this level.

We have massively overpaid for him and can't use him properly.

He's doesn't have the killer instinct or in front of the goal that you can sense in some pure number 9 (unfortunately even lazy Martial has it).

He doesn't benefits from the system as neither Garnacho or Rashford feeds him, neither our full backs or midifielder.

Even if we overpaid for him, we need another striker this summer and until Rasmus removes his collab with Timberland, he will not improve

 

[Paul778]

Pretty amazing that we paid 70 odd million on him. There was an air of excitement when he went on that goal scoring run but taking the near full first season into consideration, he’s clearly not ready to start for us (big shock), and has to prove himself to be good enough for this level first before he’s anywhere near good enough as our main number 9.

If you break his game down, he spends far too much of his time wrestling (losing) with centre backs, losing his balance and generally being a scrappy forward waiting for the game to “feed him”. That’s not enough for Manchester United forward. How often does his quality on the ball stand out? How often does he make a yard for himself and get a strong shot away? We need quality and hard work alone will not make you a success here.

The point of him being the wrong profile is a fair one too. For a team as rubbish as in the buildup to have a CF who contributes little to it is worrisome. We’d be better team with a fit Martial starting and we all know that - and that’s a problem.

I think if we had the wingers from Man City on our flanks he would have scored a whole lot more. However, our main three options this season on the wings are Rashford, Garnacho and Anthony and none of them think primarily to find a pass to Rasmus.

Rasmus has some negatives to his game and with the right coaching, formation and attitude (both from him and the players around him) he will be successful here.

Right now, not one single aspect of our team is working well, so to pick on one area is pointless. Having no set patterns of play in defence, midfield and attack is some achievement (and not in a good way).

 

[Borys]

It's strange we went all in for this guy last summer. I know the striker market isn't exactly at it's peak, but the quality he offers at 70m reminds me more of panic buys this club used to go for, not someone who was number 1 target all summer.
Same goes for Amrabat tbh.

He is surprisingly ineffective back to his goal and at pressing (similar to Bruno, he runs a lot but that doesn't seem to be doing much apart from losing energy).

 

[VP89]

Hes been very underwhelming and it's nothing to do with service. I actually think McTominay would be a better forward.

 

[FireballXL5]

With proper coaching he could become a top player. But we are where we are.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

I think if we had the wingers from Man City on our flanks he would have scored a whole lot more. However, our main three options this season on the wings are Rashford, Garnacho and Anthony and none of them think primarily to find a pass to Rasmus.

Rasmus has some negatives to his game and with the right coaching, formation and attitude (both from him and the players around him) he will be successful here.

Right now, not one single aspect of our team is working well, so to pick on one area is pointless. Having no set patterns of play in defence, midfield and attack is some achievement (and not in a good way).

I do agree that the service from wide areas is terrible. There’s so many times our wingers can square it for a good chance but choose to shoot instead. I was thinking as to why the other day and aside from lacking intelligence it can only be insecurity - they’re all desperate for that goal that will earn them credit.

Back to Hojlund, although he gets poor service, I still think his lack of individual quality is a big concern. Make a yard, take a man on, get a shot off - he’s just not doing any of it. Instead he’s basing his entire game around being a poacher and wrestling with defenders. We’re not Stoke ffs.

 

[Crimson King]

Pretty amazing that we paid 70 odd million on him. There was an air of excitement when he went on that goal scoring run but taking the near full first season into consideration, he’s clearly not ready to start for us (big shock), and has to prove himself to be good enough for this level first before he’s anywhere near good enough as our main number 9.

If you break his game down, he spends far too much of his time wrestling (losing) with centre backs, losing his balance and generally being a scrappy forward waiting for the game to “feed him”. That’s not enough for Manchester United forward. How often does his quality on the ball stand out? How often does he make a yard for himself and get a strong shot away? We need quality and hard work alone will not make you a success here.

The point of him being the wrong profile is a fair one too. For a team as rubbish as in the buildup to have a CF who contributes little to it is worrisome. We’d be better team with a fit Martial starting and we all know that - and that’s a problem.

I know it's semantics, but we paid closer to £60m for him. Think it was about £64m, but not sure that includes add-ons. Think the £4m is the add-ons, I might be wrong though.

That's probably still £20m more than he was worth at the time, but the market wasn't great. Ramos and Muani aren't exactly pulling up trees in Ligue 1. Toney was banned, and I wouldn't pay £60m+ for him either.

Just pointing it out because people have a habit of adding £10m to a fee when a player is struggling for us.

I still think he'll come good, that purple patch before his injury has given me hope. The team really fell off a cliff around then and I'm not sure he's fully fit, most of them don't look it at the moment though. They need to be better at creating chances for a striker so he actually has something to miss, his conversion rate in that patch was unsustainable for any forward.

 

[Desert Eagle]

It's strange we went all in for this guy last summer. I know the striker market isn't exactly at it's peak, but the quality he offers at 70m reminds me more of panic buys this club used to go for, not someone who was number 1 target all summer.
Same goes for Amrabat tbh.

He is surprisingly ineffective back to his goal and at pressing (similar to Bruno, he runs a lot but that doesn't seem to be doing much apart from losing energy).

Is he? My perception was he's decent at hold up play for a young player. He's still going to grow a decent amount. Pause.

My concern with him is that he kinda lacks that special sauce. His technique and intelligence aren't elite. He has a bunch of 7/10 traits but no game changing one for me.

 

[Idxomer]

Similar to Antony if you are talking a 30 million pound fee then you are getting closer to his actual value.

I was shot down in the match day thread yesterday for suggesting he doesn't create himself space to create his own chances. I get he's not receiving the passes but when he's in and around the box why can't he turn a defender or create and angle for a shot, he literally is going through matches with zero chances.

Even Harry Maguire was able to bomb down the left hand side and create space with his strength for a shot.

Considering he's left-footed, it's weird how you never see him on the right trying to cut inside to get a shot. Some of the blame could go to Ten Hag who seems a bit rigid on how he wants his centre-forward to play.

 

[Hoof the ball]

He massively outperformed his xG during his scoring run this season. He scored on something like 60% of the shots he took in 8-9 consecutive games.

He wasn't getting the chances even in scoring run. He most definitely isn't getting the chances as of late.

It's that simple. They just don't feed him the ball in the box.

 

[Morpheus 7]

I have no concerns with Rasmus, seeing him live this season I think he's got all the technical attributes. He can hold the ball and release it, good feet, power and acceleration, can keep calm when striking the ball, it's the absolute disgusting service. We play as if he's not there, if fans can't see this I don't know honestly. Tell me a striker in world football who could perform with this shite team. No service, no balls played in, no crosses or good balls played in behind. He barely gets a sniff, you can't be annoyed at a young player who barely gets a chance to touch the ball in the opposition box in 90 minutes.

 

[Remember the geese]

From the Villa game up until his injury, everything just started to click for him. Since returning from injury - dogshit.