[Bastian]

Mate there are people on here that think we should get rid of Bruno, and I've been here long enough to see what people used to say about Ronaldo. This isn't the place to seek rational opinions.

This is awkward because I'm one of them

Now bear with me, it is not because he isn't our best player, statistically he is, and he's the captain. I've just question whether we should be building the team around him when he is a tactically demanding player. I won't go into it much, but here's a thread. For this summer, I think I'd only sell him if he's unhappy at not getting a new contract (which I would not give him) and there's a giant offer from Saudi.

With Hojlund, I actually like him so much that I wouldn't want us to sign a striker that is ahead of him in the pecking order. I'm pretty certain Hojlund will become a top player.

I wonder if the people thinking poorly of him because of the Euros also think Eriksen should be a starter for United now (I've read he's been pretty decent)?

 

[Pickle85]

I find it funny because we’ve been very poor over the last 10 years with some decent moments here and there. If ever there was a period to be very critical it’s now. After the season we had, the expectation should be no less.

The difference I guess is some of us just call what we see while others call what they want to see.

So...go OTT with criticism of a young United player when he's not even playing for United? I mean...have at it, but I'm sure the club will give you meatier things to get angry and moan about when the season starts...

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

The club always puts these players in these positions when they go ahead and splash big money on them

 

[Pickle85]

Exactly. It’s a stupid and frankly playground position to take. To so quickly resort to ‘enjoy shitting on our young striker’.What does ‘enjoying’ it got to do with anything, and what difference does it make to our fortunes if I suddenly start insisting that McTominay or Antony are both good enough?

As you said, there has to be some reason why our team finished 8 and scored 57 league goals, and the obvious answer would be that a number of our players are not as good as they need to be. It’s not to be ‘enjoyed’, instead it brings great misery and occupies my mind for hours every day! But it is what it is.

You're an absolute fecking misery across multiple threads, so to be frank I feel ok about being protective of a young, new striker when he's not even playing for us. But you keep wallowing as it clearly gives you something you need.

 

[VP89]

You’ve probably not seen it because of the deluge of them I’ve had to reject from newbies. Especially one who signed up and then just wrote a list of players they hated followed by OUT!!

Not saying it’s everyone but I’ve definitely seen some in this thread from mains posters as well at points.

Yeah that's fair - I'm just speaking about myself and the criticism from posters here today. He's been poor all Euros. He's been hit and miss in season one but my worry is that he has more to work on than we thought.

I think Zirkzee looks a lot more polished and will leave at half the fee, whether its to us or AC Milan.

 

[chay chay okocha]

Hojlund will not look back on Euro 2024 fondly. Dress it up how you want, he hasn't performed anywhere near to the level he needed to. The moment at 1-0 down tonight when he was played through and just blasted it at the keeper summed up his tournament. Those aren't the type of chances that only a Ruud Van Nistlerooy or a Robin Van Persie level striker can be expected to take, those are the kind of chances that your Craig Bellamy and Yakubu would be gobbling up.

I like Hojlund but have no problems with some critique on his performances - there's certainly lots of room for improvement and no guarantee that he will get there. But on this particular play, I don't think this is a fair assessment of the quality of the chance given the angle and given that the far side of the goal is a non option given because the defender gets there to cover by the time the ball is played. Hojlund really only has the near post to aim at, and I'd wager that that is a chance that most top strikers (including the likes of RVP / Haaland etc.) would rarely score - it's just not as great a chance as people make it out to be.

 

[Rozay]

You're an absolute fecking misery across multiple threads, so to be frank I feel ok about being protective of a young, new striker when he's not even playing for us. But you keep wallowing as it clearly gives you something you need.

Thank you, I will. And I’m sure Hojlund appreciates your ‘protection’ from me.

Imagine seeing posts of misery in a season we finish 8th.

 

[ShinjiNinja26]

He’s had a quiet tournament but I’m fully behind him. I can’t wait to see what he can do next season under Ruud’s tutelage.

 

[Giggsyking]

As I said, todays game is the wrong game to criticize him for, but 0 goals in 4 matches in the tournament is really bad.

 

[Blood Mage]

He needs to learn to finish and not just blast the ball. When he was one-on-one with Neuer in the second half there was loads of space to the left of Neuer but he just blasted the ball at him.

If we're getting Ruud, he needs to be his shadow and learn how to be a striker.

He definitely needs some quality, in-depth one on one coaching. Whether Ruud is the man to provide that we shall see.

 

[cpresc]

As I said, todays game is the wrong game to criticize him for, but 0 goals in 4 matches in the tournament is really bad.

1 less than the entire England squad

 

[AndyMUFC]

Didn't have a great tournament but we'll see how he develops. He seems like a confidence player which is why he ends up being a bit streaky but he shows his potential in those streaks.

 

[The holy trinity 68]

We’ll be lucky to get 30 goals between them.

Garnacho and Hojlund had 17 between them, wit Hojlund being new to the team and then being injured. Amad only played a handful of league games. They will easily score 30 league goals between the 3 of them next season even with Amad being rotated a lot.

 

[Mike Smalling]

This was actually his best game of the tournament, I felt. Some bad moments as well, but he was more involved.

Overall it’s been poor. Like with United he plays for a team that doesn’t create though. He certainly takes part of the blame, but this Denmark team just doesn’t have quality in the wide areas.

 

[Rozay]

Garnacho and Hojlund had 17 between them, wit Hojlund being new to the team and then being injured. Amad only played a handful of league games. They will easily score 30 league goals between the 3 of them next season even with Amad being rotated a lot.

That will almost certainly not be our front 3. Rashford will likely play, and if he is sold, will be replaced and that player will play.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

This was actually his best game of the tournament, I felt. Some bad moments as well, but he was more involved.

Overall it’s been poor. Like with United he plays for a team that doesn’t create though. He certainly takes part of the blame, but this Denmark team just doesn’t have quality in the wide areas.

Something that will be depressingly familiar to him from the season just gone...

 

[The holy trinity 68]

That will almost certainly not be our front 3. Rashford will likely play, and if he is sold, will be replaced and that player will play.

Hojlund and Garnacho are already 2 of the 3 that will start most games. They will both improve their numbers this coming season, and Amad will get a lot more chances this season. It's a high possibility even with Amad not always starting that they will get 30+ league goals between the 3 of them.

If Rashford and Antony are not performing again, they will be dropped for Amad/Garnacho.

 

[Rozay]

Hojlund and Garnacho are already 2 of the 3 that will start most games. They will both improve their numbers this coming season, and Amad will get a lot more chances this season. It's a high possibility even with Amad not always starting that they will get 30+ league goals between the 3 of them.

If Rashford and Antony are not performing again, they will be dropped for Amad/Garnacho.

You don’t know that they will start most games at all. We will certainly sign a striker, who could well start more games than Hojlund. And if Rashford is performing, it is Garnacho who will be dropped for him, given that a Rashford who is performing is a far bigger threat. Who knows with Amad, but we have seen enough to know that he is far from guaranteed of a starting spot here. I’d go as far as to say he’s not even guaranteed to be here come September.

 

[Ali Dia]

Poor tournament from our boy it has to be said. I fancied him to bag one or two. Hopefully now he gets his feet up and get his head right for next season. I feel like if he gets a goal in the first game or two and can stay fit I can see him hitting 20 plus in all competitions. The Europa league will be really good experience for players like himself Garnacho Amad and Mainoo.

 

[El Jefe]

Hojlund and Garnacho are already 2 of the 3 that will start most games. They will both improve their numbers this coming season, and Amad will get a lot more chances this season. It's a high possibility even with Amad not always starting that they will get 30+ league goals between the 3 of them.

If Rashford and Antony are not performing again, they will be dropped for Amad/Garnacho.

First off, I hope not for the first sentence and why do people always make the assumption that players will increase their goal tally.

Look at Rashford and Martial’s goals season by season. Look at Bruno and Greenwood too, these have been our most reliable scorers in recent years. There is no guarantee at all that either score more in the league than they did this season.

Our players aren’t consistent enough to be certain they’ll easily score more than 30. I’d rather not risk going into a season depending on Garnacho, Hojlund and Amad for goals.

 

[tentan]

Let me guess he's getting no service again.....

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Let me guess he's getting no service again.....

Had a great chance which he hit right at the keeper for some reason. He always seems to drill the ball instead of placing it - very one note.

He really should he backup for us. We need someone else to start.

 

[Martial]

Hojlund clearly is not ready to start for any team in this league.

I would genuinely get Lukaku in, that's how desperately we need any competent starting striker.

 

[NLunited]

Had a good debut season, considering the circumstances. Next year there will be another striker to help manage the game load.

 

[Midrich]

This is very unfair but -

when i listen to new music, i only need to listen to the first 30 seconds of a song to know if i will like the rest or not. I don't need to listen to the whole track.

It's the same with many footballers for me, you can kind of quickly see if they have this exceptional ability or not even if they lack the goals or statistics. For example, even with Sancho's stats at first seasons at Dortmund, i could see many assists or goals that simply came from the league he was playing in like the high pressing back line making Sancho look better than he actually is.

Hojlund when looking at his Serie A performances didn't excite me that much. I watch him for United and even if he scores a goal the rest of his performance is not that good. He will have one shot per game, score, slip or miss hit. One of his goals for atalanta was him rushing and pressing the goalkeeper and it bouncing off of him in to the net. One of his goals this season was from a shot by another player that bounced off his chest. His goal i think against wolves was almost because of a defender slide tackling him on the line and him falling on to the ball. His goal in the CL from Rashfords assist looked like it bounced off his head rather than actually placing the header like a striker.

He just doesn't have much to his all round play for me to think he will be a striker that will be starting for us in years to come.

Almost like a song i know i won't be listening to too much again.

I may have it in my collection aka squad but is it going to be one of my favourite tracks I'm going to return to time and time again? I don't think so.

 

[NLunited]

This is very unfair but -

when i listen to new music, i only need to listen to the first 30 seconds of a song to know if i will like the rest or not. I don't need to listen to the whole track.

It's the same with many footballers for me, you can kind of quickly see if they have this exceptional ability or not even if they lack the goals or statistics. For example, even with Sancho's stats at first seasons at Dortmund, i could see many assists or goals that simply came from the league he was playing in like the high pressing back line making Sancho look better than he actually is.

Hojlund when looking at his Serie A performances didn't excite me that much. I watch him for United and even if he scores a goal the rest of his performance is not that good. He will have one shot per game, score, slip or miss hit. One of his goals for atalanta was him rushing and pressing the goalkeeper and it bouncing off of him in to the net. One of his goals this season was from a shot by another player that bounced off his chest. His goal i think against wolves was almost because of a defender slide tackling him on the line and him falling on to the ball. His goal in the CL from Rashfords assist looked like it bounced off his head rather than actually placing the header like a striker.

He just doesn't have much to his all round play for me to think he will be a striker that will be starting for us in years to come.

Almost like a song i know i won't be listening to too much again.

I may have it in my collection aka squad but is it going to be one of my favourite tracks I'm going to return to time and time again? I don't think so.

I get what you are saying. It is a bit harsh though.

He made some great individual goals this season.

For the ‚lucky‘ ones, you have to be in the right positions, which he is usually.

As part of a malfunctioning team, he still got ten PL goals in his first season, which is nor bad for his age.

 

[Bondi77]

He had a good chance in the game today and did well to get the ball out of his feet quickly and got plenty of power in the shot but he put it straight at the GK, the real good strikers naturally find ways to beat the GK in those situations.
He has all the physical aspects to be a top striker and I am looking forward to see if he will improve next season.

 

[NewGlory]

Competition from Zirkzee and targeted coaching from Ruud van Nistelrooy, as well as RvN, EtH, and Rene Hake figuring-out how to provide service to him, will hopefully take him to the next level, in the upcoming season. Hojlund clearly has talent, but his current form and results are not enough

 

[Bondi77]

Competition from Zirkzee and targeted coaching from Ruud van Nistelrooy, as well as RvN, EtH, and Rene Hake figuring-out how to provide service to him, will hopefully take him to the next level, in the upcoming season. Hojlund clearly has talent, but his current form and results are not enough

I don't know how Zirkzee playing at Milan will give competition to Rasmus?

 

[bringbackbebe]

Repeat after me: international football is only loosely correlated with club success and not a predictive indicator.

 

[Borys]

The funny thing about posts like these is they are more wrong than those that write off players.

In the last five years alone there have been posters that have written off Antony, Dan James, Pereira, Elanga, Lukaku, Dean Henderson off in their first season as starters or regulars. We’ve gotten the usual, they are young and have great potential defence but time has proven the doubters correct and this consistently happens on the caf.

The crowd that writes players off is more right than those choosing to believe in potential that doesn’t exist.

Funny enough as vocal as I’ve been on Hojlund, I’m not totally writing him off but he has no business being a starter in this team. Anyone banking on him to lead us up front next season is in for a rude awakening, he’s nowhere near good enough at the moment.

Saying "I see a potential in him" is obviously just a saying, because as we all know all those young players read Redcafe and we don't wand them to feel bad.

Hojlund has a lot of credit in the bank for the goals he scored last season. Main problem is, he wasn't doing much / anything else on the pitch. Now you might say "strikers main job is to score goals", what is true, but are still any teams actually playing out and out finishers? Those days are gone I believe.
Second problem is that betting on a striker to have an amazing goalscoring record every season is a bad strategy. Those streaks can happen, but does this mean an "average" season (in terms of scoring against his chances) is going to be considered a poor one for Hojlund? I don't think that's fair for any player, let alone a young one.

To be brutally honest, I don't see much potential to grow in Hojlund. He might as well have reached his ceiling (due to his limitations) and will only get better slightly as he matures and has more experience. The truth is he's not an academy player who can still "work on his technique, heading ability and improve hold up play". I see those elements as his weaknesses and I don't think we can expect him to get better than "average" at it. I think part of the natural ability on the ball is lacking and just like with Antony and his right foot, this isn't fair to expect those elements to be improved significantly at his age.

Maybe if he can get those elements to a ok level over the next 2-3 years and we'll be alright, I'm not too bothered. But the fact is he still needs to keep scoring 1,2 per 1xG point, that's what'll put him in above average category.
That's a totally different story if we paid reasonabe fee for him, but we didn't (not his fault of course).

 

[devilsadvoca8]

To all those doubting Hojlund, name just 3 21 and Under strikers better than him. Just 3, with more goals scored in a top league. I'm waiting.

 

[duffer]

To all those doubting Hojlund, name just 3 21 and Under strikers better than him. Just 3, with more goals scored in a top league. I'm waiting.

I think you're in for a long wait because what does a lack of top young strikers have to do with doubting Rasmus?

He's either good enough or he isn't. If there aren't any great under 21 strikers out there, that doesn't make Hojlund any more or less suited to being the main striker at Man United.

 

[devilsadvoca8]

I think you're in for a long wait because what does a lack of top young strikers have to do with doubting Rasmus?

He's either good enough or he isn't. If there aren't any great under 21 strikers out there, that doesn't make Hojlund any more or less suited to being the main striker at Man United.

Point is, they are expecting Hojlund to be better than he is atm. For his age he's the best around and we need to develop that. He has so much room to develop, he has raw attributes and will get better, he showed in spurts what he can do and I for one am excited to see how he progresses over the season. We do need another striker and that will help him too.

 

[evil_geko]

Jesus Christ I wonder if we watch the same football at times. He can’t control a ball, can’t dribble, can’t hold up play, his finishing is hit and miss. Truly such a limited footballer, Lukaku has far more to his game than this guy.

 

[Devil_forever]

He genuinely looks uncomfortable doing all those things. Just like Lukaku did. Keep laughing and then come back to this next season when he continues to stink up the place. People have been far harsher on Jackson who cost less than half of what Hojlund did and put up better numbers than him. Jackson seems to have more to his game too.

My only hope is that he becomes a pure goal scorer at least because his all round game is lacking to say the least.

 

[evil_geko]

He genuinely looks uncomfortable doing all those things. Just like Lukaku did. Keep laughing and then come back to this next season when he continues to stink up the place. People have been far harsher on Jackson who cost less than half of what Hojlund did and put up better numbers than him. Jackson seems to have more to his game too.

My only hope is that he becomes a pure goal scorer at least because his all round game is lacking to say the least.

Oh I am laughing all right, at lots of people having a mare in this thread, laughing and waiting patiently, because the potential is so obvious in this lad, I wonder if people even watched him for United last season.

 

[Jack-C20]

I don’t think I’ve ever been as willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt as much as I will with Hojlund. I refuse to commit fully to an opinion until I see him in a decent well rounded team. I don’t think many players in world football look good if put in last years United team. People were convinced last year that if we signed Harry Kane we’d be title contenders and look how crap he looks in a disjointed England side.

I think back to how excited I was when Hojlund looked cool as ice against Bayern or scoring in seven consecutive games with extremely limited service. I think he suffers with the pressure and once he’s in a dry spell he struggles to get out of it.

I’m not doubting he’s a rough diamond but he’s got my backing. At least while he charges around looking like he cares.

 

[Juice Juiced]

As I said, todays game is the wrong game to criticize him for, but 0 goals in 4 matches in the tournament is really bad.

He missed 2 sitters. If it was Rashford there would be 10 pages how he is shit.

 

[antk]

As always when strikers miss a chance that looks promising, suddenly it was a "sitter" and all elite strikers would have scored them 100%. In reality Hojlund's shot was taken very close to the keeper (the keeper being Manuel fecking Neuer) after a long sprint and a mediocre pass, and was calculated to a reasonable 0.24xG.

He wasn't good yesterday or the entire tournament, but this chance has nothing to do with it.