[Pogue Mahone]

People are being harsh on him. He’s having to be the starting striker at Manchester United, even though he’s probably a year or two (at least) away from being at that level. If we were at another point in the cycle he’d come in alongside another quality striker or two who would take the pressure of goalscoring off him and allow him to learn the game without the need to carry the burden every week.

You’re being too kind. People are being fecking thick. He’s being judged on a tiny sample of games where we’re creating very few chances. Despite this he’s scored one goal, had one struck off by VAR for the tiniest of margins and had a goal bound shot hacked off the line today.

Can anyone name a more established attacking player in our squad who’s looked any more likely to score over the same sample of matches? Because I can’t. And unlike those other attacking players Hojlund isn’t expected to create goals. That’s not why we signed him.

 

[Rhyme Animal]

70 million for an apprentice?

There was literally no need to sign Mount.

It was a waste of 60m quid.

As was the money spent on Hojlund, who is nowhere near the level of a top team competing for top honours.

Would’ve been better simply signing a gk and a striker.

Even a cheaper PL proven striker would be better than this kid.

People scoffed at Mitro, Toney or Watkins… people made out Hojlund was as good a signing as Jesus for Arsenal.

Not so smug now are those people. Instead they’re now getting bitter and trying to claim that other people are ‘thick’ for being able to see the blatantly obvious facts about a couple of footballers that they couldn’t see and now don’t want to admit to themselves.

ETH’s use of the transfer budget this Summer was idiotic. Not ‘below par’, or ‘bad’ even - it was idiotic.

He can have no complaints if it costs him moving forward.

 

[sebsheep]

There was literally no need to sign Mount.

It was a waste of 60m quid.

As was the money spent on Hojlund, who is nowhere the level of a top team competing for top honours.

Would’ve been better simply signing a gk and a striker.

Even a cheaper PL proven striker would be better than this kid.

People scoffed at Mitro, Toney or Watkins… people made out Hojlund was as good a signing as Jesus for Arsenal.

Not so smug now are those people.

ETH’s use of the transfer budget this Summer was idiotic. Not ‘below par’, or ‘bad’ even - it was idiotic.

He can have no complaints if it costs him moving forward.

I'm not sure that guy would've scored more at this stage.

 

[Andycoleno9]

People do realise we were playing against a team who sat off the whole time? Where do you think he will get any space unless the perfect ball is provided to him?

These games are exactly games which top strikers (who we needed desperately) win you.
Reality (and huge problem for this season) is that we spent 70 million (1/3 of our budget) on a player who is at this moment only squad rotation material. And we did it in a season where all our rivals for top 5 are stronger than last season. We invested in future while ignoring present situation.

Our main question and problem last year was who will score goals. And our priority, detected by fans, pundits and manager was a striker.
Is it normal then that after 200 mil spent, we still ask same question? Because even people who defend this signing say; "Oh, he is just raw and young. If he scores 10 goals it will be great".
All that is a clear sign that we completely fecked up this transfer window.

 

[Mercurial]

I like him and I think he will be good. I'm just hoping it's more 'Harry Kane' type of good than Olivier Giroud.

I'd take a Giroud right about now too.

 

[Amir]

Any single player can have a bad period. Even with Kane, a goal is not guaranteed. Having said that, when you have Kane, Bruno, Rashford, Garnacho the probability that you will score is much higher than when you have Hojlund, Bruno, Rashford, Garnacho. It is simple.

That probabilty can work in the odd game, but it's not really a system that can create a successful team.

 

[Amir]

How long until acceptable to judge him?

It feels like Onana is fair game already but Hojlund is going to get absolutely ages with some.

Personally he's totally underwhelmed, I was expecting and all action striker that was going to lift everyone around him. Let's be honest 20 years of age isn't that young in football this day and age and a top striker generally creates his own space and chances.

Well, Onana is a seasoned pro who just played in the CL final and took part in the pre season tour. Hojlund is much younger, clearly a work in progress and arrived later and with an injury.

And still people got so exicted - too excited, as usual - over his 20 mins performance at Arsenal.

 

[Lay]

His first touch is bad.

 

[DJ Jeff]

Ten Hag has been an unmitigated disaster in the transfer market if this guy is a bust too.

 

[El Zoido]

There was literally no need to sign Mount.

It was a waste of 60m quid.

As was the money spent on Hojlund, who is nowhere the level of a top team competing for top honours.

Would’ve been better simply signing a gk and a striker.

Even a cheaper PL proven striker would be better than this kid.

People scoffed at Mitro, Toney or Watkins… people made out Hojlund was as good a signing as Jesus for Arsenal.

Not so smug now are those people.

ETH’s use of the transfer budget this Summer was idiotic. Not ‘below par’, or ‘bad’ even - it was idiotic.

He can have no complaints if it costs him moving forward.

I pretty much agree, he's losing me with these transfers. Mount was a pointless signing, Anthony was a terrible one. I wouldn't want to draw judgement on Hojlund but he's definitely not what we needed right now.

 

[Ubik]

How long until acceptable to judge him?

It feels like Onana is fair game already but Hojlund is going to get absolutely ages with some.

Personally he's totally underwhelmed, I was expecting and all action striker that was going to lift everyone around him. Let's be honest 20 years of age isn't that young in football this day and age and a top striker generally creates his own space and chances.

To be fair it's dumb to have come to many conclusions about Onana either.

With Hojlund he'll obviously get a grace period due to his age and the fact the rest of our attack looks clueless anyway. I guess I'm mainly looking out for what he excels at in his game beyond his physicality and work rate. He doesn't look like a great technician, so I'm not sure he'll add much in the build up beyond the basic receiving with the back to goal and spreading it out wide. Does he have great movement to create openings in the box? One or two decent signs of this. Is he a great finisher? He's had the ball in the net a couple of times which is more than a lot of our other players, but still not really seen him one-on-one yet, or having to put it in from an angle. Is he a big aerial threat? Had the chance today which was decent but close to the keeper, hasn't seemed much of a threat otherwise but nor has our service been great.

We'll have to see how he does over the next months as he'll obviously be getting plenty of opportunities. I don't expect the finished product or buckets of goals, but I do want to see the basis of what he could become, even if it's only in flashes.

 

[frostbite]

That probabilty can work in the odd game, but it's not really a system that can create a successful team.

Whatever system you have, Kane will do much more than Hojlund at this point. For ANY system. It's simple.

 

[TMDaines]

Was excited by the thought of Højlund as an understudy to Kane or similar at the start of summer. It needs to be remembered that he had to leave Copenhagen, literally only last year in 2022, because he was getting frustrated at his lack of regular minutes never scoring in the Danish league. Absolutely bonkers that he is now United’s #1 centre forward.

Had him down to score around 12 goals this season in all comps. Feels about right still. Gonna be tough for him.

 

[Devil81]

Was excited by the thought of Højlund as an understudy to Kane or similar at the start of summer. It needs to be remembered that he had to leave Copenhagen, literally only last year in 2022, because he was getting frustrated at his lack of regular minutes never scoring in the Danish league. Absolutely bonkers that he is now United’s #1 centre forward.

Had him down to score around 12 goals this season in all comps. Feels about right still. Gonna be tough for him.

fecking hell after reading that post I'm even more depressed about this situation than I was before.

 

[NotChatGPT]

These games are exactly games which top strikers (who we needed desperately) win you.
Reality (and huge problem for this season) is that we spent 70 million (1/3 of our budget) on a player who is at this moment only squad rotation material. And we did it in a season where all our rivals for top 5 are stronger than last season. We invested in future while ignoring present situation.

Our main question and problem last year was who will score goals. And our priority, detected by fans, pundits and manager was a striker.
Is it normal then that after 200 mil spent, we still ask same question? Because even people who defend this signing say; "Oh, he is just raw and young. If he scores 10 goals it will be great".
All that is a clear sign that we completely fecked up this transfer window.

Early days, but I suppose that’s why Tottenham finished 8th then last season with Harry Kane, and why (so far) they are scoring more goals and performing better in the big matches than last season with Kane in the starting lineup. Brighton finished 6th and scored 72 goals, they didn’t have Kane either. Newcastle scored only two goals left, without an extremely prolific top striker.

Last season one of our problems was converting chances, so far this season we aren’t really creating chances. We still aren’t scoring enough goals, but the problem isn’t the same. Another part of the problem last season was ball retention when under pressure, the ability to receive a pass up front and hold off the defender before passing it to a teammate, Rashford has many strengths but playing with his back towards goal is pretty much his biggest weakness, it’s extremely rare that he will go into even a 50-50 duel for a header, most likely he’ll stand besides the defender and hope that he’ll mistime he’s header, which pretty much never happens anyway, so that he can run in behind. Weghorst improved the situation, but his lack of agility meant that he was very rarely able to take advantage of the situations he found himself in.

I just honestly don’t see it. Højlund is 20, completely different league, hasn’t had a pre season and barely started matches for us. Yet he’s mobile up top in terms of pressing and overall movement, he makes life difficult for the opposition defenders by competing for every ball, isn’t afraid to get stuck in, plays other in. He’s on the wrong end of margins in terms of goals so far, but the rest of it, if anything, has been surprisingly good. The majority of the boxes are being ticked off. Not sure why some are pretending his movement is off and that’s why we’re not creating chances for him. It’s less than ideal that Antony is struggling with, ehm, stuff outside of football. It’s less than ideal that both Bruno and Rashford are miles off it at the moment and that we’re yet again struggling with a vast amount of injuries.

What was the alternative, who were we going to sign to play up top? The Harry Kane that wasn’t available for us to sign? Osimhen? (Shame they didn’t go for the tiktok stunt 7 months ago) Toney, who happens to be banned for half the season?

 

[TMDaines]

fecking hell after reading that post I'm even more depressed about this situation than I was before.

You didn’t know about his journey from Copenhagen to Sturm Graz to Atalanta to United?

Best part is Atlanta’s Head of Recruitment was the same bloke who milked us for Maguire at Leicester and did the same thing again. Squeezed every penny out of us knowing we were desperate with no real alternative.

 

[L1nk]

How long until acceptable to judge him?

It feels like Onana is fair game already but Hojlund is going to get absolutely ages with some.

Personally he's totally underwhelmed, I was expecting and all action striker that was going to lift everyone around him. Let's be honest 20 years of age isn't that young in football this day and age and a top striker generally creates his own space and chances.

Because he's a 20 year old with almost no experience. Where as Onana is a 27 year old title winning, CL runner up senior international, of course you treat them differently.

Harry Kane at 20 was on loan at Leicester sitting on the bench and contributing 2 goals in 15 games.

Problem is people like you have absolutely 0 patience for anything and you expect all young talented players to be Erling Haaland now. Guess what, it's not all black and white, players develop differently and at different ages. The reason Hojlund shouldn't be getting much flak is because it's not his fault if he is not ready to lead the line for Manchester United, that's the clubs fault for putting him in that position.

 

[mu4c_20le]

You didn’t know about his journey from Copenhagen to Sturm Graz to Atalanta to United?

Best part is Atlanta’s Head of Recruitment was the same bloke who milked us for Maguire at Leicester and did the same thing again. Squeezed every penny out of us knowing we were desperate with no real alternative.

No way. It's all making sense now

 

[Andycoleno9]

Because he's a 20 year old with almost no experience. Where as Onana is a 27 year old title winning, CL runner up senior international, of course you treat them differently.

Harry Kane at 20 was on loan at Leicester sitting on the bench and contributing 2 goals in 15 games.

Problem is people like you have absolutely 0 patience for anything and you expect all young talented players to be Erling Haaland now. Guess what, it's not all black and white, players develop differently and at different ages. The reason Hojlund shouldn't be getting much flak is because it's not his fault if he is not ready to lead the line for Manchester United, that's the clubs fault for putting him in that position.

Hojlund situation and criticism is not towards Hojlund directly. Sure, he looks raw and he needs time to develop. But we don't have that time this season.
Criticism goes to ETH and the club. When you are in need for top striker who will lead the line then there is zero logic to spend 70 mil on someone who is not ready for that role.
Use same logic for academy player. Would you be happy if we sold Casemiro and decided to play with Mejbri or Mainoo as first choice no6? Or if we decided to release De Gea and go into season with Kovar as first choice no1?

There is time and place for every transfer. We made Hojlund's transfer in wrong time.

 

[L1nk]

Hojlund situation and criticism is not towards Hojlund directly. Sure, he looks raw and he needs time to develop. But we don't have that time this season.
Criticism goes to ETH and the club. When you are in need for top striker who will lead the line then there is zero logic to spend 70 mil on someone who is not ready for that role.
Use same logic for academy player. Would you be happy if we sold Casemiro and decided to play with Mejbri or Mainoo as first choice no6? Or if we decided to release De Gea and go into season with Kovar as first choice no1?

There is time and place for every transfer. We made Hojlund's transfer in wrong time.

It's not the criticism I was reponding to though. The person I was responding to was saying so how long until we can criticise him because we can criticise Onana so why is it Hojlund gets more time without it, and I explained why, and explained why the club should be taking the flak not him.

 

[Lyng]

Any single player can have a bad period. Even with Kane, a goal is not guaranteed. Having said that, when you have Kane, Bruno, Rashford, Garnacho the probability that you will score is much higher than when you have Hojlund, Bruno, Rashford, Garnacho. It is simple.

Spurs were a mess last year and they still scored 70, we had a very good year and only scored 58. What was missing is obvious. And it was not Holjund.

Spurs are much better this season though....without Kane.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Was excited by the thought of Højlund as an understudy to Kane or similar at the start of summer. It needs to be remembered that he had to leave Copenhagen, literally only last year in 2022, because he was getting frustrated at his lack of regular minutes never scoring in the Danish league. Absolutely bonkers that he is now United’s #1 centre forward.

Had him down to score around 12 goals this season in all comps. Feels about right still. Gonna be tough for him.

He’s 20 years old. A year ago he was 19. So he’s hardly going to arrive with a spectacular long term CV, is he? He was signed on the basis that he had just had a break out year where he showed a lot of qualities you need in a top class striker.

The big problem we have now is how badly we rely on him having a spectacular debut season because the other forwards/wingers already at the club (on huge wages, in their prime) have a combined total of… checks notes… one goal in our first seven league games.

Now that is bonkers.

 

[frostbite]

Spurs are much better this season though....without Kane.

And? Spurs now have a better manager. If that better manager had Kane, they'd be even better now.

Or do you mean it is more important to sack ETH than to get a top striker?

 

[TMDaines]

He’s 20 years old. A year ago he was 19. So he’s hardly going to arrive with a spectacular long term CV, is he? He was signed on the basis that he had just had a break out year where he showed a lot of qualities you need in a top class striker.

Sure. He has a lot of potential, but United banking on him to be the main centre forward at this age, with his level of experience, is ridiculous. I feel for him.

 

[L1nk]

Sure. He has a lot of potential, but United banking on him to be the main centre forward at this age, with his level of experience, is ridiculous. I feel for him.

Obviously. But a lot of people in this thread are eager to criticize and jump on him asap instead of looking at the bigger picture and more importantly, the club itself.

 

[Big Andy]

He’s 20 years old. A year ago he was 19. So he’s hardly going to arrive with a spectacular long term CV, is he? He was signed on the basis that he had just had a break out year where he showed a lot of qualities you need in a top class striker.

The big problem we have now is how badly we rely on him having a spectacular debut season because the other forwards/wingers already at the club (on huge wages, in their prime) have a combined total of… checks notes… one goal in our first seven league games.

Now that is bonkers.

THat and he's feeding off scraps really. No composure in our crossing, its all aimless or they turn back on themselves.

 

[TMDaines]

Obviously. But a lot of people in this thread are eager to criticize and jump on him asap instead of looking at the bigger picture and more importantly, the club itself.

Yeah, agreed. I’m not really seeing any individuals who were on the pitch today needing to be raked over the coals. There’s a lot of wasted effort out there right now and nothing is coalescing. We need to be working smarter, not harder.

For me United’s issues are largely systematic, which is why virtually nobody is delivering genuinely good performances, combined with a couple of clear places in the team where players simply are not good enough despite trying (Pellistri) or are being thrown in the deep end with too much expected of them too soon (Højlund).

 

[El Jefe]

His touch is worrying me, I can't lie.

His videos reminded me of Lukaku and I said that quite a bit. I think he can become a slightly more polished version without the ego and laziness. That’s what I see as his top end potential.

Hojlund’s bad touches aren’t as comical but that extra time needed to get the ball in control stops the possibility of many potential shots at goal.

 

[MikeKing]

His videos reminded me of Lukaku and I said that quite a bit. I think he can become a slightly more polished version without the ego and laziness. That’s what I see as his top end potential.

Hojlund’s bad touches aren’t as comical but that extra time needed to get the ball in control stops the possibility of many potential shots at goal.

He is adjusting to the Premier League. He is like 4 games in. The tempo in the league he came from is quite different to this. I have no doubt his mind is quick enough once he has adjusted, and I don't see anything wrong with his technique for such a big striker. He seems pretty well rounded already at 20 years of age.

 

[KD6-3.7]

My biggest worry with Højlund wasn’t so much his ability but more so that the club isn’t setup for these young raw players to develop properly. Right from the start we were already expecting too much of him, he shouldn’t even be a starter first and foremost. We should have an experienced first team striker but because we are so mismanaged our only other striker is an injury prone Martial. So throwing Højlund in the deep end to either sink or swim in what’s a highly dysfunctional squad that doesn’t create many goal scoring chances and it shouldn’t come to any surprise why the top young players in the world do not join United.

Right now I doubt he will even hit double digits for goals in the league, he’s living off crumbs and he clearly isn’t good enough yet to create goals on his own. People were just glad to have a new striker but a 20 year old from the Italian league leading the line for United wasn’t going to change the team drastically especially when everyone else is underperforming.

 

[Amir]

Whatever system you have, Kane will do much more than Hojlund at this point. For ANY system. It's simple.

Yes, it will. But unless things actually gel then it won't really a good team. Just a team that will score a few more goals and do somewhat better based on individual ability.

And that's not what we aim for.

 

[afatzp]

Hojlund would not properly develop if he has to regularly plays with Rashford. Basically you can't find a pattern what is good run or bad one , as Rashford just either ignore your run and did not pass, or send a pass with terrible quality and make you think your run is not on spot. Also you can't find better shooting skills, as you would barely touch a ball or receive proper shooting chances when Rashford is there. All Rashford wants from a ST is that ST wrestles with CB to get the ball down, then pass to him so he can run with it into the crowd and lose it.

 

[Butty19]

I was at the game yesterday and his movement, especially in the first half was very good. He made 2/3 great runs where he could’ve been played through but it didn’t happen. It reminded me of when Haaland first came with City. He made some great runs but for some reason the players chose to ignore them and keep the ball moving sideways. That was very early in his time there and I think it took a while for City to play to his strengths. I’m hoping it’s just still early days for Hojlund and over time it will improve for him.

 

[Drizzle]

Hojlund would not properly develop if he has to regularly plays with Rashford. Basically you can't find a pattern what is good run or bad one , as Rashford just either ignore your run and did not pass, or send a pass with terrible quality and make you think your run is not on spot. Also you can't find better shooting skills, as you would barely touch a ball or receive proper shooting chances when Rashford is there. All Rashford wants from a ST is that ST wrestles with CB to get the ball down, then pass to him so he can run with it into the crowd and lose it.

It's now Rashford's fault that Hojlund is bang average. Got it.

I blame Rashford for our defence conceding terrible goals all the time too. And all our injuries. And climate change.

 

[Son]

He’s too young. Does a lot of the right stuff which is great to see and has a few moments of class. His physical attributes are impressive.

He still shouldn’t be leading the line for our club as he’s in no way clinical yet but I’m hoping he miraculously turns into a 20 goal a season striker…

You could even argue he should be playing for a smaller club learning his trade currently. Hopefully it pays off in the long run but that also means he has to stay away from injuries too.

Huge gamble for us spending so much on him so early in his career truth be told.

 

[Son]

Spurs are much better this season though....without Kane.

Kane is arguably the best player on the planet right now. The guy would improve any team in the world by his presence.

 

[Marwood]

It's now Rashford's fault that Hojlund is bang average. Got it.

I blame Rashford for our defence conceding terrible goals all the time too. And all our injuries. And climate change.

I mean centre forwards are reliant on wide players to a large extent. Been that way forever.

 

[Redfrog]

If we are being honest, Rashford - Martial - Greenwood was better then Rashford - Hojlund - Antony.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Sure. He has a lot of potential, but United banking on him to be the main centre forward at this age, with his level of experience, is ridiculous. I feel for him.

A lot of the talk when we signed him was that having a strong, fast, mobile, hardworking number 9 would occupy defenders more than they were last season, which would make Rashford even more productive. Hojlund isn’t expected to be our main goalscorer. Rashford is.

So far Hojlund is ticking all of those boxes. It’s time for Rashford to start scoring. One goal in seven is a terrible return for a player of his status. The SNAFU on the right wing obviously doesn’t help either. Hopefully Antony’s return will improve us.

 

[3KDré]

If we are being honest, Rashford - Martial - Greenwood was better then Rashford - Hojlund - Antony.

I think anyone can see that. Pogba-Cavani- Rashford is better than our current.