this doesnt Mean what you want it to anymore
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this doesnt Mean what you want it to anymore
It's not that simple mate. One critical thing for a top goal scorer is their ability to lose the defenders and find space. Right place at the right time.
Haaland is surely a beast and City create a lot but people often don't notice how good he is at that. For example in his second goal against us last match he was completely alone and free of any defender when he receive the cross. When I saw that first thought was how the feck he manage to do that. Or how the feck our defenders could be that bad. He is their biggest goal threat ffs.
You hardly seen Hojlund getting free of the defenders. Most of the time you'd see him sandwiched between the two CBs whenever he is in the box. It wouldn't be wise to pass to someone who is heavily marked. He must learn how to lose the defenders and find space only then he'd have more service imo.
He looks tired tbh, shouldn’t be starting 2 times a week
Thats easy to do when your team mates draw people away. Haaland does Find space but again it’s normally because the team has just been ripped apart by others allowing him to do that.
Rasmus at the moment is having to create his own chances and go against stacked defences because we as a team can’t move the ball around well enough to open these spaces up.
Definitely the bolded is true, the forward runners that City have are not present in United.
We don't make forward runs very often, which means the striker is marked by two CBs near enough all the time.
It's easy to play against and means chances come at a premium.
I'm completely baffled. Baffled I tell you. How a 20 year old from Italy with 50 pro games under his belt hasnt come here and got a sht load of goals is beyond me. No one could have predicted this. I dont blame Ten Haag or the recruitment team. Only the Gods could have seen this coming.
Is that fair? You'd have to be one of the best strikers on the planet to be prolific with the 'chances' we provide. There's no movement around him, no goalscoring threats, awful supply. It's not a recipe for goals unless we're talking about a phenomenon, wouldn't you say?
All the forwards you've mentioned were provided more clear cut opportunities to score than he is getting. Didn't watch him at his club before he came here; was he feeding off scraps there, too?
He’s certainly got talent and a fantastic work ethic. I’d say he’s being held back rather than not delivering. If he does get a couple of goals his confidence will soar, you can see how badly he wants it but the support isn’t there
Perhaps a switch to 4-4-2 next to martial/rashford will provide a distraction to oppo centre backs, dragging them about abit and creating some space for Rasmus to exploit could see him net a few
Perhaps a switch to 4-4-2 next to martial/rashford will provide a distraction to oppo centre backs, dragging them about abit and creating some space for Rasmus to exploit could see him net a few
Agree that's a big factor tactically we're a mess atm. But also how the player himself scanning, using his surrounding, reading and anticipating the situation to find space and time his run as well. Both are equally important imo.
Bruno is an expert at that stuff you can notice he's usually the one who pop in the final third out of no where. Hope Hojlund can learn a thing or two from him.
It was always the case that we needed an experienced CF with Rasmus being one for the future.Still the case.The boy looks class but he's not ready to lead the line for MUFC just yet.
It's a thankless task playing up front for us at the moment.
slowly looking worse week on week. we’ve done it to better players than him.
I don’t think Ten Hag is making a Wout of him, but he is able to do the things Wout did well, which are very useful features if you want to be able to attack quickly but also vary the game. The ability to receive the ball with a defender in the back, hold it up and distribute it was Wout’s single class ability. Van Nistelrooij and Hughes in their day where great at this, recently we’ve struggled when Lukaku, Rashford and Martial sucked at it.
It’s brilliant for a striker to be able to do both: receive the ball to let loose others, and run behind the defence with speed. It makes it very difficult for the defenders. The above lot only had one of these abilities, so are more one-dimensional as strikers.
But what is crucial, even with a guy like Fellaini in the role, is that passes are aimed in front of the player to receive, not as aerial duels where the ball is mostly impossible to control. Onana needs to get that into his system.
This way of playing was very useful against City as long as the other attackers were close enough to receive the ball from Højlund (first half), and why we needed that path against Fulham is obvious, and not where Ten Hag is headed - Our entire back six/seven is chop-and-change with few relations, we have Maguire and Evans at CB, we can’t afford to press high too much under those circumstances, so we have to play differently, even away to Fulham.
No, you are wrong - his link up play has been very good so far, surprisingly good for a 20 year old. He came with a back issue and is now playing almost everything due to Martial’s uselessness, so he is knackered towards the end of games, but in general he has been one of few light points in this period when the team has struggled.
Yesterday he got a lot of hopeful long passes for aerial duels due, while doubled up on by Bassey and one more.Nobody would shine under those conditions.
The relations with other attackers isn’t there yet, we aren’t able to play our normal football because injuries, still he has been inches away several times. He is not a typical goalgetter, but an all round striker, and it’s not on him that the only alternatives we have for him is Martial (retired) and Rashford (depressed). For a 20 yo, playing his first months at a new club, in a new league, in a team in temporary disarray, he’s doing fine.
But we have to sell Martial and get in another striker option.
His first touch could be better at times, but I would be sorry for my dog being on the receiving end of some of those balls our midfield is sending to him. And that is not even counting having wingers on each side who seem allergic of passing/crossing.
He also obviously started to feel pressure of not scoring in the league since coming. But I like him as a player, if we sort our shit somehow he will be fine.
He also obviously started to feel pressure of not scoring in the league since coming. But I like him as a player, if we sort our shit somehow he will be fine.
Well let’s face it he can’t do any worse than 0 so I live in hope the guy gets some chances between now and then. I hope and think he will! Maybe not with Antony on the pitch but that’s a story for another threadYep, only another 10 games to go til Christmas (11 when you wrote this)
I genuinely believe even someone like Kane would only have a few more goals than him at this stage, we are not creating anything for him, and have played teams that are sitting in a low block, meaning it's very hard for a striker to even create things for themselves.
Are all these excuses afforded to Martial aswell or are they only valid for Højlund. Being a striker at United is a thankless task it’s been very clear I’ve said it a lot of times we don’t play to the strengths of our central players we only cater to the guys on the wings. We never play football thats breaks the lines in the central areas we rely on our wing play too much it becomes so easy for teams to regroup and sit deep because of that. When the ball reaches the central areas someone will go for a shot none of these players wants to give and go or make triangels in the central areas either.
You can see by the way he plays that he's got the strikers instinct. The players around him are simply too poor to give him any chances though, and I suspect he'll end up losing a lot of what makes him a good striker because he'll start feeling like he has to try to go find the ball and set himself up.
It’s really hard to stand out in the EPL when you’re just a kid AND your wingers are on his vomit firm.
Very sensible take.
I like Rasmus but the same people defending him for the lack of service created by United are the same ones who use to criticise a 38 year-old Ronaldo in his 2nd spell for not scoring which shows an agenda as both players was trying their best.. even though Ronaldo scored 26 goals in his 1st season at 38 years old with no service in the worst United team in PL history and won United's Player of the Season.. which was a miracle looking back.
Rasmus needs to study Ronaldo and watch his movement.. especially his off-the-ball movement.. it isn't luck why Ronaldo got so many goals. His movement is phenomenal
it's a shame Ten Hag didn't man-manage Ronaldo better (not disrespect him and make him want to leave) as I feel like Rasmus would've benefited from being Ronaldo's understudy coming on for him in the 60th/70th minute every game when Ronaldo got tired and working with Ronaldo everyday on the training ground learning the art of scoring goals and his movement would be invaluable for a young striker.
It might be an unpopular or controversial opinion but I feel like if we kept Ronaldo we would be in a better position this season.. his record in Saudi is a amazing. You never lose that ability to score goals. And be a yard sharper than defenders making up for his lack of pace at his advancing years. It's all in the head and having that experience. And I have no doubt if Ronaldo played in the PL this season he would score plenty of goals.
Rasmus needs to study Ronaldo and watch his movement.. especially his off-the-ball movement.. it isn't luck why Ronaldo got so many goals. His movement is phenomenal
it's a shame Ten Hag didn't man-manage Ronaldo better (not disrespect him and make him want to leave) as I feel like Rasmus would've benefited from being Ronaldo's understudy coming on for him in the 60th/70th minute every game when Ronaldo got tired and working with Ronaldo everyday on the training ground learning the art of scoring goals and his movement would be invaluable for a young striker.
It might be an unpopular or controversial opinion but I feel like if we kept Ronaldo we would be in a better position this season.. his record in Saudi is a amazing. You never lose that ability to score goals. And be a yard sharper than defenders making up for his lack of pace at his advancing years. It's all in the head and having that experience. And I have no doubt if Ronaldo played in the PL this season he would score plenty of goals.
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It don’t matter. He’s a world class striker. Hojlund ain’t. Not his fault.. he needs time.
What exactly ETH did to disrespect that narcissistic twat and make him want to leave?
That ahole was whoring himself to ALL the top clubs with CL football that summer.
We barely even have any real wingers, I'm not even sure Antony is one, he offers nothing and Rashford on the other side continuously tries to run down blind alleys. Give me Antonio Valencia's direct approach any day over whatever we have now, but we don't seem to sign wingers like that anymore.
Maybe, but it's only temporary. Martial can't start games because he will get injured and he almost certainly won't be here in 2/3 years time. I'd rather let Hojlund iron grow in that game time.
Too many of our front players are shockingly one dimensional, Rashford, head down and shoot, Antony, inside and weakly shoot, Garnacho (though hoping he develops with time), head down and run at the full back, or the ones with a rounded skill-set that compliments other players, Martial and Sancho, have physical or mental issues holding them back. Need to develop Hojlund into an all round striker because if he ends up as a Lukaku type he isn't going to be a long term solution.
As it is there is no real synergy between our attackers, they are not helped by the midfield issues but they need to be better at playing together as an attacking unit
As it is there is no real synergy between our attackers, they are not helped by the midfield issues but they need to be better at playing together as an attacking unit
The idea that he was feeding on scraps is simply false (but predictably used by his fans to big up his second, disastrous United stint).
(If he actually had been feeding on scraps, there's no chance in hell he would've scored 26 goals given the overall level of his performances.)
United created more chances per 90 both in his first season (Ole/Ralf) and in his final half-season (ETH) than we have so far this season.
Hardly surprising, we've been utter shit this season, and our attackers clearly produce very little - you don't need stats to reach that conclusion.
I also worry about his first touch and the linkup play. Technique and vision are not good enough and chemistry isn’t there. Can those be improved so that he can play more efficiently?
I think he’ll be this generations Solskjaer, we’ll end up buying an elite striker in the next couple of windows.
Ole joined us at 23. He was a natural striker. He just had that natural talent. I have not seen Hojlund show it yet. Hojlund has some traits more like VN.
Agree with this. Plus it would be good to see him against a tired defence. Reckon he could bag a few late goals.
the dross in the league have 200-300 million first teamers
United are 9th for big chances missed (higher than Spurs and Arsenal) and we are 5th for hitting the woodwork (more than NUFC, ARS and Citeh), 5th for shots (higher than Arsenal and Newcastle). Hojlund is 5th in the league for big chances missed
He is indeed. Number one with almost twice the amount of missed chances is Haaland...
He's only 20. Very young for that kind of player.
I don't see where the creation is. It's true an absolutely top striker would do more to drop deep, be effective, make runs that almost create opportunities by themselves. But I think we knew he wasn't an elite striker, didn't we? So I wouldn't hold that against him, it's just indicative of the route we have gone down with this signing.
But I think to be fair to him, it's very, very difficult to come into a failing team where nobody is really in any form whatsoever. Who is really doing anything behind him? We don't have one person I'd say is in good form. They should be performing irrespective of a young striker, whereas I think the young striker does need that guidance and standard set by others to aid his adaptation to this league. That's why you have different profiles of players, some of which are paid as established stars that should lead.
So I'm not too worried about Hojlund at the moment, I'll see where his form goes over the season, as we simply can't stay this bad. I'm worried in the sense we're quite reliant on him, but not necessarily worried about his personal struggles or long term prospects.
I don't see where the creation is. It's true an absolutely top striker would do more to drop deep, be effective, make runs that almost create opportunities by themselves. But I think we knew he wasn't an elite striker, didn't we? So I wouldn't hold that against him, it's just indicative of the route we have gone down with this signing.
But I think to be fair to him, it's very, very difficult to come into a failing team where nobody is really in any form whatsoever. Who is really doing anything behind him? We don't have one person I'd say is in good form. They should be performing irrespective of a young striker, whereas I think the young striker does need that guidance and standard set by others to aid his adaptation to this league. That's why you have different profiles of players, some of which are paid as established stars that should lead.
So I'm not too worried about Hojlund at the moment, I'll see where his form goes over the season, as we simply can't stay this bad. I'm worried in the sense we're quite reliant on him, but not necessarily worried about his personal struggles or long term prospects.
United have failed to create a chance for Højlund in the last 160 minutes of PL football
Best post in the thread.
One thing Rasmus current goalscoring issues might be showing us is that Weghorst wasn't entirely to blame for his poor return on goals. It's partially a system failure and the players around him.
I can imagine that next season we will see the best of him, depending on signings and expecting improved / more settled performances from Rasmus himself.
I can imagine that next season we will see the best of him, depending on signings and expecting improved / more settled performances from Rasmus himself.
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