Leaving strict football aspects and atributes aside, in terms of mental fortitude, the lad looked even a bit cocky at times in United when he hit a couple of goals, even in social media. So scouts might have thougth he had the right mentality even if he lacked the pedigree. This combine with the ever present allure of size and age, might have created the combination. I trully think that his current lack of confidence actually goes way beyond what anyone could have possible imagine
Cocky and having swagger/ego are generally part of a young person’s human condition; life hasn’t battered them with hardships yet and left them humbled and vulnerable, mostly, so they know no different and aren’t generally begrudged their youth and hubris. It’s more, each youngster will learn and mature, leaving most of that behaviour behind, eventually.
The ego being a resource and a fuel that begets quality output is also part and parcel for many a player and perhaps particularly youngsters, who are then often labelled “fearless,” which is usually just naïveté and literally not knowing any better, manifest - it’s mostly a great thing for them to have that cockiness, so long as it is harnessed correctly. When you are that age and everything is going well for you, you feel invincible and are highly likely to be your most expressive and assured. Hojlund is like Aslan shorn of his mane; he’s a husk of the player who arrived here and it’s a given that will lead him to go into a shell and even be fearful of doing things for angst about standing out for the wrong reasons. This is often when players hide on the pitch and actively don’t want the ball.
The club has played a major role in how things have turned out and it was more likely to happen than not because the young nearly always have to learn and be protected until they are ready and we actively went against that in a display of unprecedented incompetence that was a concern regarding Hojlund in his transfer thread before we had even signed him. Varane said this the other day:
At Madrid, you can see that for years there has been a framework”, Varane explained. “A player is added, some leave, but there is always a solid foundation.
“When you recruit young, talented players, they have to learn before they can play. It gives them time to develop. When I arrived, at the age of 18, I had no responsibilities in the dressing room. I was just there to learn.”
Varane then explained that at United, 18-year-olds are expected to perform right away with a heavy spotlight – due to the fact no established stars are taking the burden.
“At United, they can recruit a very expensive young player and immediately play him, with all the responsibilities in an extremely difficult league. He’s got a huge weight on his shoulders straight away.”
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It’s the most basic of principles, and we see here, time and time again what happens to these young players who are neither protected or have/had older veterans that bore the brunt of the pressure - Hojlund is just one of many by now, unfortunately.
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