9
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 49
- Goals
- 10
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 2
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Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) discuss United's fantastic win away against Athletic Club in the semi-final of the Europa League.
They also pick out the positives of United's 4-3 loss away at Brentford, and Nik reviews a day out at Old Trafford watching Manchester United Women qualify for the Champions League.
Hahahaha
Maguire looking more threatening than him yesterday sums him up.
The Maguire thing is such a non issue. When you're up against 11 men packed into their box, whichever attacking player is best at winning headers will suddenly become our main threat. So the game state perfectly suited Maguire's one and only useful attribute as a striker. We've always known Hojlund is crap in the air so he was never going to be much use once they parked the bus. We learned precisely nothing from Maguire's cameo (apart from the fact that it would be nice to have at least one attacker at the club who is good in the air, which is an even bigger problem now McT has gone).
That's for sure. Really think he'll be playing for his United career over next 2 months. I mean I like him and do believe Hojlund can become quality striker in few years but don't think club is going to wait for that for too long, especially as they paid 70m. Performances against Sociedad at home and Leicester away were good, followed by winning goal vs Portugal. Hopefully he'll build on that in coming weeks.
Strikers should be good in the air by the way…
He might have the worst first touch of any striker i have ever seen in the Premier League and i’m not even joking. He makes Lukaku look like prime Zidane.
. My last post about him was 2 months ago.I didn't want to post in period while he was kicking ass.
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Loads of great strikers aren’t.
It's rage bait and it has been taken by some in this thread. I'm not even suggesting Hojlund played well, we were shite but to continually ignore the reasons why and instead place it on him is just funny to me at this point.
Good yes. Great maybe not loads
He doesn't have a future at United.
Napoli reportedly showing interest in the summer, offload him no the matter the cost, even if it's a small hit for PSR.
Napoli reportedly showing interest in the summer, offload him no the matter the cost, even if it's a small hit for PSR.
I'd say this is pretty much accurate. Except that his form was probably the worst player in the league, not just the worst striker.
Was surprised he didn't start since he has been looking a bit better lately and had scored a couple of goals for us and Denmark.
I get these are mostly tongue in cheek (or at least I hope they are) but you can't really compare. We changed tactics because Maguire came on, he basically just rotated across the opposite CB/FB channel to where the ball was and we stuck it into him at every opportunity. It's no different to when we'd whack it up to Fellaini, direct balls into the box cause issues for any team.
The annoyance should be more directed at our tactics than this false argument that Maguire was 'better' than Hojlund - for one Hojlund was decent for the time he had on the pitch, setting up chances, retaining the ball well and being completely different to the useless Hojlund of a few weeks back. We had more than enough chances to win that game.
We need to be more direct in general, we need to cross more, especially against a team like Forest who play so deep. We only started looking threatening once Bruno started pinging longer balls forwards to runners and out to Dorgu/Nancho and we started playing the angled balls into Maguire. It's also much safer to do this against Forest as you always have players in deeper positions which takes away their only real threat which is counter attacking.
Oh, sorry - might have mistaken you for one of the other Andy-somethings in here
I didn't want to post in period while he was kicking ass.
He's a weird one Rasmus. He certainly seems to look the part, and seeing him walk out for the second half with an 'I got this' air about him, I was expecting him to have a big impact. But then...nothing really.
Rasmus was decent yesterday. Several good runs, but again not used. Good hold up play as well. Give him the fecking ball, if you want him to score instead of shooting from all angles without even hitting the goal.
He is a number 9 and didnt manage a single shot in the 45 minutes+ that he was on the pitch, people make claims about him living off scraps and not getting the ball enough but the problem is he is almost never in the right position for anyone to get the ball to him and many good balls in to the box go straight past him much to the annoyance of his teammates.
He actually did have a shot, off target but he did have a shot so that part is incorrect. He also was twice in an excellent position when Garnacho had the ball and on both occasions to nobodys surprise Garnacho opted to take on an almost impossible shot. I am not trying to claim that Rasmus is not part of the problem but it is incorrect to say he doesn't get into positions or make the right runs when there is ample evidence that he often does and the overall dysfunction of the team means we fail to play the right pass. Last night, as with so many games this season, there were 11 players all failing to do the basics right.
I genuinely believe that although new signings might help, the most significant improvement we can make is in the coaching department. It is too early to write off Amorim but he does need to start showing the ability to improve the players he has at his disposal and he desperately needs to show the ability to adjust his tactics to the opposition. We all know that Garnacho is greedy to an almost comical degree, surely a competent coach could get across the message to start crossing unless a golden shooting chance is available. We all know Dalot kills multiple attacks with his turning around and rolling the ball backwards under no pressure, surely RA can get him to play with more ambition. Rasmus needs to stop getting frustrated and dropping too deep, Ruben has to insist he keeps making the runs into the box and keep faith that the pass will come.
Back to his old self last night after promising showings against Sociedad and Leicester. Terrible touch and no striker instincts.
Well, I am with Gandalf here. If you make good runs, and he did yesterday, you still need someone to pass it to you (I´m talking to you, Garnacho!). If he got the service and missed sitters, I would be a critic as well. He didn´t against Forest. There was a couple of players, who were bad yesterday. He was not one of them. I have given him my share of 3s and 4s in the last months. Yesterday he was a 6.5 for me.
45 minutes as a sub striker in second half in a game which we dominated posession and attacked for entire second half - zero shots from him.
Apparently that was good enough. It's not just few people too, lot of people here by the looks of it who have such a low standards, I seriously hope our board doesn't think as some of our fans, otherwise we will become mid table club permanently.
Apparently that was good enough. It's not just few people too, lot of people here by the looks of it who have such a low standards, I seriously hope our board doesn't think as some of our fans, otherwise we will become mid table club permanently.
The thing with Rasmus is his first touch and shifting the ball at his feet is shocking if under any pressure whatsoever, his acceleration is also shocking. He reminds of watching clips on YouTube at 0.5 speed. He’s just not good enough for the premier league. If Napoli accepted a swap deal for him and Oshiman we should snap their hands off. Possibly could happen.
If Hojlund is worth 70 million, Isak is worth 700 million. At the moment I’d value Hojlund around 25 million, and that’s only because he’s young.
He needs to get the mentality of Someone like Zlatan or Roy Keane, if your not performing well bust into someone or make the Center half’s life miserable when the ref or lines man ain’t watching to wind them up.
A year in the championship like Diallo would toughen him up a bit and I genuinely believe he’s a championship player. Delap for Ipswich is a better footballer. I’d say Evan Ferguson as well.
Hopefully we can do something with Oshiman in the summer with him and Hojlund
If Hojlund is worth 70 million, Isak is worth 700 million. At the moment I’d value Hojlund around 25 million, and that’s only because he’s young.
He needs to get the mentality of Someone like Zlatan or Roy Keane, if your not performing well bust into someone or make the Center half’s life miserable when the ref or lines man ain’t watching to wind them up.
A year in the championship like Diallo would toughen him up a bit and I genuinely believe he’s a championship player. Delap for Ipswich is a better footballer. I’d say Evan Ferguson as well.
Hopefully we can do something with Oshiman in the summer with him and Hojlund
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How do we have two 6'3+ strikers and neither can head the ball. Baffling
Just heard on a Utd podcast that Harry Maguire's XG from yesterday's sub appearance is higher than Rasmus' XG in his last 15 games.
I like the guy, but that is a glaring problem
I like the guy, but that is a glaring problem
No one is saying that. The discussion is about whether that is on Hojlund alone or other factors as well. But so many people need this to be black and white.
Replace him with Elanga or Osimhen (who so many wants though he’s 4 years older and plays in … Turkey!) and they wouldn’t do much better. Why? Because no matter what you think Hojlund does wrong (and yes, he’s done things wrong this season) there’s no two ways about the fact that the team fails to set him up time and time again. Btw, Garnacho went all Garnacho last night and never looked up, but still Hojlund went over to cheer him up. Would never have happened if it was the other way around.
Oh no!
I’m of the view that he is playing for his United career the next couple of months as I don’t believe Amorim would have any concerns with trying to get rid in the summer. He’s clearly not a player Amorim would want, he just happens to have him at the moment. I like the lads endeavour and demeanour but he’s no way cut out to be a United no.9.
Our 10# in Garna and Zirkzee and even WBs are quite limited in what they can do for Hojlund. While watching the game, I saw his lack of threat more a consequence of our poor 10s and WBs rather than his failing. I think people are being harsh on him and scapegoating him when our entire attack is non-functional.
And then he gets subbed for Chido Obi in a game who immediately gets chances with the same 10s and WBs
Its not all about the service, which quite obviously needs to improve, but clearly he also has some glaring issues himself
If you think Osimhen wouldn’t score goals in this team you are joking. He wouldn’t be the top scorer in the league obviously but he would score goals. We obviously need to improve the build up and service to the front man. However the CF is also a major part of that equation in terms of their ability arielly and to hold up the ball and their ability to find space and their movement.
McTominay carried more goal threat than Hojlund last season, excuses were made then too.
Oddly for Hojlund and I think a reason why many like him is that his finishing seems to be really good, where as I think if his finishing was not as good as it is and his all round game was better he would score more goals than he does in this side.
Missed the Forest game so cant comment. But this season, I’ve seen number of decent driven crosses at right height without even need to jump for which Hojlund would either completely miss the flight of, getting easily unbalanced with a little nudge from defender or Rasmus "heading" it with a fecking shoulder.
I dont even care much that he losess all the aerial battles back to goal far from penalty area as these long punts even if a forward won them usually amount to nothing. I just wonder what does Hojlund actually work on in training. Making runs into the box for a cross and connect - even with just traffic cones for defenders and an empty net - would be a good start.
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Disclaimer: I'm still in the 'there's something to Hojlund and he'll come together as a decent striker in the future' camp, although it feels like an increasingly irrational position.
But anyone claiming service is still the problem with our failure to score at the moment isn't actually watching the match.
Look at these stats. 43 touches in the opposition box. 153 successful passes in the final third. 37 crosses. 23 shots. But only 6 shots on target and 0 goals scored. I've never seen a clearer case for 'just add a capable striker'. We were playing attack vs defence on the edge of their box for the last half hour of the match. There is just no way a top quality striker like Gyokeres or Osimhen isn't scoring a goal in those conditions.
But anyone claiming service is still the problem with our failure to score at the moment isn't actually watching the match.
Look at these stats. 43 touches in the opposition box. 153 successful passes in the final third. 37 crosses. 23 shots. But only 6 shots on target and 0 goals scored. I've never seen a clearer case for 'just add a capable striker'. We were playing attack vs defence on the edge of their box for the last half hour of the match. There is just no way a top quality striker like Gyokeres or Osimhen isn't scoring a goal in those conditions.
He might still come good, but I can't see that right now. A season on loan to a side without pressure might do him a world of good and we can access him after that but no way he's leading our front-line next season.
I think the main reason to be positive is that when he gets chances he is usually quite clinical and he is a good finisher with both feet. For a striker that would stand out, but I would argue his all round game being so poor is extremely worrying
I think it's been proven time and time again, and something Sir Alex regularly talked about, was that the most important factor for a striker was getting chances. "The goals will come". Some people hate to read about it but this is the whole logic of xG. If you regularly get among the chances but are having some bad finishing luck, eventually that'll turn and you'll start scoring. It's not about taking low percentage shots of course, but having the movement to get in good positions to receive a pass is a very important quality, it's not something that everyone just knows and every striker will do the same way. Sure sometimes you'll get a Darwin Nunez who gets tons of chances but just can't finish, but he's an extreme outlier.
Hojlund doesn't take shots, he's among the worst in Europe for that. He doesn't receive passes because his runs are shit. He doesn't turn the passes he receives into anything because his touch is shit under pressure. The ability to finish when you get a chance is really not that important relative to just getting chances and shots in the first place.
I'm far less critical of strikers when they make good runs and miss chances. Being on the end of chances and getting shots off, creating them for yourself etc is far more down to a striker than it is to the players around him.
How can you be on the end of chances if you make the runs but noone plays the final pass?
He doesnt make the runs
Well he does and then he doesn't.
Ruben talked about this and it is noticeable if you watch the games. He makes the right runs at the start of games or when he comes in as a sub but then when he doesn't get the ball he becomes frustrated and he stops making the right runs. His truly awful spell through the middle of this season was when he was noticeably getting frustrated and stopped making runs because he had lost faith that the pass would come. When Ruben was discussing this he emphasized that there is a problem with the team as a whole not playing the right passes and starving whoever was up front of service but he also stressed that the strikers responsibility is to remain focused and keep making the runs so that he is there when the pass finally does come. Gary Lineker has made similar comments about the role of a striker, it doesn't matter if you go 89 minutes without getting a chance provided you take the one chance when it comes but to do that you have to make the run no matter if you have already done it 40 times and the cross never came.
Rasmus has to display more maturity in his approach to the game if he is going to be able to stick around as part of the forward line. I accept, as do many of those who like him, that a senior striker is needed and right now he is back up material at best. If he wants to be that back up longer term and maybe one day be the main man here then he needs to shut out the emotions and frustration and just focus on doing his job well regardless of what his team mates are doing. I know I would personally want to strangle Garnacho and Dalot particularly if I was a striker playing with them but at the end of the day that is not something he can control, he needs to trust that the coaching staff will deal with the issue of lack of service and he just has to make sure he is in position when the ball comes.