He can be a good second choice striker but it’s hard to see him ever being the right 9 for us unless he comes on leaps and bounds over the next 3 years. His goal threat is extremely weak and his all round play is nothing great either.
9
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 12
- Goals
- 2
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 0
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) look forward to a new life under Ruben Amorim. What system will we be playing? What players will impress? and how will it all go? We also say goodbye to Ruud Van Nistelrooy and review United's 3-0 win at home against Leicester City.
Another lie
Gyokeres also has a bad touch, poor hold-up play and limited link-up ability?
You know, for a striker who can’t do anything right he’s been weirdly important for us. Even last game where he allegedly was worse than Weghorst he got us the penalty that secured a point. He must be the most influential league 1-quality striker in the Prem ever.
Found him incredibly frustrating, but he did win the penalty.
Diving way too much and far too slow releasing the ball to our wingers on breaks ruining counter moves
Diving way too much and far too slow releasing the ball to our wingers on breaks ruining counter moves
I see Gyökeres is the new stick to beat him with. A guy who was a 1 in 3 striker in the Championship until 2 years ago. He looks good there but so did Goncalo Ramos and he can barely score in Ligue 1.
I think Hojlund needs to improve, needs to focus more on getting the ball rather than fighting off defenders. He's got some great physical qualities, but around the box his timing and movement needs to be better.
That being said even RVN would have struggled for goals with the current wide players Utd have. His profile of striker doesn't suit playing with these wide players, don't like saying it, but a player who played like Martial when he was fit is what's needed. Maybe this is what Zirkzee is supposed to be, I don't know.
As a combination these 3 (Garnacho, Rashford & Hojlund) I don't see how it's going to work, 2 inverted wingers and a big man through the middle. If you look back, it's why SAF got rid of Ruud to accommodate Saha, Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez. RVN just didn't work in that front line setup.
For me there's 2 options, change the wide players to get the most out of Hojlund or changed Hojlund to get more from the wide players.
I think Hojlund needs to improve, needs to focus more on getting the ball rather than fighting off defenders. He's got some great physical qualities, but around the box his timing and movement needs to be better.
That being said even RVN would have struggled for goals with the current wide players Utd have. His profile of striker doesn't suit playing with these wide players, don't like saying it, but a player who played like Martial when he was fit is what's needed. Maybe this is what Zirkzee is supposed to be, I don't know.
As a combination these 3 (Garnacho, Rashford & Hojlund) I don't see how it's going to work, 2 inverted wingers and a big man through the middle. If you look back, it's why SAF got rid of Ruud to accommodate Saha, Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez. RVN just didn't work in that front line setup.
For me there's 2 options, change the wide players to get the most out of Hojlund or changed Hojlund to get more from the wide players.
One thing that really frustrates me about Højlund is that he often fails to release the ball on time. When he, for example, gets the ball around the center circle, gets turned goalward and has a chance to drive with the ball, he so often gets tackled from behind, because he doesn't shift play to a winger fast enough. Just seems to be a lack of awareness.
Højlund isn't poor at any of those aspects. He is inconsistent with it and generally these things improve with experience. You could see yesterday that his hold up has improved. Before he would sometimes get pushed off easily, now he was holding off two defenders simultaneously and doing the Kane tactic where he kind of backed into them without it being dangerous. Was great go see. You could imagine how Gyokeres looked like at 21. Something tells me his 7 goals in 2. Bundesliga wouldn't impress you.
I still think there's good potential in him. He makes the right runs but we are too slow to find him so he often has to check himself, and by the time he gets the ball he's often got so little time and space to do anything with it. Still, he's been good at getting shots off from all sorts of situations.
The problem is a team like United can’t rely on a Kid that potentially can be a good player to be the main striker.
You need a made good player upfront asap.
You need a made good player upfront asap.
You can if he does the basics right. Take a good touch when the ball is played up to him and play a safe ball to our wingers when they are running free. Try to stay on your feet and make progress not try to con the ref into a freekick everytime the ball is near you.
He failed the basics vs Chelsea
Even that penalty came after bad first touch. Yes, he did very good (and smart) after that first touch but United first choice striker should do much better in that situation. At least i think that.
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the only way Hojlund should be anywhere near a United shirt is if he went in the club shop and bought one like the rest of us.
He got lucky with the penalty yesterday a decent striker would have controlled and buried the chance or hit it first time. He mis-controls it but got lucky their keep made a bad decision came out diving the way he did.
He got lucky with the penalty yesterday a decent striker would have controlled and buried the chance or hit it first time. He mis-controls it but got lucky their keep made a bad decision came out diving the way he did.
If that’s a bad first touch I don’t know football. I won’t reject that possibility, but I think it’s more your predisposition against Hojlund that’s in play here. He received that ball very elegantly imo.
It was a poor first touch that meant he couldn’t get a shot off. His pace allowed him to then get to the loose ball ahead of the keeper but he’d essentially wasted that chance until the keeper decided to take him out. He’d have either been shooting from a ridiculous angle or playing a pass (probably the latter).
. I have nothing against Hojlund. Why would i? I just have very high standards for first choice top club strikers. And yes, that was bad first touch, mate. On this level that ball should have been controled in a way that next touch is shot on goal (or first time shot without trying to control it).I think he can be seriously effective if his role is simplified a touch, similar to Watkins under Emery. His entire game at the minute seems to be focused on pressing, running channels and wrestling with centre backs... all useful stuff but ultimately leaves you with very little energy for the important stuff.
Ridiculous
you are very harsh on yourself, but if you see the replays you will notice it was a really bad touch and definitely not what Hojlund tried to achieve there.
Ok, I’ve seen it again. It wasn’t “very elegant”, but I wouldn’t call it bad either.
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He is a bit meh, isn't he? Decent spells but not a special striker at all.
He's young and only 20, people expecting Ronaldo levels of Garnacho. Ronaldo had a good 3rd season then became unbelievable from his 4th season on, before that he was really inconsistent
There will be inconsistent games but he never stops trying.
There will be inconsistent games but he never stops trying.
Sorry but if you are good it shows aged 20.
Not really how it works, mate. Not everyone is a Haaland or Ronaldo. Strikers below at 20 years of age:
Cavani: Scored 5 goals for Palermo in Serie A
Van Persie: 5 goals for Arsenal in PL
Lewandowski: Playing in the Polish league
Van Nistelrooy: Barely scoring for Heerenveen in the Dutch league
Drogba: Played for Le Mans in French league 2
Vardy: Fleetwood Town
Watkins; Exeter City, 13 goals in League Two
Toney: 6 goals for Shrewsbury in League Two
Gyokeres: 6 goals for St. Pauli in 2. Bundesliga
The harsh truth is that neither of us have any idea how good a player can become or what to look after in potential. We are not scouts, and with good reason, so stating things like you do as a fact is a bit silly. If you watched Drogba at 20, you'd laugh at the idea of him becoming a great striker who turned up in the absolute biggest games time and time again. Things aren't always as black and white as "if you're good, it shows at 20".
Good post but these are outliers. Drogba especially. Most class strikers show it aged 20
Drogba, Ruud himself and Harry Kane were all in the lower leagues at Hojlunds age
Most of them who are class at age 20 decline very quickly like Rooney, Torres, Owen, kluivert, Martial etc
Care to elaborate on the Watkins claim? I actually think it's quite the opposite with Watkins under Emery. His buildup play has immensely improved and his creativity has been unlocked. He got 19 goals and a career high 13 assists last season in the league and he's playing more of an influential role centrally as compared to when he was played from the left under Gerrard
I think Højlund has showed tremendous potential and scoring 15 goals in your PL and CL debut season at the age of 20 is better than most strikers that age. He is inconsistent, though, as to be expected from a player that age and experience alone will likely make him better. Obviously, there are parts of his game that he needs to improve, but I think he will turn out to be a very good striker in his mid 20s whether it is with us or another club.
And for a dysfunctional team that didn’t provide service it’s really, really good. Don’t know why his critics keep forgetting that.
There is no doubt he is poor: he more than often has a bad touch, his hold-up involves wrestling with the defenders and then flopping to the ground, he constantly makes the wrong choices and passes on the counter or when he has to link-up.
The statement which is trotted out that "what was XX doing at 21" is stupid to say the least. If we go by that logic then every 21 or under TDK is going to become a future superstar.
Yes, he'll surely improve with age. Maybe his hold-up will get better but the other things I am not too sure. Hardly seen a player improve their first touch exponentially. Either you have it or you don't. Age isn't going to magically bless him with Mata's touch.
We need to buy a first choice striker and let him develop in the background as a second or third choice without much pressure. He is nowhere ready to lead line the for us and it shows in goal scoring woes.
Your first sentence is hyperbole. Around 2 miscontrols per 90 kind of indicates he isn't "poor". Sure, he is no Mata but it's not either you have a phemomenal first touch or a shit one. For comparison, Gyokeres miscontrols the ball more often, actually putting him close to bottom for strikers. This is also in a weaker league. No one is talking about that, because he doesn't play for us and it doesn't affect us in any way - until he plays for us.
His hold-up involves holding off players. This is how he learns. It has already improved significantly since he joined, and it is genuinely bizarre how some can't see that. I agree that he holds them off for longer than necessary, but he'll learn.
He should have had an assist against Chelsea. He doesn't "constantly" make the wrong decisions. He made a few this weekend, but generally he provides the wingers with excellent passes.
I agree, we should buy a first choice striker and have him as back-up as he learns, similarly to Duran for Villa. But these "he'll likely never improve" posts in this thread really need to stop. Every single striker that plays in PL now was not the same level at 20. Maybe he will never be good enough to lead the line for us, or maybe he will explode. He certainly has a skill set that could see him blossom if he can learn to combine these qualities more consistently and improve some of them.
Saw this on reddit a while back, he's got one of the best conversion rates, so when chances did come he was putting them away.
Sure. Not to say that Watkins isn't nfluential, but I believe he actually stated in an interview a while back that prior to Emery alot of his work was done in the channels and essentially 'busy work' for the sake of the team. Whereas under Emery, his role has become more focused, with an emphasis on timing and operating centrally.
I believe a similar transition is needed for Hojlund, who despite having good attributes seems to do alot of running for not much gain at the minute.
Really sums up what I think of our usage of him, not using his attributes at all, asking him to do things that aren't his strength. We've been completely wasting him, let's see Amorim change that.
Excellent video that highlights why I believe Højlund will be so much better for us under Amorim.
This should be mandatory viewing for anyone posting in this thread
There’s a lot of reason to be optimistic about Hojland under a new manager and particularly one that has enjoyed a similar profile of player. The aim has to be getting his shot attempts up dramatically. I truly believe if you can get his number of shots up, he will score a hatful of goals.
I’m hopeful Hojlund will flourish under Amorim, the way our attacking options are playing right now and the selfishness of them I can’t see another striker banging in 30 goals for us in a season. They are far too selfish at times and their decision making is woeful. Hopefully that can be coached out of them