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How do you know it's not the other way around, that he hit a purple patch last season and this is actually more of his "standard level"? Not that I believe this to be true, I think his confidence is shot, but I also don't particularly rate him based on what I've seen (what is a decent sample size).
The way I see it, he does a few "bare minimum" things like picking up the ball around the center circle and passing it to a teammate, and then some bad things like losing possession. There aren't really any good things in the video. I don't think he had a positive contribution in and around the box, for example.
He showed potential at Sturm Graz which made Atalanta buy him, and he showed enough at Atalanta for us and PSG to want him. He is a young, talented striker who is very, very raw. Unless you get proper coaching, it is hard to improve because you don't magically transform into a much better striker with game time. That's why most teams also have a more experienced and better striker, and don't just play a 20 year old to lead the line.
I honestly don't know how much of his game can be fixed by "coaching". His technique, balance, passing - it's not expected to improve significantly from where he's at now at 21. Movement, instincts - definitely yes.
His passing is good. Take a look at his highlights from last season. Often perfectly weighted and surprisingly good vision. Technique in general isn't very good, I agree, but there are plenty of good to great strikers with average technique. Lukaku, Haaland and Osimhen comes to mind.
You can replace Hojlund with pretty much every other United and attacker barring Antony and the statement would still be true.
If all posts were that nuanced this thread would be more tolerable. Unfortunately they aren’t, but it seems like we just differ on how to judge his potential. I think he can improve quite a lot and has the basic tools to become good enough for us, you don’t. That’s fair. I also think that to settle the matter we need to see him play when our team actually functions as a unit. It’s simply impossible to know how he would have done in a team like Liverpool, but my best bet is he’d have had loads of chances and bagged most of them.
Ok, but he scored 10 in 1900 minutes (21 full games) in his first season in a big league. Surely that didn’t worry you?
Passing, control, technique is not always easy to improve when you are 21 and that’s why I think Höjlund will find it difficult at the highest level. He can finish with his left foot but his right foot is much weaker.
We could go back and forth with examples of great passes and bad passes, but I don't think this season should be used to determine his qualities. He looks completely devoid of any confidence and it shows in his game. I think he has shown in games he is capable of making great passes, and it was apparent last season. As for the underhit passes you are talking about, I honestly can't recall these at all. What games (United ones) are you talking about?
I think he is dropped for Dolberg. Poulsen is playing instead of Grønbæk.
Maybe. My app showed us lining up in a 4-4-2 with Poulsen and Dolberg up front together, and I'd say Dolberg is usually 2nd choice. But let's see how the team actually plays - maybe Poulsen plays wide.
He hasn't been good enough but Denmark are absolutely dire and a shit barometer for anyone scoring. He was on the bench yesterday and the forwards who replaced him didn't do any better.
I mean, you could just watch our games. Obviously it is not just their fault, he should take a lot of the blame, but he could have easily scored more goals if our players had passed to him. One example, and there are many more on YouTube.
do you watch a lot of their games then?
Doesn't provide any evidence they create chances for their forwards
Maybe the way they play has created more space for him?
Amen
So which game was this? They only scored 7 or more once and that was in their 8-2 thrashing against Salernitana where Højlund did score.
That's where I stand as well, in fact it's exactly my opinion. McTominay was getting at the end of chances regularly, Bruno, Amad, Eriksen (! - shown by both United and country) seem to be getting some pieces of the chances pie, and this guy seems busy wrestling with defenders (what is one of his weaknesses as well...).
