Our scouting is an issue. You cannot tell me that there is no wlternative to him or that there are no other highly talented gems out there. We tend to overpay as we have no plan B
Rasmus Højlund | Signed for United
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Agree.
Hojlund might be better than most of the 20 yo strikers. But that ain't mean shit if he couldn't fare well against the PL defenders. That's why imo not a big difference between Hojlund and Hugill or any random lad from our academy next season.
Was it shot down by people or maybe one or two posters made an argument on why it might not be a problem?
People loves to be dramatic.
I would rather take Taremi and Joao Felix on loan over him.
Have you seen the comments from the Porto fan in the Taremi thread? Really doesnt sound like the right player for us.
And the short termism continues
So Liverpool, Chelsea, Madrid, Atletico, PSG all their scouting is shite too?
This scouting is shite bollocks is tiring. We have one of the best scouting systems in the country.
And who says we don’t have a Plan B? You? Because I’m sure as shit we do have a number 2.
Why not? We need depth up front (or one Harry Kane) and Taremi along with Joao Felix on loan will provide us just that, even as stop-gaps. We can come back for Hojlund next year once our FFP and new ownership issues are settled.
Been reported to be Kolo Muani
It's based on 3 games, so it's a pretty good example tbh.
It definitely should be used for a more balanced view on him, and also his overall goal output.
I do like the look of him overall, but he's far from the finished article and should not be brought in for a fee much above 50m in my honest opinion.
Wow, seems like a sensitive topic to you.
In the past 8 years or so, our scouting has been mediocre at best, and we heavily overpay for players. If you look at all the signings in the past 8 years, who has really been a top performer over a long period of time? And more often than not, we do not seem to have an alternative in case we cannot buy a particular player, latest example is Antony. So yes, other team's scouting has been much better than ours.
It's not good example and no, it's not providing any balance.
For example, if we pick Brentford, ManUtd, Palace games where Kane averaged 54%, 59%, 59% pass completion, compile the video with all the failed passes does that add anything to the discussion? Or pick games like West Ham, Liverpool, Brentford where he had 9,6,5 unsuccessful touches, dispossessed 7 times and compile the video, will it add anything?
Attackers will always average less pass completion %, especially the players who plays with their back to goal and isolated vs couple of defenders. Making a video with their failed moments adds nothing and for sure doesn't add balance to the discussion.
You can create a lowlight video for any player.
Vlahovic also might be worth a mention
Don’t think he’s what we’re looking for or a better deal. Even Bayern haven’t bothered with him.
Would he not cost more?
I don't mind us taking Joao Felix on loan - but as a playmaker, not a goalscorer - because lets be honest - the guy is hopeless in front of goal
Dont know Taremi but Joao Felix is a type of a player we dont need.
Well you said it.
Not sure why we can't look outside of Europe like City did with Alvarez, at least you don't pay anywhere near these prices and I don't think Hojlund is so special that he is worth these £50m/ £60m prices being bandied about..
Hence no one is interested, his price tag is ridiculous
The scouting team is shit because the recruitment team don't get the players in? You do realise the scouts are there to recommend, and not the ones that decide who we recruit?
Yeah there's other options, some less desirable.
Vlahovic
Toney
J. Felix
Iheanacho
Orban
Ramos
Mitrovic
So you think that the recruitment team buys players that have not been scouted or recommended?
Taremi isn't good enough, I'd maybe accept him alongside someone with real potential like Højlund, but I doubt that's happening.
Felix isn't a striker and even on loan he'll be incredibly expensive. It just wouldn't be worth it.
The video highlights exactly why he shouldn’t be bought for more than £30-£40 million.
From watching that video it’s pretty plain to see that he is not ready for the PL. His first touch is fecking brutal.
Mate he was crap in those games, it's not like there's a load of good stuff he did in those games that are hidden.
It's why his goal return is nothing special... He's not there yet as some amazing player and we are in trouble if he ends up our only ST option.
But I will repeat, I do like the look of him, and I would welcome him for a reasonable fee, with a more experienced ST brought in cheaper
His goal per 90 return rate is actually quite good.
Perfect end to the window would be this guy and a straight swap for Mitrovic with Fred + 5mil. We all saw Silva tapping Fred up after the Fulham game last season. Get it done, Murtough!
Currently, most or all clubs are putting ridiculous prices on their strikers. Højlund ist a prime example. He's a decent striker, still young, but nowhere near the likes of Haaland, Mbappe or Kane. A "fair" price would be £30-50M. But the world isn't fair, or you could say, supply and demand determine the price. A high demand and a low supply lead to a high price in this case (which does not necessarily reflect performance).
Is Hjolund better than Balogun? Balogun was standout last season in France and is maybe a bit further along in his development. You probably don’t want to sign Arsenal rejects, but I think he’s leaving because they thought he hadn’t developed and he’s suddenly caught up and is now ready to move on.
So the poor games was cherry picked and the worse moments was compiled in a video and that is adding balance to the discussion?
How is this refuting or arguing against the point I made about Kane? Or any player in general. You can easily compile poor passes, loose touches from selected games for any player and when everything is put together to make a 2 min video, it makes the player look worse.
His goal return is nothing special? Ofcourse it isn't as he barely played a proper season. He played just 1800 mins in league and scored 9 goals, that's goal every other game, not bad for a player of his age who is playing his first season in top 4 league.
Tbf if we could find a player that was better than Martial and had no injury issues we'd probably be looking at 100m player in today's market.
Tbf Vlahovic scored few penalties too. In few games I watched, I wasn't impressed with Vlahovic.
Vlahovic Season Mins Goals Penalties Non Penalty goals Assists Mins per NPG Mins per NPG+Assist 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23 Hojlund 2022-23 Mins Goals Penalties Non Penalty goals Assists Mins per NPG Mins per NPG+Assist
Also their overall game
Hojlund vs Vlahovic last season
Hojlund 2022-23 vs Vlahovic 2021-22
Those are some really interesting stats. Is there a way to add pressing do you know? I'd love to see some comparisons on strikers around Europe who I don't really watch.
I just thought about what you said, even though Martial's performance levels abd consistency are questionable, if he was fit regularly, he is still a valuable asset to us, even if he is not in top form, him being fit still makes a difference and to replace him would be very expensive, players like Kane, Osimhen, Kalu Muani, and even someone like Vlahovic will cost an arm and a leg, Hojlund is still raw, but we might be forced to stump up some serious cash, just like how Liverpool did with Nunez.
Yep Martial is a very good player on his day. Even last season he scored 9 goals in 1400 minutes of football.
Sadly it's the 1400 minutes part which is the problem.
Now we don't have pressing stats, Fbref used to post that, now they stopped doing that.
That’s what I thought.
A lot of the players we've bought over the years have been players that our manager have wanted. This is the consequences of not having a DoF.
Our scouts have recommended a lot of great talents over the years. Some of them, we've bought and others we haven't for different reasons unknown to me.
Caicedo (who we didn't end up buying), Vinicius Junior when he was 14 and Garnacho are some of the players.
I keep seeing Felix, coming up, did people not see his loan move at Chelsea?
He was actually quite good for them - the problem was that he was playing for Chelsea
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