But this almost proves my point. Højlund could come good and reach the desired level we want for our No.9 but in the short term there could still be a void and that's where the concern comes from. Can he hit the ground running soon enough to fulfill our striker needs this coming season?
This is good to hear but as you mention there are several posters that have this view. Hopefully you're the one that ends up being right.
No we need a goal scorer, its not a want. Watching us last season it was the most glaring limitation of the team.
Taking top four for granted as you seem to be doing is a dangerous game. Sure we should be expected to make it but it will be even more difficult than last year considering our rivals are making signings too and in some cases have no European games.
I'm not taking top 4 (or rather Top 5 as 5th will likely get a CL place this season) for granted at all.
But the reality is that you don't
need a particularly prolific goalscorer to finish in those places, though it would obviously help.
Hojlund returned 0.44 non-penalty goals every 90min last season. Looking at Arsenal for comparison (who were in an actual title race last season), their two most prolific goalcorers by the same measure were Martinelli (0.48) and Jesus (0.44). The former being outmatched by Rashford (0.53) and the latter returning on par with Hojlund.
The point being that we don't need our CF individually returning at particular high rate. What we need is more goals from the team as a whole, who had the third biggest underperformance on their underlying stats in the league last season.
And when you look at the individual players in our team who underperformed in that regard it wasn't just the strikers, it was a collective issue:
As compared to Arsenal's more reasonable spread of under/over performers.
Collective improvement is needed. If Hojlund
just returns at the rate he did in Serie A he'll have done his part as a new signing, but the rest of the team has to score more too.