Rasmus Højlund | Signed for United

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theklr said:
I think very many in this thread dont realize that while there is probably strikers in this price range that might have a more goals or plays in a «better league», Højlund is the one that fits best to ETH system and how he wants to play.

Just look at how Inter got the best of Lukaku while Chelsea got the worst of him because of the system, and there is countless examples of this.There is never any guarantees of how a player will perform in another system.

In my view the club and ETH went for Højlund because our way of playing gives him the best chance to thrive, and correspondingly our system benefits the most from a striker like this.
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Hopefully you are right about him suiting the system that Erik is trying to implement
 
Can squad numbers still be changed now? If yes, please tell me he will get the #9 shirt and we won´t let it rot in injury camp for half a season again.
I am craving so bad for a real #9, it´s also psychologically important.

Free right now: 1/4/13/15 - no thanks to all.
 
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doomy20 said:
Can squad numbers still be changed now? If yes, please tell me he will get the #9 shirt and we won´t let it rot in injury camp for half a season again.
I am craving so bad for a real #9, it´s also psychologically important.
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I think the numbers are submited prior to PL kick off.
 
doomy20 said:
I read latest 24 hours after closure of the transfer window. Should be easy managable to get in Rasmus, give him 9, give Martial 15 and submit that.
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I would do that right away. Any other sulking episode from you-know-who would also result in being shown the door.
 
We're overpaying massively again. As a Dane who has been following him, I must say that I don't believe he's ready to lead the line for us. However, I don't really see what other options we have.
 
KjaAnd said:
We're overpaying massively again. As a Dane who has been following him, I must say that I don't believe he's ready to lead the line for us. However, I don't really see what other options we have.
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Do you think he has the potential to be our leading striker or is he not all that in your opinion? Curious to hear what a Dane thinks about him.
 
We won't give him the 9 straight away, there were reports that ETH will play Rashy up front to ease him into the team. So he will have to earn it.
 
KjaAnd said:
We're overpaying massively again. As a Dane who has been following him, I must say that I don't believe he's ready to lead the line for us. However, I don't really see what other options we have.
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It's not about being ready to lead the line now. It's being part of the squad now while having the potential to be an elite CF. He's got big potential right? Well that's just the going rate for big potential with rare qualities.

Lewandowski's breakout season was in 2011/12 for Dortmund... he turned 23 at the start of that season. Dzeko's was 08/09 for Wolfsburg, he was 22 and turned 23 closer to the end of the season. Ibrahimovic was signed by Juve in 2004... shortly before he turned 23. Cavani's first half decent season at Palermo (15 goals) was in 08/09 and took til 10/11 to pass 20 goals, he turned 22 during that Palermo season. Kane broke out in 14/15, he turned 21 before that season. Giroud had his first big goalscoring season at age 23. Berbatov at 22. Mario Gomez 22. And so on.

Look at what all these guys did before that year when they made the big step up. Not even reaching 10 goals (apart from Ibra who had like 13 but it was for Ajax, so a bit different). It's not reasonable to expect a 20 year old to instantly step in and be a world class center forward, especially one that plays like that where they are big, invite physical duels with the defender but also focus on their technique. One thing if they are just a poacher or a smaller roaming forward to break through young, they can make an impact with their pace and agility, but much more difficult as a bigger guy. Haaland, yes is a freak of nature and an exception, but also he broke through as a pure poacher basically.

By comparison, Hojlund turned 20 in February. He scored just 1 goal for Atalanta between August and the new year. After the new year he scored 9 goals (showing a significant step up just around when he turned 20), and scored 6 goals for Denmark since as well... 15 goals for club and country in half a year having just turned 20 is pretty impressive and who knows how long it'd take him to adapt to the prem, but a year or 2 of being a squad player is fine (and I don't think it'd even take him that long given the recent jump).

Also to add to this if we want to look at more examples... how many bigger & technical strikers have there actually been in the last 20 years who were rated highly enough at a younger age for a club in a big league to go for him? Even the ones who have flopped. Someone like Weghorst was just never rated all that highly and only moved to Wolfsburg at 25, there just isn't all that many of those types of talents and the history from what I can seems to be some pretty damn good center forwards.
 
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KjaAnd said:
We're overpaying massively again. As a Dane who has been following him, I must say that I don't believe he's ready to lead the line for us. However, I don't really see what other options we have.
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I guess ETH might be accepting this season is building towards challenging next season - which to me is fair, in a third season with spending you need to be up there. The question is can he improve us as a team, I'd say yes immediately, but that's mainly because we have no striker. If we sign him and he gets anywhere close to 15 goals first season I'll be happy to be honest.
 
mav_9me said:
Isn't at least some of the constraints due to no investment from Glazers? If I'm not mistaken we have room to increase our FFP budget if the glazers put in money. Or does it only apply for new owners?
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Yes, allowable losses are increased when backed by the owner's funds. For the Premier League.
 
unplayable said:
Do you think he has the potential to be our leading striker or is he not all that in your opinion? Curious to hear what a Dane thinks about him.
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I’m a massive fan of his and think he has the chance to be a top striker in the future due to especially his pace, movement, instincts and work rate. He’s certainly the best prospect at striker, Denmarks has produced in a decade or so. He’s just not ready to produce at the highest level yet. He was dominated by the majority of better Serie A defenders.
 
Trex said:
I don't think he'll be Erling Haaland from day 1 but I think he'll be liked. I predict he'll become a favourite even on this forum. Fans love a tenacious footballer. (Cavani, Martinez, Garnacho, Casemiro) he has that fire as well, it will buy him time more than a Sancho, Pogba or Lindelof type.
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No. He's a striker.

If he doesn't score then the effort won't matter.
 
KjaAnd said:
I’m a massive fan of his and think he has the chance to be a top striker in the future due to especially his pace, movement, instincts and work rate. He’s certainly the best prospect at striker, Denmarks has produced in a decade or so. He’s just not ready to produce at the highest level yet. He was dominated by the majority of better Serie A defenders.
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Thanks for the input. Will be interesting to see how he does here then. We will probably have to be really patient with him. Unfortunately the big price tag won't help with that.
 
bosnian_red said:
It's not about being ready to lead the line now. It's being part of the squad now while having the potential to be an elite CF. He's got big potential right? Well that's just the going rate for big potential with rare qualities.

Lewandowski's breakout season was in 2011/12 for Dortmund... he turned 23 at the start of that season. Dzeko's was 08/09 for Wolfsburg, he was 22 and turned 23 closer to the end of the season. Ibrahimovic was signed by Juve in 2004... shortly before he turned 23. Cavani's first half decent season at Palermo (15 goals) was in 08/09 and took til 10/11 to pass 20 goals, he turned 22 during that Palermo season. Kane broke out in 14/15, he turned 21 before that season. Giroud had his first big goalscoring season at age 23. Berbatov at 22. Mario Gomez 22. And so on.

Look at what all these guys did before that year when they made the big step up. Not even reaching 10 goals (apart from Ibra who had like 13 but it was for Ajax, so a bit different). It's not reasonable to expect a 20 year old to instantly step in and be a world class center forward, especially one that plays like that where they are big, invite physical duels with the defender but also focus on their technique. One thing if they are just a poacher or a smaller roaming forward to break through young, they can make an impact with their pace and agility, but much more difficult as a bigger guy. Haaland, yes is a freak of nature and an exception, but also he broke through as a pure poacher basically.

By comparison, Hojlund turned 20 in February. He scored just 1 goal for Atalanta between August and the new year. After the new year he scored 9 goals (showing a significant step up just around when he turned 20), and scored 6 goals for Denmark since as well... 15 goals for club and country in half a year having just turned 20 is pretty impressive and who knows how long it'd take him to adapt to the prem, but a year or 2 of being a squad player is fine (and I don't think it'd even take him that long given the recent jump).

Also to add to this if we want to look at more examples... how many bigger & technical strikers have there actually been in the last 20 years who were rated highly enough at a younger age for a club in a big league to go for him? Even the ones who have flopped. Someone like Weghorst was just never rated all that highly and only moved to Wolfsburg at 25, there just isn't all that many of those types of talents and the history from what I can seems to be some pretty damn good center forwards.
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Some common sense in here is refreshing to see. Great post.
 
KjaAnd said:
I’m a massive fan of his and think he has the chance to be a top striker in the future due to especially his pace, movement, instincts and work rate. He’s certainly the best prospect at striker, Denmarks has produced in a decade or so. He’s just not ready to produce at the highest level yet. He was dominated by the majority of better Serie A defenders.
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to be fair, he'll also be playing with better players than at Fiorentina
 
roseguy64 said:
No. He's a striker.

If he doesn't score then the effort won't matter.
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He will score. We have no issues with chance creation honestly, it is chance conversion where we suck. The difference a pacy CF who loves to attack the 6 yard box will make could be huge but at worst I would bet my shirt he will be in double figures in his first season.
 
Gandalf said:
He will score. We have no issues with chance creation honestly, it is chance conversion where we suck. The difference a pacy CF who loves to attack the 6 yard box will make could be huge but at worst I would bet my shirt he will be in double figures in his first season.
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I have huge doubts about it but we'll see.
 
He seems to favour his left foot quite a lot from the highlights I’ve seen of him. His physicality and work rate will definitely help us unlock defences though.
 
Remember when the gossip was like “oh, they’re going to go and get Harry Kane, and a prospect from Atalanta as a back up”
And we were all happy with that?? .. I’m really not sure now it just seems to be this kid, and that’s it.. if he doesn’t hit the ground running, which is a huge ask really, he’ll be crucified
 
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