Rasmus Højlund | Signed for United

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I was at the Atalanta game tonight and had a chance to watch him. You can see he has explosive acceleration, quality on the ball, and a high work rate. However, he's also not the finished article and I don't think we could rely on a player like him to score 25-30 goals over a season. His use of space and choices for types of runs need to improve a lot. Maybe with a year or two of coaching under Ten Hag he can get to that level as he certainly has the physical and technical abilities, but I think we'd really need another a goal scorer in addition.


I do wonder is ETH willing to potentially take a punt now in case he does come along in the next few years and City or Newcastle gazzump us for him
 
He's had a very accelerated path to the front of the great strikers list. Two transfers in 2022 means we need to sign him now or he might become another Osihmen.

We already missed on Alvarez on the cheap, so let's get this guy. We're not winning the league next year anyway, so getting him this year and Ferguson next year would be awesome for our future attacking options.
 
I think Ten Hag would be able to make him score 25 goals. He has got that natural instinct but is still raw. That doesn't mean he is not ready. Talented players at that age can learn really fast (see Garnacho who is even younger). Of course it's a gamble but I like his profile most from all the strikers we've been linked to besides Kane and Osimhen.
 
I do wonder is ETH willing to potentially take a punt now in case he does come along in the next few years and City or Newcastle gazzump us for him

Makes sense to me. You can certainly see the potential there. His movement and energy are impressive, and he does have final product even without being polished yet.
 
If we do sign him, surely he won't be the only one. He's very young to be relying on him at this stage.
If you are good enough you are old enough.

The likes of Mbappe, Haaland, Vinicius Junior, Pedro, Gavi, Foden, Sancho, Felix, Saka etc are all playing as key player in their teams at younger age.

Even Kane or Lukaku became regular starter/goalscorer of their teams at around age 20-21.
 
If we sign him, there's absolutely no point in him being second choice or an "understudy" to an experienced striker. He isn't 17. He is at a stage where he needs to be playing as much as possible. Might as well do it in the Premier League. Get him and let him lead the line for us. It will be rough in the beginning, but we aren't winning the league anyway, so might as well temper him for when we do finally challenge. By then he will be well adjusted to the league.
 
Not only have I never seen him play but until about a month ago, I'd never even heard of him! I'm getting old... However, I agree with those saying two strikers is a good idea, if the sheikh comes in
 
I think we'll make do with him, Martial and Rashford if we can't get Kane
Martial shouldn't be within 100 miles of Old Trafford, let alone the first team. Utter waste of space (not that he finds any)
 
He'll be a great backup. But I agree that he's not the finished article yet. Keep him on the bench, use him for cup games, etc. And hopefully he can lead the line in 2 years time.
 
I think this is it. From what we've read from Telegraph if I'm not wrong, we're interested in a left winger.

So Rash and Hojlund will be switching on CF role, Rashford and the other LW will be switching on LW role. If that LW that we're interested is high class, I'm sold. We have to admit we're not getting Kane.
 
He'll be a great backup. But I agree that he's not the finished article yet. Keep him on the bench, use him for cup games, etc. And hopefully he can lead the line in 2 years time.
He needs to get regular game time to progress if we are going for him best course of action would be to bring in a decent low profile Striker who would be comfortable sharing minutes not some superstar like Kane .

He should be competing as first choice not be designated backup that would only impede his growth at a time where he needs to play regularly .
 
I think we'll make do with him, Martial and Rashford if we can't get Kane

If Hojlund is the only striker we sign, I have a bad feeling we will be reintegrating Greenwood into the squad.

Signing Kane will be key. This squad needs goals.
 
He needs to get regular game time to progress if we are going for him best course of action would be to bring in a decent low profile Striker who would be comfortable sharing minutes not some superstar like Kane .

He should be competing as first choice not be designated backup that would only impede his growth at a time where he needs to play regularly .
Agree. But he'll end up getting minutes in any case because of injuries. I see him starting 10-15 games, and another 15 off the bench. Similar to Malacia or Julian Alvarez this season.
 
If you are good enough you are old enough.

The likes of Mbappe, Haaland, Vinicius Junior, Pedro, Gavi, Foden, Sancho, Felix, Saka etc are all playing as key player in their teams at younger age.

Even Kane or Lukaku became regular starter/goalscorer of their teams at around age 20-21.


I'm not sure a 1 in every 3 games-ish striker comes under the remit of if you're good enough, you're old enough.

The game is changing to the extent that now we essentially have 1 in 1 strikers - Haaland, Kane and a bunch averaging much better than 1 in 2 - Toney, Wilson, Salah and most top level wingers.
 
I'm not sure a 1 in every 3 games-ish striker comes under the remit of if you're good enough, you're old enough.

The game is changing to the extent that now we essentially have 1 in 1 strikers - Haaland, Kane and a bunch averaging much better than 1 in 2 - Toney, Wilson, Salah and most top level wingers.

You are talking about a 20 years old player who in the league is currently at a goal every 2.26 games. And you are comparing him to fully developed players who were given starter minutes game time when they reached his level of developed. If anything the game has changed in a way that coaches now understand that they can and need to give young players the minutes that they need to develop.

If you don't give these players starting minutes they will never be good enough.
 
Agree. But he'll end up getting minutes in any case because of injuries. I see him starting 10-15 games, and another 15 off the bench. Similar to Malacia or Julian Alvarez this season.
If we get Kane then he would definitely play all the Pl and CL games barring injuries , I just cant see enough minutes for Hojlund to continue his development

Another thing which can be done , assuming we get Kane United can target another youngster who has just broken through at senior level who might be fine with sub appearances next season and occasional starts in League Cup or Fa Cup against lower tier opponents without impeding his growth .
 
I'm not sure a 1 in every 3 games-ish striker comes under the remit of if you're good enough, you're old enough.

The game is changing to the extent that now we essentially have 1 in 1 strikers - Haaland, Kane and a bunch averaging much better than 1 in 2 - Toney, Wilson, Salah and most top level wingers.
You really need to break it down into per 90 mins stats to understand how prolific he was this season.

22/23
16 goals 7 assists in 2551 minutes
(9g 4a in Serie A, 3g 2a in Austrian BL, 4g 1a in cups)

Equivalent to 16 goals 7 assists in 28.3 games
Avg 0.56 goals + 0.25 assist per 90 mins
Avg 0.81 g+a per 90 mins

Not bad for a 20 year old striker.
 
You are talking about a 20 years old player who in the league is currently at a goal every 2.26 games. And you are comparing him to fully developed players who were given starter minutes game time when they reached his level of developed. If anything the game has changed in a way that coaches now understand that they can and need to give young players the minutes that they need to develop.

If you don't give these players starting minutes they will never be good enough.

Not sure how the answer to us having a toothless attack is to buy a 1 in 3 striker who can't displace Zapata and Muriel (also 1 in 3 or worse) strikers.

Cries out scrimping and another bang average striker when we need best in class

Haaland, Kane, Salah all at big rivals, Arsenal share the goals around and Osimhen may end up at Chelsea

Mbappe scored 26 goals in the season he turned 20
Rooney - 17
Haaland - 41
Ramos - 27 (although admittedly low last year)
Sesko - 18
 
Not sure how the answer to us having a toothless attack is to buy a 1 in 3 striker who can't displace Zapata and Muriel (also 1 in 3 or worse) strikers.

Cries out scrimping and another bang average striker when we need best in class

Haaland, Kane, Salah all at big rivals, Arsenal share the goals around and Osimhen may end up at Chelsea

Mbappe scored 26 goals in the season he turned 20
Rooney - 17
Haaland - 41
Ramos - 27 (although admittedly low last year)
Sesko - 18

The answer is fairly simple. When you build a team you have two options one is to add ready made top players but those are rare and generally not available or you bring players that you believe can develop into top players.

No one is saying no to Mbappé, Kane, Haaland or Osimhen but these players may not be available to us and alternatives needs to be explored.
 
The answer is fairly simple. When you build a team you have two options one is to add ready made top players but those are rare and generally not available or you bring players that you believe can develop into top players.

No one is saying no to Mbappé, Kane, Haaland or Osimhen but these players may not be available to us and alternatives needs to be explored.

Yes, I agree with this. But what I'm saying is there's little about Hojlund that convinced me he is on that development path. We have enough good young players coming through or on the periphery of doing so - we need a proven goalscorer.

Not necessarily world class now but one who can bang in 15 prem goals - honestly I'd rather be shopping in the Toney, Mitrovic, Watkins (less so) market
 
Yes, I agree with this. But what I'm saying is there's little about Hojlund that convinced me he is on that development path. We have enough good young players coming through or on the periphery of doing so - we need a proven goalscorer.

Not necessarily world class now but one who can bang in 15 prem goals - honestly I'd rather be shopping in the Toney, Mitrovic, Watkins (less so) market

Have you watched him? Hojlund is a well rounded 20 years old striker that is currently registering the equivalent +15 goals in 38 games in his first season in Serie A. While there is no guarantee that any player will develop smoothly, the reason behind Hojlund being rated is evident if you watch him play and pay close attention to his stats, which aren't close to 1 goal in 3 games but 1 goal in 2 games. The other thing is that the quoted price is about half of what other players with as little guarantees are quoted for.


I would love Kane, at similar price to Hojlund I wouldn't mind Jonathan David partially because he is versatile even though I have doubts about his actual level. But Hojlund is an interesting alternative and has all the tools to be a top player, maybe he won't be but he has the tools and is on an upward trajectory.
 
Not sure how the answer to us having a toothless attack is to buy a 1 in 3 striker who can't displace Zapata and Muriel (also 1 in 3 or worse) strikers.

Cries out scrimping and another bang average striker when we need best in class

Haaland, Kane, Salah all at big rivals, Arsenal share the goals around and Osimhen may end up at Chelsea

Mbappe scored 26 goals in the season he turned 20
Rooney - 17
Haaland - 41
Ramos - 27 (although admittedly low last year)
Sesko - 18
This is such a weird selection of benchmarks. 3 absolute freaks of nature in terms of development and 2 that play in much worse leagues than Serie A.

Kane, Salah and even Osimhen weren't exactly tearing up trees at 20. We should be signing someone on an upward trajectory with the right profile, otherwise we're just going to get taken to the cleaners and have no money left to improve the overall squad. Players like Rashford, Greenwood and Garnacho only got better by playing in our first team at a young age, but weren't the finished article when they came in either.
 
This is such a weird selection of benchmarks. 3 absolute freaks of nature in terms of development and 2 that play in much worse leagues than Serie A.

Kane, Salah and even Osimhen weren't exactly tearing up trees at 20. We should be signing someone on an upward trajectory with the right profile, otherwise we're just going to get taken to the cleaners and have no money left to improve the overall squad. Players like Rashford, Greenwood and Garnacho only got better by playing in our first team at a young age, but weren't the finished article when they came in either.

What I personally think is weirder is only looking at goal stats to purely judge a player from when if you look at a lot of good players they tend to make jumps in pure numbers when they make the next step or just go to a better team... for example

Mo Salah had 34 goals in 83 matches for Roma, pretty good but that's still lower than a goal every other game, 19 goals in 41 matches in his last season before joining Liverpool, but then first season at Liverpool he gets 44 goals in 52 games, who on earth would have thought he'd produce that output if you only focus purely on his goalscoring exploits from the previous season and Liverpool took a chance on him

Harry Kane's goal output was absolutely abysmal, worse than Hojlund's at his age, 2 goals in 15 apps for Leicester then 4 goals in 19 apps for Tottenham, then the next season, his first proper season with Tottenham he bags 31 goals in 51 games and the rest is history, infact they were close to selling him I believe?

This isn't to say Hojlund will reach the heights of any of these players but he clearly has the attributes to, the "but he's only scored 9 goals this season and we need a 30 goal a season striker minimum!" doesn't hold weight with me because there's nothing to say he can't come in and score 30 goals, there's also nothing to say we sign a striker like Harry Kane and he flops, unlikely but we just don't know.

What I do know is I'm sick and tired of being a team that waits for young plays like Hojlund to be snapped up by a big team that wants to take a chance them and then watching them flourish for our biggest rivals in Europe or us being the team that's constantly trying to prize them away for an obscene amount of money when we could have had them for peanuts prior
 
Gossip is they will sell for 42 million.

I wonder if we could backstop him with a loan year on Felix. Battering ram and baller and possible combination?

Might be worth a try.

Proven goal a game players are 80-100 million for 30 year olds and sky is the limit if they are younger.

I think it might be this kid or Sesko.
 
I disagree with the idea we would buy him then having him sitting around as a backup.

He might not be ready to score 25 goals in the PL, but I think he has to be ready to play most games and we invest in his development. Essentially saying we know he's not Harry Kane but we believe he's a top prospect and we'll back him to improve quickly. Maybe he gets 15 goals and is more reliable than Martial and simply better than Weghorst, which would represent an improvement as we'd have a consistent focal point for the players to work with.

There's no point having a player that is accustomed to first team football, in his early 20s just languishing on a bench. He'd have been better at Atalanta if that happens.

Maybe then you can afford a Kim, to be in for Rice/Caicedo, to get Frimpong, to get a keeper. That is the advantage of a deal like this compared to Kane or Ramos.
 
Gossip is they will sell for 42 million.

I wonder if we could backstop him with a loan year on Felix. Battering ram and baller and possible combination?

Might be worth a try.

Proven goal a game players are 80-100 million for 30 year olds and sky is the limit if they are younger.

I think it might be this kid or Sesko.
Sesko is going to Leipzig already
 
From what I've seen, I like him but he is very raw, as shown with his inconsistency.

Not sure if he would come in and hit the ground running straightaway and would most likely need a season or 2 to adapt and be ready. That alone is my concern as we are not a well oiled machine like Man City where we already have an established striker in the team and can afford to take a punt on Hojlund (just like they did with Alvarez).

If he was our only striker signing, while I would be excited signing a very promising up and coming striker, if we want to get back to the top asap, we need a proven striker like a Kane signed alongside Hojlund.

If ETH is aware Kane is out of reach, maybe he wants to take a punt on Hojlund now in fear he goes to a Newcastle, Madrid etc in the future and tears it apart and ends up being another what-if moment. However, in order for this to work, we need to get the signings spot on in the other areas that need strengthening and the other attacking players will need to chip in with a good amount of goals as I don't see Hojlund being an instant 25-30 goal a season striker.
 
Just two players ready for pre season? Not ideal when we are reported to be going for 4
I imagine that the takeover won't be fully completed by then and that's just our current budget. Mount and Hoijlund would be about 100-120 million.
 
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