we should get either Viktor or Victor then.
Rasmus Hojlund (Out)
- Thread starter Berbaclass
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Jamie (@Vault Dweller) are here to celebrate rare back-to-back victories for Manchester United! They analyse the late win in the Europa League vs. Rangers and then try and find things to analyse in a pretty dour game vs. Fulham. They also chat about the latest Marcus Rashford news, and look at the latest transfer news.
Is there anyone in the squad who doesn't have a "United willing to accept offers for..." 
PSR disagrees
He barely played over the 2 seasons he was at the club although he is one of those rare breed that can play at CB or CF.
I have always associated him more with Coventry CIity than Man United.
Seeing as Zirkzee has shown the odd sign of promise in the last couple of months whereas Hojlund has regressed he's now possibly been the most disappointing thing about this season, which takes some doing.
Really hoped it would be a breakout domestic season for him, all the signs pointed in the right direction last season; He struggled early on domestically but had shown his potential in European games, then in Jan/Feb it started to all click for him in the league and he scored in 6 in a row, and then after a bit of a lull he finished the season strongly.
However since that hot streak nearly a year ago he's now got 5 goals in 32 league games...and is on course to get less than 5 league goals this season. Starting to come to the conclusion like many others that he just isn't strong enough, nor does he have the ball control, nor does he have the movement, to be a consistent threat in the Premier League. I thought he was just struggling initially with these aspects, but now it's seems like he was never really good enough and just hit a purple patch last season for a bit.
Hopefully the saving grace in terms of selling is that he's still been prolific again in Europe, a goal ever 67 minutes, so surely European teams are going to think they can get a tune out if him.
Really hoped it would be a breakout domestic season for him, all the signs pointed in the right direction last season; He struggled early on domestically but had shown his potential in European games, then in Jan/Feb it started to all click for him in the league and he scored in 6 in a row, and then after a bit of a lull he finished the season strongly.
However since that hot streak nearly a year ago he's now got 5 goals in 32 league games...and is on course to get less than 5 league goals this season. Starting to come to the conclusion like many others that he just isn't strong enough, nor does he have the ball control, nor does he have the movement, to be a consistent threat in the Premier League. I thought he was just struggling initially with these aspects, but now it's seems like he was never really good enough and just hit a purple patch last season for a bit.
Hopefully the saving grace in terms of selling is that he's still been prolific again in Europe, a goal ever 67 minutes, so surely European teams are going to think they can get a tune out if him.
I know he's struggled, but I'm quite surprised at the reaction in this thread!
I'm not going to do the stat-digging for comparisons, but Hojlund has 50 career goals at senior level (plus 7 international goals) at the age of 21. It would be interesting to see how this compares to some of the best forwards we've seen at that age across Europe when they were the same age. I get that more is expected of young players these days, but it doesn't mean every single one has to achieve that standard right away. I wonder what Ronaldo, van Persie, van Nistelrooy, Kane etc were doing at that age?
He has to improve in every area, but he has 23 goals in 71 for us. 12 in 48 PL games which is 1 in 4... We really should have a both a better team around him and an experienced striker playing more than him at this point, but we don't. I don't think he's someone we should be writing off by the time he's age 22. So many attacking players don't start to produce until they're 22-23.
Madness.
I'm not going to do the stat-digging for comparisons, but Hojlund has 50 career goals at senior level (plus 7 international goals) at the age of 21. It would be interesting to see how this compares to some of the best forwards we've seen at that age across Europe when they were the same age. I get that more is expected of young players these days, but it doesn't mean every single one has to achieve that standard right away. I wonder what Ronaldo, van Persie, van Nistelrooy, Kane etc were doing at that age?
He has to improve in every area, but he has 23 goals in 71 for us. 12 in 48 PL games which is 1 in 4... We really should have a both a better team around him and an experienced striker playing more than him at this point, but we don't. I don't think he's someone we should be writing off by the time he's age 22. So many attacking players don't start to produce until they're 22-23.
Madness.
Hes really bad. I would sell if we got an offer in.
I'm sure most of us would be happy to sell for a good offer, but what exactly constitutes a good offer for him at this stage? He's not a massive earner, but ~80k/pw also isn't a pittance
Indeed, as a result, it’s always case by case. The risk of mediocrity (or worse) with buying a 25 year old is always there too, as you generally like to think you know what you’re buying. So if you buy a 25 year old who has already shown himself to be good but not great, reliable but not elite - then chances are you commit to years of a solid performer but little more. Top teams are always looking for the real difference makers though, and I would say that invariably - the real elite players are not signed at 25, they are signed younger. In recent times, the likes of Haaland, Mbappé (the first time), Hazard, Vinicius, Bellingham, Kvara, Neymar and co are rarely available to be signed from what would be traditional selling clubs at 25. The 25 year old market doesn’t tend to get you the very best ‘generational’ level players I would say. If Wirtz is still at Bayer at 25, chances are he’s not as good as people think. So someone is going to have to pay Bayer an awful lot of money to find out if he really is, and then hope for the best.
Bit unfair to Dublin who got a bad injury and by all accounts was fine prior to it.
Recoup about half of what we paid for him, and move forward? I don't know what's realistic, but it's clear we paid well above his actual market value, so we are not getting close to that when selling.
In any case, it's positive if we don't linger with big mistakes for too long. If the club's assessment is, that he doesn't have a future here, then sell him ASAP. Another alternative is to loan him out for a full season, in the hope that he either improves or shows his skillset in another setting to increase his value - but probably better to just cut ties, in my opinion.
This is the caf, never be surprised by how quickly fans will send their players to the abattoir.
The simple fact is he has shown a lot of promise until this season - last season's CL/EL record is very good, he's still only 21 and had a good run last season after getting fit. Last season in general there are likely few 21 year old CFs who were better than him, 1 goal in every 3 games in the PL and 5 in 6 in the CL.
I still think if you set up to play with attacking WBs but then don't have attacking WBs, there's no point buying/selling strikers (who are bloody expensive) until that is fixed. This season has been bad, Zirzkee was literally booed and I can't help but feel Hojlund will be getting it from fans soon, but they are both essentially kids. We need to develop them, even if only to sell them on afterwards.
Yeah agreed. He may come good, but likely not here with the expectations, lack of backup and general struggle.
Book value or not, I'd be surprised if anyone offered more than 35m.
Good points all around. You’ve convinced me to soften my stance to, “we are not currently, and we won’t be in the short term future, in a position to make these expensive bets on high risk, high reward young talent.”
Once we have a solid team that is a shoo-in in most seasons to be in the CL and a healthy balance sheet, we’ll hopefully be in that position again.
He needs a loan, but I’d be happy to see him sold if we got a decent price. Could replace him very easily.
That’s fair, we need to be measured for sure.
If we can sell him and Zirkzee for a combined 70m, then we can actually get a striker who can play football.
It's staggering that we got rid of Lukaku when he was still a youngish player because of his hold up and technical ability, yet we then go and sign someone like Hojlund who is lacking even more in both areas, and also doesn't score anywhere near as many goals as Lukaku.
Anyway, I do see a bit of potential in Hojlund as a couple of goal he's scored for us looked really monstrous, and the few times he's had confidence he definitely has an eye for goal, and he's obviously only 21. But he's so average in so many aspects I think we should be accepting suitable offers.
Anyway, I do see a bit of potential in Hojlund as a couple of goal he's scored for us looked really monstrous, and the few times he's had confidence he definitely has an eye for goal, and he's obviously only 21. But he's so average in so many aspects I think we should be accepting suitable offers.
I just dont think he has the talent required mate, and I'm talking about teams in the bottom half, yet alone where we want and expect United to be.
If we compare to 4 strikers of a similar-ish age - Sesko, Duran, Ekitike and Samu Omorodion
Goals per 90:
Duran 0.97
Sesko 0.71
Ekitike 0.66
Samu 0.62
Hojlund 0.33
Assists per 90:
Ekitike 0.22
Sesko 0.13
Samu 0.08
Hojlund 0.06
Duran 0.0
xG created:
Ekitike 0.63
Duran 0.56
Samu 0.52
Sesko 0.4
Hojlund 0.28
Progressive Carries
Ekitike 2.8
Sesko 1.5
Hojlund 1.4
Samu 1.4
Duran 1.3
Progressive Passes
Duran 1.8
Sesko 1.5
Ekitike 1.4
Hojlund 1.2
Samu 0.8
Shots
Duran 4.1
Ekitike 3.9
Samu 3
Sesko 2.5
Hojlund 1.4
Touches:
Ekitike 38.6
Duran 36.5
Sesko 32.7
Samu 28.1
Hojlund 25
So from those stats you can see he scores less, is less involved, has fewer shots than his peers, while not being anything special in passing or dribbling either.
Need to get rid to rectify this mistake and do everything possible to bring in Sesko who we will regret missing out on in the future who is a real young talent worth investing time and energy in
We should probably loan him to Arsenal and see if he can lead them to a PL title
I hate it when people compare the numbers of players like Hojlund to players who were far, far better.
The players you mentioned had a lot to their game and were clearly very talented. Hojlund doesn't have any of these special traits, you just picked some stats which aren't very good to begin with and said it's the teams fault.
He's a part of the reason it's one of the worst United teams in the last 45 years.
If we can get the book value for him take it and run.
Worth noting his shite form isn't just with us. After a great start to his international career, he's not scored in has past 12 caps and has gone 15 months without a goal - the last being against San Marino. There was an entire international tournament held during that time too.
I really like him and hope he can sort it out, but - as was not totally unexpected - it's looking like we were a move too soon in his career, particularly given that we had no established strikers in the squad when he arrived.
I really like him and hope he can sort it out, but - as was not totally unexpected - it's looking like we were a move too soon in his career, particularly given that we had no established strikers in the squad when he arrived.
He’s only just turning 22 this season. What happened to having patience with young players given the dumpster fire this club has been from a management and footballing structure standpoint? Ten Hag stunted his development but with time he can thrive under Amorim. We should be looking at a stop gap option to perhaps lift the pressure off him and Zirkzee. Someone like Welbeck for example would be a decent short term option given the club’s finances.
Good move from us to sell him on while he still has some value. I just don't see this talent that everyone talks about when I watch him play.
We are stuck with them, just like we are stuck with Rashford and Casemiro. Unless they are willing to take a massive paycut.
You can probably pick many, many other players. I do think Hojlund is a promising player and that any forward would largely struggle in this team at the moment.
Hojlund has to improve all aspects of his game, but there's many stats anyone can cherry pick. He had one of the best conversion rates and was passed to the least. If he had more chances I'm sure he'd score more goals. Needs to evolve his game and find a way to get those chances of course.
But the idea to write a player off at 21-22 is just outright ridiculous IMO. So, so many players don't produce at his age but do a few years later.
Forgot about him, good shout
I'd take 25m for him, honestly.
Bit of a punt of a signing. Broke his leg in September of his first season with us and we then signed Cantona in the 6 months he was out so there was no longer really a role for him. Harsh to include him with the rest.
Forlan doesn't deserve to be on this list.
Neither does Dion Dublin!
I'II give him a 1% chance of making it. If you have such a poor touch at 22 you won't make it as a footballer at a top club. Of course stupid to overpay and to make him our main striker. Our scouts are the worst in world football.
Yep.
50 goals sound good but that's at a rate of slightly worse than 1 in 3 with that being propped up by a reasonable run in the Austrian premier league where he was at 1 in 2. In serie a and the EPL he is 1 in 4. It's nowhere near good enough and that's before we get on to the rest of his play.
If he had been bought for 20 million and was our second choice behind a really great goal scorer he wouldn't be good enough, but he's one of our main striking options. That's not his fault but it's also not unfair to say he's simply not good enough at this stage of his career (and probably never will be) to be in the role he is.
He can go on to have a good career, but he'll never be good enough for a title winning team.
Yeah I saw someone say on another forum that he would work when you already had a proven striker but unfortunately we don't have that
Was starting to play well, that animal shaw broke his leg, we signed Cantona as his replacement and the rest is history. I wouldn’t call him a flop