Rasmus Hojlund (Out)

Oo0AahCantona said:
We 100% need a top proven striker to lead the line but every team weve had has had multiple decent strike options, im unconfortable calling a loss on him currently when really he shoild just be rotated with a top striker and zirkzee, 3 players for the forward role.
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Both are not even good enough as rotating striker, as we've been rotating them frequently and still crap. Why persist? Just because the price we spent?
 
Its rare you see a manager with 2 strikers who he juggles with in the hope to get half a good performance each. Zirkzee and Hojlund genuinely wouldnt get starts for Bournemouth. They are unacceptable for a team like Man United.
 
Bottom 1 percentile for shots per 90 from a striker. Hojlund is in fact the very bottom player.

That’s not tactical or a system thing. That’s not a “he’s young and shouldn’t be leading the line” thing. What’s the point of a striker who can’t shoot?
 
DWelbz19 said:
Bottom 1 percentile for shots per 90 from a striker. Hojlund is in fact the very bottom player.

That’s not tactical or a system thing. That’s not a “he’s young and shouldn’t be leading the line” thing. What’s the point of a striker who can’t shoot?
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He can shoot just fine, he just can’t bring himself into the right positions to shoot. If his hold-up was any good, the team would get more opportunities to progress to the final third. If he had more intelligent movement, he’d arrive at more chances.

The actual shooting is not the major problem. It’s everything before the shooting.
 
Redfrog said:
Let’s wait he has no value at all.
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Well it's not as if anyone is kicking the door down for him anyway. If anything, now is the worst time to sell because his stock is so low.
 
Mike Smalling said:
He can shoot just fine, he just can’t bring himself into the right positions to shoot. If his hold-up was any good, the team would get more opportunities to progress to the final third. If he had more intelligent movement, he’d arrive at more chances.

The actual shooting is not the major problem. It’s everything before the shooting.
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Yup. And most of his deficiencies aren't really things that can easily be coached - you either have those attributes or you don't.
 
Big Ben Foster said:
Yup. And most of his deficiencies aren't really things that can easily be coached - you either have those attributes or you don't.
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I don't agree with this. Some traits are natural but I actually listened to Lineker and Shearer talking about this just the other day in relation to another player and they were clear that things like touch, movement and hold up play can be taught and both were adamant that they had improved through coaching even quite late on in their careers.
 
Gandalf said:
I don't agree with this. Some traits are natural but I actually listened to Lineker and Shearer talking about this just the other day in relation to another player and they were clear that things like touch, movement and hold up play can be taught and both were adamant that they had improved through coaching even quite late on in their careers.
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What’s the point in buying a striker for 70m and then spending years to teach him how to play football though? Even if it is doable, it’s a terrible strategy for a team. By all means, refine the raw materials already on show, but we should not need to be teaching big money signings how to control the ball, run and pass. Especially at this price point.

You have to ask yourself if the end justifies the means. If the projection is that with a bit of work, we can get Hojlund to be Haaland or Kane etc, then fine. But I’ve said before, why would you spend 60-70m on a 20 year old only to spend 4 or 5 years to turn him into Solanke? Solanke cost the same amount after the work had been done, and even then, he’s not Isak. I don’t see Kane/Persie level potential to work with, so this 5 year journey is simply not worth it anyway.
 
I know some will disagree but it may go down as our most damaging transfer ever.

We spent huge money on an unproven young striker, a super important position, to lead the line and be our goal scorer. It’s not worked out but due to this we’ve not invested in this position again relying on him or an uninterested Rashford to get goals.

I still think of an alternative situation of getting Kane instead.
 
dubplate warrior said:
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.
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I think it is hard to conclude from his time at the club. I don't think they have played to his strengths and the team has not been good going forward. He has to hold his hands up to playing his part in that.

Ultimately the fee they paid for him is not doing him any favours but as someone said earlier, I might be tempted to cut and run whilst he still holds some value.

The time clearly is not right for him at the club and due to the number of squad changes that we need to make it isn't right for us either.

I'm confident he will eventually show that he is a top striker elsewhere.
 
Big Ben Foster said:
The fraudulent part is the sanctioning of the 70m deal, not the sanctioning of a sale.

At this point the 70m is a sunk cost and any decision to sell or keep should disregard the initial fee (PSR constraints aside).
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It's an insane transfer looking back isn't it? It's the kind of money you spend you on a sure thing forward but then again there's barely been a sure thing striker at 19 besides the likes of R9 and Rooney. Rasmus should have been 30 mil max
 
MiceOnMeth said:
We could have easily signed Kane if we didn't sign Mount + Holjund who cost what 110 million combined..we could have signed any striker on the planet for that amount
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Harry is also now on 400k a week at Bayern. Something we are trying to get a way from as we don’t have the finances to sustain such wages.
 
Rozay said:
What’s the point in buying a striker for 70m and then spending years to teach him how to play football though? Even if it is doable, it’s a terrible strategy for a team. By all means, refine the raw materials already on show, but we should not need to be teaching big money signings how to control the ball, run and pass. Especially at this price point.

You have to ask yourself if the end justifies the means. If the projection is that with a bit of work, we can get Hojlund to be Haaland or Kane etc, then fine. But I’ve said before, why would you spend 60-70m on a 20 year old only to spend 4 or 5 years to turn him into Solanke? Solanke cost the same amount after the work had been done, and even then, he’s not Isak. I don’t see Kane/Persie level potential to work with, so this 5 year journey is simply not worth it anyway.
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I don't disagree with this point though. The transfer fee was mental and he was nowhere near ready to be the starting striker for us but that is a failure of our recruitment strategy. I was just disagreeing with the notion that his weaknesses cannot be improved upon. Most things other than natrual athletic ability can be improved with good coaching but obviously for the fee we should have been buying the finished article not raw material.
 
Brophs said:
Kill two birds with one stone. Get him on a plane.

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reminded me of a vid from a great winger that played for Boca (barros Schelotto) that stopped the training asking to stop sending shitty corsses time and again to nowhere and actually aim for his mate in the area.
Must be really frustrating for Top players to train players way below their talent failing with what they could do even sleeping, very cool vid man.
 
Fobal said:
reminded me of a vid from a great winger that played for Boca (barros Schelotto) that stopped the training asking to stop sending shitty corsses time and again to nowhere and actually aim for his mate in the area.
Must be really frustrating for Top players to train players way below their talent failing with what they could do even sleeping, very cool vid man.
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There’s a few like that with Henry where you can see him visibly frustrated at the fact the players can’t do things he sees as simple and could do with ease
 
DWelbz19 said:
There’s a few like that with Henry where you can see him visibly frustrated at the fact the players can’t do things he sees as simple and could do with ease
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I guess that's one of the reasons why Roy can't actually be a coach, he just can't handle it and others like Zizou are more Zen about it.

PD: Maradona also was very easy on players in general and extremely generous in praise with the ones he liked, or coached, in fact to a extreme, on every interview everyone was better than him, it's bordering comedy.
 
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I wasn’t convinced when we were first interested in him. I wanted to believe there was something about him that would evolve and come good, but apart from a purple patch a year or so ago he’s been absolutely shit. He honestly didn’t look better than average at Atalanta or in a Denmark shirt. He might turn into a half decent forward in 3-5 years time, and good luck to him if he does - I just don’t see him achieving that here and would love to see him go this window.
 
TrailMonkey said:
I wasn’t convinced when we were first interested in him. I wanted to believe there was something about him that would evolve and come good, but apart from a purple patch a year or so ago he’s been absolutely shit. He honestly didn’t look better than average at Atalanta or in a Denmark shirt. He might turn into a half decent forward in 3-5 years time, and good luck to him if he does - I just don’t see him achieving that here and would love to see him go this window.
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It wasn't with Denmark during the summer I made my final decision on him. He had chances and he took them with zero composure. It was like holding midfielder getting a half chance.

I knew then he shouldn't be leading the line for top team.
 
Andersons Dietician said:
Harry is also now on 400k a week at Bayern. Something we are trying to get a way from as we don’t have the finances to sustain such wages.
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I didn't specifically mean we should have got Kane for 100m + 400k wages I just meant the funds were there for a top striker but we ended up with a way over priced prospect and an always injured Mount who we didn't need anyway
 
Even with the average service he receives I think you'd still expect him to be able to fashion his own chances once and while. But his individual game is so, so poor.
He's been here now for sometime, so we should have a idea of his strengths and weaknesses and, I'll be honest, I'm really struggling to find his strengths, well apart from wresting any opposition player to the ground.

Some of his touches last night were horrific. Would you feel confident passing to him knowing that the ball will likely bounce off him ? no, you wouldn't.
 
I quite liked rasmus last season but people saying he isn't given the chances... He needs to be the one to build up play to create the chances. He has been bad this season unfortunately.
 
I just hope he doesn't read the Forum, unless this type of thing ignites him a la Cristiano.

Right now he only has his age going for him, another younsgter also struggling and the Rashford conflict, so if the team finally plays better and he starts to score to and gain confidence he might at least do better his job.
Many here talk about him not having the basics and I confess that I didn't see much of him prior to Man Utd, to know if he alwasy was a bit dorky.
Yet any player with very low confidence and few balls per game will lost his "touch" with such combination, maybe some with more natural talent won't play as bad as sometimes he has done, yet it will affect ANYONE.
So with luck, a bit of confidence brought even by a fluke goal in the future, might do wonders to at least him feeling more confident to play as pivot with the ocasional goal here and there. Now he is way too anxious, it's noticeable.
 
I remember the time when we had Lukaku up front and he would fall over the ball or take some crazy daft touches but he could still finish more often than not.

This guy is honestly worse than that at this moment. He literally cant stay on his feet when trying to hold off a defender with his back to goal. He offers zero threat running in behind too.

When was the last time he even had a shot on target?

He was thrown in the deepend with the whole Greenwood situation plus Martial's unreliability.

You have to hope somehow this experience will do him good in future.
 
He’s really struggled in his 2nd season after a promising enough 1st season. Nothing is going right for him at the moment . Wouldn’t mind getting a loan in to take some pressure off the guy
 
Yep, I thought maybe with some time the rough edges might start to smooth. But he's absolutely wilted this season, completely bereft of confidence and the basics are eluding him. I don't know if it's recoverable for him in the spotlight here, but it was unfair to expect him to carry the load so early in his career.

I don't know what the club can really do. Two young forwards that don't seem up to the job, both only recently brought in. Can't get an experienced striker in and give them both time...
 
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