I'm quite hopeful over this. I think he can give the club a much needed morale boost similar to Bruno in 2020.
Victor Osimhen
- Thread starter UnitedSofa
- Start date
Can't see the Zirkzee rumours being true. How often does a club sign a player for big money (relatively) and then get rid of him after six months?
Goals win games and our biggest problem by far is we don't have a consistent top class goalscorer.
A forward like Osimhen will be the difference between Europe and nowhere for us
Does anyone know what went down with Osimhen? Why did everything with Napoli fall apart?
Thanks. Your description is clear.
Based on my preference, I definitely prefer Osimhen type of striker who has world class movement, aggression, and athleticism inside the penalty box. This type of striker is harder to defend than someone who relies more in positioning inside the box. And based on your description, I think Osimhen can convert average crosses/passes into goals because he has this world class movement inside the box plus athleticism to connect with the ball. If a striker doesn't have world class movement (for example lukaku), striker will expect the ball always arrive on their feet/head, but Osimhen is the opposite, he seems to have Chicharito's movement with Halland's athleticism. Some of the chances that Hojlund had so far this season which sometime he couldn't reach them by few centimetre, which something Osimhen could take advantage of.
IMO, if a striker doesn’t have technical ability like RVP or as quick as Henry or he is not a striker who can do playmaking like Rooney or he is not false 9 like Firmino then the less time the striker spend outside the penalty box or in wide area, the better and more effective. Gyokeres’s heat map suggests that he likes to be busy running to channels, the issue is that when playing against low block, his run to channels become less effective and I had seen it in PL defenders that when a strikers run to channels against good defenders, the striker will be forced to go wide. Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think Gyokeres has the technical ability and dribbling ability like Isak or speed like prime Vardy to beat his man one v one from wide (if he is forced to go wide).
Unless if you see it differently, feel free to counter mine.
We have to buy him because;
A) striker is our top priority giving the fact that our two strikers scored combined 5 goals in league this season
B) Osimhen is one of the best strikers around. There are only few better than him (Isak, Haaland...) but those are out of reach.
Is he good enough though? Just because David Bellion would be an upgrade on our current attacking options doesn’t mean we should sign him.
Even if he has a Bruno 2020 impact where he drags us into the top 4, we still need a player who is good enough for a PL winning side in the long run and not just a top 4 player. The standard of recruitment has to be raised to a very high level, even if it means short term pain continues.
Even if he has a Bruno 2020 impact where he drags us into the top 4, we still need a player who is good enough for a PL winning side in the long run and not just a top 4 player. The standard of recruitment has to be raised to a very high level, even if it means short term pain continues.
Obvious bullshit. I can’t see them paying Rashford such wages.
This is an absolute no brainer….night and day different strikers
There’s no point in buying a striker if we’re not equipped to make the most of him is there?
A striker can’t score goals on his own and that’s what our current team practically asks them to do.
Goals do win games but what do we do if we can’t create the chances?
Haven’t we had good xG stats lately?
Yes. We created chances we just can't finish them.
Rashford under Conte would be fun.
Id happily swap with Zirkzee.
It is something to explore for sure.
It is something to explore for sure.
I know he is a good finisher but how is his work ethic? Does he press? Does he track back? Does he work hard? If he doesn’t it’s not going to work and I hope we actually listen to Ruben in terms of who he wants to sign.
We need someone more mobile imo. He's closer to Haaland from what I've seen, and it wouldn't work for us.
Dammit I wish I would’ve known this before sharing among friends
Osihmen not mobile? Since when?
I don't think I said anything like that.
Just was curious when a poster said we can't bring him in because we don't cross it, don't play slide balls through and don't have players who are selfless creators.
So short of bringing some incredible striker who makes his own chances, we're stuck then.
I want Gyokeres not a hybrid of Rashford and Lukaku.
Debates about pace are legendary on the internet.
Some people genuinely say Hojlund isn't fast, when he's a sub 11 100metre guy
I’m starting to wonder if I’ve been watching a different playerDebates about pace are legendary on the internet.
Some people genuinely say Hojlund isn't fast, when he's a sub 11 100metre guy
Whenever I've seen him he tends not to move much, not a player to run channels.
It's the United effect. We've worn him down.
Has the same problems as Hojlund i.e drifts out of games.
Daddy want want want 
If he wants a new challenge he is going to have to compromise.
I think the compromise will probably be in the quality of league before the quality of pay somehow
He ain’t going to last a week in Conte’s training sessions with the work ethic and attitude he has.
There's no point in spending whatever it would cost on Osimhen in our current team if he's not a playter that can create his own chances so yes, we're stuck.
To unstick that, you don't buy another striker. You buy the players that feed the striker then you buy the striker (and if you can't afford him yet, perhaps your current players score a few more because you've bought the players that'll actually pass to them).
The poster was right. To buy Osimhen would stink of past mistakes.
Do the stats not suggest we are creating a lot of chances? Like, way more chances than our opponents?
Yes but it’s not the only strikers missing chances. It’s also the likes of Rashford, Gernacho, Amad and Bruno who are bigger culprits than the strikers.
Creating chances for strikers isn't just about what others create for them. The ability to get chances is a trait in itself.
That's why high shot volume and high xG generating players tend to remain so across different clubs. The players around them will impact them, but not as much as their innate abilities and characteristics do.
From a stats perspective, low shot volume has always been the main concern with Hojlund. Not just here but at Atalanta and Strum Graz too, where he has ranged between 1.12 and 2.65 shot per 90. As opposed to Osimhen, who across his time in Napoli, Lille and Charelroi averaged between 3.27 and 4.63 shots per 90.
If you put Osimhen in the team in place of Hojlund he will immediately get more chances, because he's better at getting chances. Better movement, better in the box, better in the air and better at getting off shots. That won't change any creativity issues we have, but nor do the creativity issues make a striker upgrade pointless. The level of service they get will influence where they land within a certain range, but that range first and foremost is dictated by the type of player they are.
That's why high shot volume and high xG generating players tend to remain so across different clubs. The players around them will impact them, but not as much as their innate abilities and characteristics do.
From a stats perspective, low shot volume has always been the main concern with Hojlund. Not just here but at Atalanta and Strum Graz too, where he has ranged between 1.12 and 2.65 shot per 90. As opposed to Osimhen, who across his time in Napoli, Lille and Charelroi averaged between 3.27 and 4.63 shots per 90.
If you put Osimhen in the team in place of Hojlund he will immediately get more chances, because he's better at getting chances. Better movement, better in the box, better in the air and better at getting off shots. That won't change any creativity issues we have, but nor do the creativity issues make a striker upgrade pointless. The level of service they get will influence where they land within a certain range, but that range first and foremost is dictated by the type of player they are.
You could argue Hojlund would get more chances for Napoli. Easier league, better team comparatively to their opposition.
Osimhen has better movement, better instincts and has that killer instinct that Hojlund does not. Hojlund wasn't a goal machine under a very attacking Atalanta side.
Osimhen scored 15 in 25 last season in a Napoli side that was horrendous.
This is very rough from memory but things soured after they won the title in the 22/23 season as Osimhen believed he had some sort of agreement with the club to be sold for a reasonable figure that summer, I think he had signed an extension previously on that understanding so shades of what happened with Kane and Levy. Once they won the title Napoli decided to demand something crazy like 140M for him and that obviously killed his chances of a big money move to PSG which had been mooted and he went public with his feelings of betrayal.
The 23/24 season saw him missing games through injury and his production declined and there was an incident involving the clubs social media where they effectively abused and mocked him on Tik Tok, I am sketchy on the details but it was incredibly poor taste. Osimhen vowed at the end of the season to never play for Napoli again and with his performances having dropped they reduced their ask to around 75M and were surprised to find no takers at that price. Towards the end of the window the ask dropped to potentially as little as 40M to get shot of him and he had an option to go to Saudi and also Chelsea came calling, he wanted the big money from the Saudi deal but Napoli wanted him to take the Chelsea offer as they were offering to meet the asking price and in the end both deals fell apart. With the window shut they dumped him on a loan deal at Galatasary rather than see his value further decline as he sat out of football altogether owing to his refusal to play for them.
In view of the above he could be available cheaply but he has been in good form so far this season and the desperation of the January window does lead to teams overpaying so I am sure Napoli are hoping to get an offer close to what they were looking for at the beginning of the summer. It is very much up in the air as to how willing Victor is to play ball in negotiations though as he seems determined to go for the biggest bag of cash available and would seemingly quite like to screw over Napoli into the bargain.
Not exactly a like for like comparison though is it. Rasmus was 19 and mostly coming off the bench when he was at Atlanta, 19 year old Victor was on loan in the Belgian pro league after scoring 0 in 14 appearances for Wolfsburg. I am reasonably confident Rasmus could get 15 goals for Napoli now let alone when he is 24 with a couple of hundred league games behind him as Osimhen was in his last season in Italy.
More chances than he does at United, yes. More chances than Osimhen did at Napoli, no. That's the point.