Question for the Hojlund haters and doubters

Sassy Colin

Death or the gladioli!
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Name the strikers, in the history of football, who have successfully led the line at a 'top' European club at the age of 21.

Haaland springs to mind as an obvious one.

I was surprised that RvN was already 25 when he came to United, because I thought we wanted to buy him when he was 19, until he had that serious injury.

Obviously, there are going to be several, of course there is, but it's a big ask of any player, considering he's had no strike partner nor anyone to rotate with him to give him a rest.

btw, the answer to this question isn't "but he cost £70M".

Name names.
 
That ain't gonna change the fact that he struggles to keep the ball under pressure and do basic linking up. I don't expect much more than that
 
Sassy Colin said:
Name the strikers, in the history of football, who have successfully led the line at a 'top' European club at the age of 21.

Haaland springs to mind as an obvious one.

I was surprised that RvN was already 25 when he came to United, because I thought we wanted to buy him when he was 19, until he had that serious injury.

Obviously, there are going to be several, of course there is, but it's a big ask of any player, considering he's had no strike partner nor anyone to rotate with him to give him a rest.

btw, the answer to this question isn't "but he cost £70M".

Name names.
Click to expand...
Michael Owen? Rooney (kinda)? Not disagreeing, just getting involved!
 
What a moronic thread title. Is the purpose to have a discussion or to goad people?
 
Everyone should be a doubter.

He has a lot to do to prove himself next season. Not many strikers were worldies at 20 but most, Lewandowski, Haaland, Kane, Ruud etc, were banging them in by 22.
 
Surely if you're going to defend a player, you should discuss his merits as a player? Rather than argue using a blanket rule that has nothing do with the player whatsoever? :lol:

By your logic we may as well start Charlie McNeill up front every game because he's only 20.
 
I don't understand this.

Should we expect nothing from Hojlund and be grateful for his mere presence on the pitch? At what age are we allowed to start criticising him?
 
Sassy Colin said:
Obviously, there are going to be several, of course there is, but it's a big ask of any player, considering he's had no strike partner nor anyone to rotate with him to give him a rest.

btw, the answer to this question isn't "but he cost £70M".
Click to expand...
But that is the problem. He was bought as a starting striker for the premium price of one, and he’s not close to that level, which is a pretty big problem for our squad.
 
Sassy Colin said:
To have a discussion, did you read the OP?

Add to the discussion.
Click to expand...

The OP is even stupider.

You can have a 21 year old striker from the third division in Timbaktu start for us and ask the same question. I don't know what are you trying to do here. Is your sole point that a 21 year old striker shouldn't be questioned? Cool Chief! May be you should ask a moderator to shut down any discussion on him.
 
The worst thing about him is the laziness, can’t get into onside positions on so many occasions when there’s a long pass on for him.
 
He always looked like a massive work in progress. The problem is that we're actually a terrible fit for developing players.

The fanbase doesn't have the patience for them so there were always going to be inevitable calls to bench him for a more experienced top level striker (we're the only club that apparently needs prime Harry Kane to have a shot at finishing in the top 4).

He needs game time to develop and a competent coach to gets his hands on him.
 
Sassy Colin said:
Name the strikers, in the history of football, who have successfully led the line at a 'top' European club at the age of 21.

Haaland springs to mind as an obvious one.

I was surprised that RvN was already 25 when he came to United, because I thought we wanted to buy him when he was 19, until he had that serious injury.

Obviously, there are going to be several, of course there is, but it's a big ask of any player, considering he's had no strike partner nor anyone to rotate with him to give him a rest.

btw, the answer to this question isn't "but he cost £70M".

Name names.
Click to expand...
Rooney
 
At the start of the season you'd think 12-15 goals would be a reasonable expectation. He has 13. Not bad considering he's not been particularly well supported by his team-mates. He's usually lucky to see a dozen touches
 
What does the question actually have to do with Hojlund other than admitting that he isn't good enough to be leading the line us?
 
Bilbo said:
At the start of the season you'd think 12-15 goals would be a reasonable expectation. He has 13. Not bad considering he's not been particularly well supported by his team-mates. He's usually lucky to see a dozen touches
Click to expand...
Exactly. He’s done well for a kid who receives poor service.
 
All the names mentioned are players that went on to be world class.

Will Hojlund be world class? Who knows? Everyone peaks at different times but players like Rooney, Benzema, Mbappe, etc were different class. Hojlund is not at that level but he can still be a good striker for us.
 
The wingers no matter who play give him feck all to work with. Time and time again we work the ball out wide just to play it infield and lose possession or shoot
 
Loads as listed above.

Current strikers aged 21 or under who seem to be as good or at least comparable in terms of potential

Konate, Sesko, Ferguson has shown as much aside from that 6 game streak for Rasmus, Moukoko not far off and two years younger, Wahi.

I think the more pressing thing though is that with Martial being a crock, we needed a true world class striker and Hojlund for the future. That's not Hojlund's fault
 
His debut season has been decent, all things considered. Won't complain about that. I do think he has a very limited ceiling due to his poor technique though - that's one of those things that doesn't get any better with age or experience.
 
Bilbo said:
At the start of the season you'd think 12-15 goals would be a reasonable expectation. He has 13. Not bad considering he's not been particularly well supported by his team-mates. He's usually lucky to see a dozen touches
Click to expand...

Nicely balanced. How do you fix the lack of support?

It was a different era with a manager who had complete autonomy and respect, but allegedly SAF told his senior players "pass to RVP or you're dropped"
 
We can keep making excuses , its been a poor first season he needs to improve massively to lead the line for us. It was a walk in the park for their defenders today
 
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