We got worse after he came off. The stick this lad is getting is ridiculous.
11
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 41
- Goals
- 12
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 2
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Weghorst offered far much more , not joking about that.
This kid has time on his side and showed potential early on , but clearly not ready to lead the line in the premier league. Especially in a struggling team.
Another worrying sign that ETH still does not understand this league at all.
His manager has set him up for failure. Non-existent attacking tactics does't help anyone. Combine that with the level of brainlessness in Garnacho and Antony. Recipe for a disaster.
He's not getting the service at all so I'm reluctant to criticise him. He's part of a broken system.
I see that people still treat strikers as some stationary objects who stand in penalty box and ball must come directly to them.
It actually got worse. Haha. Yet he's the problem apparently. People on here do not live in reality.
He’s not even a nuisance anymore… I remember the game against Arsenal where he was competing for every ball and gave Gabriel a tough time, but now he just joggs a bit and gets outmuscled/outjumped on every ball, his touch is shaky and he doesn’t make any runs.
‘No service for him’ is slowly becoming the new ‘We need a DM to unlock Pogba’.
While he can have more service, he’s been shite independent of that. Zero aerial presence, bad first touch and being a step behind the play is a consistent theme with him in the PL.
While he can have more service, he’s been shite independent of that. Zero aerial presence, bad first touch and being a step behind the play is a consistent theme with him in the PL.
ln what world is that true?
Weghorst was more of a nuisance!
It is wild, as if they have no input into the attacking play and are just there to finish it off.
I compared him to Lukaku at the start, Rom was better with his back to goal and in general play and that is not a good thing.
He's been incredibly poor but it's not all on him. We have built a terrible squad around him and he isn't good enough to make something out of nothing like some truly great strikers can.
Exactly. Good players stand out even in rubbish teams.
I feel for Hojlund. He went off today and what changed? Did the team suddenly start playing well with a different central striker? This team simply doesn't know how to use a #9. Could be Hojlund could be Van Nistlerooy. Easier to get service at closing time in a packed pub.
I get that Højlund is a big disappointed, but the rose tinted glasses for Weghorst here are kind of hilarious. He was certainly no better.
Some posters are being far too quick to write off how good he could be in the future based on how he currently looks in this team.
You can't underplay how big a factor Hojlund's age is. The reality is that at 20 someone like Kane was having a 6-starts league season for Spurs, while someone like Osimhen had only just moved from Charleroi to Lille. At that point in their careers they would have snapped your hands off for even the modest last season Hojund had at Atalanta, let alone being able to say they had finished top scorers in the CL group stage with 5 goals. And they would have struggled every bit as much as Hojlund has in this side. You really can't read too much into his future potential based on such a small sample size of poor league performances at this age.
However, that doesn't change the fact that right here and now our starting £64m striker hasn't scored a league goal in 11 starts. Whatever about the future, he is currently out of his depth.
And it isn't as simple as saying "he doesn't get the service", because a key part of a striker's skillset is the ability to get chances, not just finish them. If you put a current-day Kane or Osimhen in this side they would be getting more chances and scoring more goals because they are generally better CFs, even if we would still be saying they need better service from the rest of the team on top of that.
You can't underplay how big a factor Hojlund's age is. The reality is that at 20 someone like Kane was having a 6-starts league season for Spurs, while someone like Osimhen had only just moved from Charleroi to Lille. At that point in their careers they would have snapped your hands off for even the modest last season Hojund had at Atalanta, let alone being able to say they had finished top scorers in the CL group stage with 5 goals. And they would have struggled every bit as much as Hojlund has in this side. You really can't read too much into his future potential based on such a small sample size of poor league performances at this age.
However, that doesn't change the fact that right here and now our starting £64m striker hasn't scored a league goal in 11 starts. Whatever about the future, he is currently out of his depth.
And it isn't as simple as saying "he doesn't get the service", because a key part of a striker's skillset is the ability to get chances, not just finish them. If you put a current-day Kane or Osimhen in this side they would be getting more chances and scoring more goals because they are generally better CFs, even if we would still be saying they need better service from the rest of the team on top of that.
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Whilst also accepting he has little service, there is nothing special about him so far in a United shirt. He loses the ball enough in the hold up, and his runs aren't as clever as people want to think. He's often failing to make near post moves and hangs in impossible pass areas, being triple marked in the middle of the box.
Before whinging about the lack of service it's probably worth looking at why. His movement isn't that good and he's not getting involved enough himself. When he does get the ball he takes too long to get it out of his feet and fails to interchange with his teammates because of it.
Before whinging about the lack of service it's probably worth looking at why. His movement isn't that good and he's not getting involved enough himself. When he does get the ball he takes too long to get it out of his feet and fails to interchange with his teammates because of it.
This oneln what world is that true?
Top striker talent was like Greenwood. As a football fan, you can just feel it. Every time Greenwood was in or near penalty box, he's just so dangerous.
With Hojlund, it feels like McTom as CM on his debut season. Just doing the basic and not much else.
With Hojlund, it feels like McTom as CM on his debut season. Just doing the basic and not much else.
The central striker in Rashford was even worse than he is. The team is clearly missing a central striker than can play at this level as it was last season.
Even if we're kind enough to give you the Antony cross, where are you getting 2?
Poor kid. He’s a top talent and in a proper team would be scoring goals already. He’s been set up to fail by a shocking team, poor supporting cast and a fanbase who can’t get behind their players. Seriously hope this club doesn’t bring in any more talented players until the culture of fixed too to bottom because it’s career suicide!
He is currently levels below what we need. I'm sorry to say that because he is still young.
He's currently at the level of Wout Weghorst and needs to improve fast because we don't have the luxury of waiting 5 years for him to hit his peak.
He's currently at the level of Wout Weghorst and needs to improve fast because we don't have the luxury of waiting 5 years for him to hit his peak.
Really hope he gets a goal asap. I think when he gets one we will see a different player again.
Signing a 6'3 striker who has a massively lower aerial duel win % than 5'7 Bryan Mbuemo was silly.
Mbuemo is competing for double the aerial duels AND winning them at just shy of double the rate.
Even a player like Cunha, who currently has some big deficiencies, would have been a waaaay better signing than Hojlund. At the very least he's a genuinely elite ball carrier - something we're desperate for - a very good passer, uses his physicality really well and is one of the best pressing forwards in Europe. A lot more obvious qualities to build on than Hojlund has.
Mbuemo is competing for double the aerial duels AND winning them at just shy of double the rate.
Even a player like Cunha, who currently has some big deficiencies, would have been a waaaay better signing than Hojlund. At the very least he's a genuinely elite ball carrier - something we're desperate for - a very good passer, uses his physicality really well and is one of the best pressing forwards in Europe. A lot more obvious qualities to build on than Hojlund has.
It's true he's not getting any service, but at the same time he doesn't seem to have anything in his locker (apart from finishing chances and it's still on the fence if he's anything good at it). That's a problem. We were more of a functional team with Weghorst up top.
The one where Bruno played right to his feet in a great position to score and he let it role straight past him
He also wasn't worse.
Some kid who barely scored a goal in the Italian league and we decide to drop £80m on him. Hardly surprising he’s struggling.
Wasn't just Weghorst though. Last season's side was a very different team. Literally.
He was no worse and was a loan who didnt cost us 72m
At what point do we need to have a inquest into how we've managed to spend over £100m on two players from Atalanta with less than 2000 Serie A minutes between them?
Young enough to come good eventually, sure, but that really doesn't help us or them in the immediate future.
Young enough to come good eventually, sure, but that really doesn't help us or them in the immediate future.
Not really. The main difference is we had an inform Rashford. Our attack was still poor and we had negative goal difference for most of the season. Signing Hojlund as the only front 3 signing was a quite obvious mistake.
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We had Shaw, Martinez and Varane starting fairly consistently. Had none of that to date. Casemiro and Eriksen starting regularly. None of that to date. Add that to an inform Rashford.
Richarlison was a better fit for us.
We're probably keeping them afloat
He's shite.
We are a players grave yard. Careers die here. Came in, started ok with a bit of fire, now going through the motions.