What ?
11
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 39
- Goals
- 11
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 2
Brilliant to see him get his first PL goal. It was a scrappy ball that was anything but a chance created by his teammates, the kind top forwards have to capitalize on.
he'll do well to have a fraction of the glittering career that Macheda had here.Hopefully that’s got rid of that off his shoulders. Onwards and upwards!
Yeah, up until the point he scored it was definitely one of his worst matches, given how much space we had and how dangerous our wingers were.
It was a great finish though, so hopefully that will give him confidence to improve his all-round game.
Not you're not, I said the same thing. We're using him like a target or battering ram as we don't even pass often. He has physicality to do that but his game at Atalanta was more involved, shorter passes to lay out wide and then receive it back, pounce on loose balls and short crosses/cut back.
If we can get our players to look for passes and combinations more like we saw like we saw last night, Rashford seemed more motivated in working and passing from the off and providing triangles, a better passing midfield we can start to transform our league attack and lack of goals. It's been way too narrow and players not working hard to open the space for a pass and doing more solo runs to nothing.
He just needs 14 more to hit 20 overall.
It's not impossible to think that it could happen.
A lot of things aren't impossible but its definitely a far fetched approach.
That said, if Ten Hag plays Bruno and Eriksen together in a string of games (Eriksen needs to stay fit for this) then I'm quite confident Hojlund will get going to a respectable tally.
19 league games + whatever in the FA cup, even if he gets 10 more goals. 16 goals in his first season would be a success and something to build on.
No, I don't even think he'll hit it in the next 2 years. He may start doing it in his mid twenties. The problem is that we can't wait that long. We need a top striker for the now, rather than later.
I don't disagree that we haven't given him enough. But he himself has to show more and very quickly too. Is it unfair on Hojlund? Absolutely yes. But sadly this is the reality that is the current Man Utd. We cannot afford a lot of time because we've thrown the last 10 years away waiting for Martial to turn into a 30 goal a season striker, and we need him to develop ahead of the curve because of our own circumstances. We have to ask ourselves honestly if we are the best club that can develop him in the right way despite this urgency. If we cannot, then the fair thing to do for both us and him would be to let him develop somewhere else (maybe on loan?) and we get someone more experienced in.
There's no chance we'll sell him this summer (or even next summer), but we need to start being realistic about what he can do for us in the next one or two seasons and if it is enough to meet our own ambitions. We are always going to struggle for top 4 if our strikers cannot score. Every year our league form depends on Rashford scoring goals, and we need to change that dependency because he cannot maintain that form for a long period of time.
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Yeah but he will need to improve his own game in real time. His in the box movement is overrated on the caf, too often not making near post runs or gambling enough.
The moans here about lack of service doesn't fly when hes trying to run into the box centrally and double marked almost every time.
Not to absolve good ol' Wout of anything, but he has also blamed the tactics for his goal drought.
https://www.sportbible.com/football...weghorst-man-utd-erik-ten-hag-269130-20231223
Aye, sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit. He's still getting up to speed with the PL game, it's only been a few months, he's young experiencing a new country, new team mates and all that stuff. Adjusting to the physical requirements of the game will take that bit longer.
I did notice last night there's a lack of anticipation at times, the one Garnacho flashed across he should be aiming to get more towards the back post. There was another one where he just slides on his knees for some reason. Movement and anticipation will get better, but I do think he has shown natural instincts in front of goal when it comes to finishing, that's something that's more important at this stage of his career.
Reminded me of Cantona's FA Cup final goal.
The online fanbase seems very toxic at the moment. Toys out of the pram over ETH, SJR, Qatar, Onana not being DDG, Hojlund not being Kane etc. etc. This season needs patience while the SJR team comes in and gets to grips with everything, but this means the online bloodlust isn't being satisfied and so there's a lot of foot stamping going on.
This season's a write off anyway so we might as well take time to review now and get the summer right, which is the best time to make changes.
There's probably a bit of that, particularly the 'old man role' point - it's a job that demands experience. But there are a lot of time where Hojlund will run blind in behind when a one-two would otherwise be on. There were a couple of times yesterday where exactly that happened.
I don't mean this as an insult at all, but there's a bit of a Lukaku conundrum where he may look like a target man who can hold up the ball, but his best attributes really come to the fore when he's playing on the shoulder. Our front 3 yesterday was pretty well-suited to playing ahead of Eriksen, Mainoo, and Fernandes against a Villa that push up, but in most games I expect we'll need somebody either up top or off the flank who prefers dropping to receive and get their head up rather than trying to barrel through every time.
I thought Hojlund's positioning was generally very poor yesterday. I would be shocked if he wasn't told over and over again about Villa's high line and the need to keep his runs in check, but he was routinely in the wrong position for a through ball. As you rightly say, he's plenty quick enough to give himself a yard and you would like to think a more clever version of himself could have ran riot in that match.
He also once again had a couple of moments where he weirdly opted not to shoot when it was obviously the best option. But with how sweet his finish was for the goal, you would hope that will go away now with that monkey finally off his back. I don't want to fall into the trap of expecting a flurry of goals from him now, but it sure is tempting!
I think double figures would be great, 15 was what my hope was on the league which looks a bit unlikely but it just takes a few and he’s well on the way.
Yeah mate, Macheda scored 5 goals in 36 appearances for Utd spread across 6 seasons.
Legendary player for us
Probably worth mentioning that he only had one league goal for Atalanta this time last year. It was only really in January that he got going.
He scored 4 in 19 in the league, Hojlund now has 1 in 15 and hopefully the start of many, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves just yet..Yeah mate, Macheda scored 5 goals in 36 appearances for Utd spread across 6 seasons.
Legendary player for us
I assume you saying €75m and not pounds?
If not why not just say £90m, it will give a better effect to your storyline!
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He's scored 6 goals in just over 17 games worth of minutes.
He's not doing that much worse than Nunez in all comps who plays in a much better team.
Obviously lots slag Nunez but with context that Hojlund has been playing top level football much less in his career and as I said plays in a worse team it's really not too bad.
There is decent signs that he will continue to improve.
Obviously lots slag Nunez but with context that Hojlund has been playing top level football much less in his career and as I said plays in a worse team it's really not too bad.
There is decent signs that he will continue to improve.
And Hojlund has 6 in 23, so I would suggest he has already surpassed him, which tbh was not a difficult ask!
People slag Nunez because of his finishing, but he's always dangerous, and his movement is very good. I think hojlund has the physical abilities to do the same, and he's like 4 years younger so hopefully he can improve.
I've not forgotten his CL goals but the intensity of the PL is whats making it difficult for him to score, imo. I think he'll come good but I've learned not to count my chickens well before they hatch
Main thing for me is he’s getting near the crosses and having decent chances in an injury ravaged and quite poor offensive team. If you step back and think of what a good PL striker is (15 goals+ a season) I don’t see why he wouldn’t be able to surpass that quite easily in a half decent team and get 20+ once key players are back and we hopefully sign a CM.
I forgot about the CL. Maybe he can score some more there when we are back there next year...
Yeah loved that passion and emotion,so unfortunate that goal on his home debut was chalked off due to ball being out of play. Don't think any of us thought he would have to wait another 3 months for it
Landed for him. It think there's a top class player in there. Service needs to be better and he also has to improve in areas, but I think he'll be a quality player.
It's not blind faith if you watch the games and understand the sport though is it...
Very glad he scored and he had a nice bit of movement pinning a defender for Rashford to cut inside
His first touch however is often atrocious and a real concern.
His first touch however is often atrocious and a real concern.
Probably because he isn't that much quicker than majority of PL centerbacks. Bruno didn't have problem finding Rashford and Garnacho with ball in space because of their pace/acceleration.
Or probably he needs to learn about positioning to not just hang around within CBs. Henry is a master on this with his tendency/ability to drift to the left, and make it harder for CB to man mark.
Where is this narrative coming from all of a sudden? At Atalanta he recorded a top speed of 35.97 which was faster than Rashfords 35.95 record last season, and he recorded 35.45 against Arsenal which is the fastest any player for us has run this season and in the top 5 in the league, unless that has changed since September. Why all of a sudden is everyone saying he's slow as hell?
https://www.premierleague.com/news/3680868
Yeah. I don't see much evidence that he looks faster than Rashford, when the latter burns so many CBs. Have you?
Either that, or he needs to improve on timing his runs.
EDIT: Just an example that he isn't that much quicker than PL CBs.
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What you on about, his fee was 75 million pounds, it's not my storyline it's his own.
If you're happy with his output for that amount, that's good for you. Personally my opinion for that outlay we should have been getting more and that's taking his age into the equation as well. If he proves me wrong then that's fantastic but currently it's going to take me more than one goal in the league to be convinced he's worth half that figure.
Fingers crossed he does though because he seems to have the right passion for the club.
He's moving as fast as Rashford and Garnacho...
So you show a video were Rashford and Garnacho are in full tilt before he even gets to turn 180 and start his own running, yet he’s running just as fast as them, whilst not going full tilt himself which is quite easily established by the effort he’s putting in, and he still comes out on top of the defenders whilst not running miles ahead of them in order to stay onside as your proof that the guy is slow? Okay
felt like he got caught offside yesterday quite a few times and not because he miss timed a run and was only slightly off side. Just times where it seemed like he was lazy in getting back in. Just stood offside. Maybe trying the Inzaghi but like just beyond the half way line instead of in the box.
First half was a bit poor should have done better but in the second he won a few battles, held the ball up well and again he’s so close to getting on the end of some of these chances but either the ball wasn’t great or he just wasn’t on the move Quick enough.
His goal, delighted for him. Was a great moment and proper predators finish. He reacted the fastest and what a good finish. Hopefully that will be the start of a goal scoring run.
First half was a bit poor should have done better but in the second he won a few battles, held the ball up well and again he’s so close to getting on the end of some of these chances but either the ball wasn’t great or he just wasn’t on the move Quick enough.
His goal, delighted for him. Was a great moment and proper predators finish. He reacted the fastest and what a good finish. Hopefully that will be the start of a goal scoring run.