I don't get it either honestly. What has he done in the past to warrant such high praise? This surely isn't from what he has shown here.
11
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 39
- Goals
- 11
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 2
Lets put this myth to bed. He was doing more than Hojlund at 20 years of age
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...Sheringhams-footsteps-firing-Spurs-glory.html
And at 21 years of age (which Hojlund will be in a couple of weeks) Kane has scored 19 goals in the Premier League and was beeing hailed as a sensation.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/harry-kane-21-old-phenom-160837034.html?guccounter=1
So lets not use this excuse anymore.
I feel like people are being too harsh on him. He's a unit, but only 20 years old and learning the game. He's raw but there's some stuff to work with there.
Though I do get expectations are different with that price tag.
Though I do get expectations are different with that price tag.
That pricetag had nothing to do with the kid but that said he needs to do better and bury the few chances we are making for him. It's also not his fault that we have no strikers in the squad to provide competition and rest.
Kane was 21 when the 14/15 season started. At that point he had played 91 games and scored 21 goals. Actually quite similar to Højlund except Højlund has played in 4 different countries vs Kane who was always a car ride away from home.
The problem with this is that for every Harry Kane, you have thousands and thousands that spend the rest of their lives "doing nothing".
No clues tbh.
Welbeck was much better on ball and build up play. His issue has always been the final part of putting the ball in to the net. Hojlund is no where near good enough technically to lead the line for United. Prospectively good rotation or backup option long term, problem is we paid 40 million too many.
The two things used to defend him are the two things used in Antony's thread last season and both were proven to not be the reasons for playing poorly.
Antony also started well when he joined but gradually got worse and lack of confidence was cited as the issue. Age and being new to the team was the second excuse and a year later he's even worse.
Not saying none of these excuses apply for Hojlund but the consideration that he just isn't good enough for this level needs to be entertained.
He wasn't a nailed on talent that would a sure thing. He was pretty much the 2023 version of the Martial signing where we needed a striker and went the developmental route. The biggest difference is the talent level of Martial's first six month's is a couple of levels above what I see from Rasmus.
I'm still willing to give him until the end of next season to really judge him. If there's no real improvement we need to cut our losses early.
Antony also started well when he joined but gradually got worse and lack of confidence was cited as the issue. Age and being new to the team was the second excuse and a year later he's even worse.
Not saying none of these excuses apply for Hojlund but the consideration that he just isn't good enough for this level needs to be entertained.
He wasn't a nailed on talent that would a sure thing. He was pretty much the 2023 version of the Martial signing where we needed a striker and went the developmental route. The biggest difference is the talent level of Martial's first six month's is a couple of levels above what I see from Rasmus.
I'm still willing to give him until the end of next season to really judge him. If there's no real improvement we need to cut our losses early.
Football Manager? Think he was a wonder kid
Not too concerned about him. Has all the physical tools and just needs to adjust to the PL.
At the moment, he has been like Calvert-Lewin’s early years. Playing a lot and working hard but no goals. Until a few years later, suddenly broke out. Maybe it will be the case similar.
I'd hardly consider Copenhagen and Galatasary the toughest opponents in the world. There's no need to fool ourselves. He's a good player who will have a decent career but not a good enough player for where United need to be and for how we play at the moment. It's that simple.
The fact that he got 5 Champions League goals but couldn't score in the Premier League at the time despite playing in the same team. It means it's not a form issue - it's potentially a style of play and level of opponent issue.
People have already started turning on him. Typical 
Well yeah. He plays for Manchester United. Standards are supposed to be high, and he's not meeting them. Why have a forum if we can't discuss that?People have already started turning on him. Typical
He is our joint top scorer across all comps. And he is playing badly at the moment. That says everything about the state of us as a whole.
Look at Rashford this season, compared to last.
Bruno's finishing has mostly gone to shite to.
Its extremely worrying that we have so many players who have proven they can be good finishers before (including Rasmus before he joined us) that are not hitting the goals they should.
The comparison between Hojlund and Kane is not relevant as both players possess different skill sets. A more appropriate comparison would be with Romelu Lukaku who, at a similar age to Rasmus, was outperforming him while playing for West Brom and Everton. However, even if Rasmus manages to reach Lukaku's level, the question remains whether that would be good enough for a team aiming to win the EPL.
Hojlund hasn't really proven anything yet, certainly not that he's a very good finisher. 33 goals in 111 games. 1 goal in the league so far. Based on evidence he's nothing more than a fairly mediocre young forward. He's doing nothing that makes him stand out as a star in the making. That's not to say he won't become one, but right now we can only assume he will based on blind hope rather than through his underwhelming performances
He doesn't look a good finisher to me. He's not a clean striker of the ball.
Does he he really have good link up play? I don't think so. He doesn't hold the ball up well, it gets stuck between his feet often.
Good finishing / positioning probably would result in scoring more goals than 1 in the league. He did score what he could in the CL so this is not a worry for me.
His strength isn't really a big plus in the EPL, it's a must-have for a striker but nothing that makes him particularly effective compared to Italy.
I worry the first sentence of your comment explains why we actually went for him. His physical attributes are impressive, but his on the ball ability is nothing special. It's not being "negative", like I said if anyone thinks he's "immensely talented" based on what he has shown for us so far then they just want to be supportive, what is nice, but this is a football forum in which we discuss actual performances and not cheer for the players.
You havent watched him before he joined us. I have. Evidence of his finishing talent was there before he joined us. Then again based on your post history you dont rate Amad either so I shouldnt be surprised.
We obviously got rinsed on the fee. We paid twice his value.
He was probably at peak fee cos he had a decent season in Italy and scored goals for Denmark.
If we'd waited, his value might've dropped.
He was probably at peak fee cos he had a decent season in Italy and scored goals for Denmark.
If we'd waited, his value might've dropped.
The thing is most of these clips where he looks good happened in the first quarter of this season. He has definitely regressed since the first couple of months either due to lower confidence or lower fitness levels. I think people would be more forgiving if we still saw these examples of real pace and power or decent hold-up play, but they are few and far between as well.
I still think there is a player there, but not necessarily Man Utd starting level. And he should never have been put in the position of being the main no. 9 in a side this bad.
We absolutely paid to much and he shouldnt have been our lone striker at 20 years old. Hopefully the new regime will start doing transfers differently.
A experienced striker with Højlund as the talent would have been much better and if we had already bought the experienced striker, I am certain we would have got Højlund for much cheaper.
Dont you see a pattern here? This shit always happens to us. We buy a player for lots of money, he looks promising for couple of games, and then loses his way. The same fans who were hyping him up are now ready to give up on him. We were literally begging for Sancho to join with the "today's the day" shit, we saw it with Antony, we are seeing it with Hojlund. Even the cheaper ones like Eriksen, Amrabat and Malacia were labelled game changers after a couple of games, and now we want rid. Its a vicious cycle. Maybe the problem is not the players.
This is a bizarre thread. Why do some fans need to always defend the players we sign. We would all love him to be a success, but so far really nothing special. As for these physical attributes, what are they? His main one seems to be pace on the break, but we will rarely set up to utilise that and if we do eventually play some half decent football then ball retention and link play are crucial. Frankly hes pretty poor on this, its a surprise when he does retain the ball or create an outlet rather than a regular occurrence. Apart from the odd goal there is nothing to suggest a natural poacher, he also seems to offer zero goal threat from outside the box and is poor in the air. We were playing in a terrible CL group so his goals were a positive but quality of defending was poor, would say the same for any European goals he scored before
So what are we left with? Its really not clear he suits a possession based team that we will inevitably become. And price matters hugely here. Sack Murtough now.
This exactly. He's another player that suits counter-attacking (or "transitional" as more fancy way to put it) football. Is this really what we needed? It's really weird that he was the only CF target for us this summer.
I feel for this kid, but looks like another poor transfer that if turns out badly will be on the club rather than the player himself (like Antony).
Denmark plays possession based football and that is where he has been at his best. We have also seen some very good link up play the past few games from him so I strongly disagree with this.
He hasn't shown that for us though. I don't disagree, looks like he's having a good record with Denmark but looking at the opposition you've played against recently, it's not filling me with much confidence if I'm honest. I do give him "benefit of the doubt", but the stories I hear about his talent don't match what I see week in week out from Hojlund.
Yep, much of international football is dire, the qualifiers are a joke. look at Amrabat who looked good in the World Cup. Remember Kleberson...Its a positive indicator but he isnt showing it in the Premier league, in fact almost the opposite.
I think he did show it in the beginning with us, but he has gotten a lot worse the more he has played for us which is extremely worrying.
This is the story of the team Ten Hag built here.
Or maybe he got figured out by the defenders, maybe his adrenaline rush is over, whatever. Seeing it in flashes is just not good enough for me to call it a strength of his. The only consistent "strength" he has shown here is top speed, but this is not proving very useful for us so far.
There is a self-appointed Top Red committee on here which decides when you can criticize or not criticize a player or a manager. Until they are on board, you are a knee-jerker, bed-wetter, glory-hunter yada yada yada. You have to ignore their noise if you want to have any sort of discussion on a player or a manager based on your observations. Otherwise you can only write in the hypothetical - immense talent, needs time, is 'X' years old, blah blah blah.
You are correct. From what we have seen so far he has a poor touch, ball retention and link-up is mediocre at best and doesn't seem to possess any extra-ordinary eye for goal. Not looking good so far.
I'm glad its not just me. The Wigan game was pretty disappointing given the quality of defending. We all want him to succeed. If I was Radcliffe I would be packing Murtough's bags for him. The amount of money he, Woodward and Arnold have wasted is scandalous. Its almost deliberate sabotage.
He didnt get found out by defenders. He is still getting in to good positions, but he is doing it a lot less and his runs are different which point more towards something happening in training, him trying to adapt to his team mates (which in this case is a bad thing).
He has had very good finishes and consistently had it before joining us. It wasnt some flash thing. And the idea that international football and champions league doesnt count is simply nonsense. If that was the case English teams should be cruising the champions league and that really hasnt happened.
Højlund is a young striker talent asked to play the main striker, not only in one of the biggest clubs in the world, but also one of the worst attacks in the league. Putting that all on "well he must be trash just get a new one" is silly.
Given that most our attacking talent is struggling hard to score points to a much bigger issue.
I wouldn't say your opening line is true at all, especially after his most recent performance against lower league opposition - a game he could have expected to start in if he was brought in as a back-up or rotation option. I can agree there is unnecessary pressure on him and he is far from the finished article, but it is difficult to see how he develops in this environment. I also mentioned that looking back at his Serie A highlights, it looked like a lot of his good moments there were down to physical superiority - which concerns me about succeeding in the Premier League, which is generally a faster paced and more physical league. We would be naive to sit here, stick our fingers in our ears, and assume Hojlund will go on to be a success here. As much as we all want him to succeed, he's a fan which goes a long way - but right now, we've seen nothing from him to suggest he can develop into anything better than a back-up striker here. Ideally we give him time and bring in a senior option with an eye for goal.
I agree with this, but I have concerns that even that might not actually change anything. Looking at how we play I am of the firm believe that even Osimhen would have massive difficulty scoring for us with the way we play at the moment.
Our wingers are very often trying impossible shots rather than cut back passes, and the same goes for Bruno. Add to that a Mc Tomminay running in to the strikers space and you a recipe for a failing striker.
Its incredible how much flack this guy is getting because he doesn't get on the end of the non existent crosses from Antony and Rashford.
I can't believe he's not scoring when Bruno just refuses to pass to him.
Unbelievable how he can't finish, when McTominay literally gets in his way all the time.
I can't believe he's not scoring when Bruno just refuses to pass to him.
Unbelievable how he can't finish, when McTominay literally gets in his way all the time.
That and people are expecting him to have a higher chance conversion rate than Haaland too.
People in this thread chatting about how you cant criticise him or some “Top Red committee” bullshit are ridiculous, it’s just that some of us don’t want to write a young player off after a few months, like when did this become such a common practice? You write like you all want him to fail with half of your posts being way OTT and talking about shit that hasn’t happened or making shit up to get your point across, I don’t think i’ve seen such vitriol for a young player a few months into his career with us.
You know there is a middle ground. He's not a £70m player, probably half that. He may come good, he may not. But he has show little IMO to show elite potential, there were crosses against Wigan and he missed them. Is all he can do get on the end of crosses, as a more possession based team wont necessarily do a lot of that either. Lets see. But not being impressed by what I see doesn't mean we write him off, why would I or anyone want him to fail. Conversely the fan boys who want to talk him up and talk of unique attributes need a reality check. Bottom line our appalling recruitment meant we massively overpaid for a player who should be back up and not a starter.