Hatrick against Palace will set him on course for the season.
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?
We haven't played through a main striker in a long time. Getting the rest of the team to look for him will take time. I'm looking at you Marcus
He doesn't need time to be our first team striker. He already is and should be judged as such. The fact that he's not the finished product is neither here nor there. Rashford is still improving but he is still judged as our main LW. No one says 'oh he'll be the fished product at 27.'
Tbf Rashford tried to play him through once and the poor kid didn't even make the run. He's still very young and just got here like two months or so. It's understandable that he hasn't got used to how we play, to his teammates yet. And vice versa. Agree that will take time.
You're not technically wrong with this thought process but why stop there? Are any of the Utd players and manager 'good' enough at this time and moment? Have we looked anything like 'Utd' quality the past 10 years?
If we judged them by 'Utd standards' then everyone should be sacked today.
There's so much context missing that there's no point really having a discussion if you say 'he should be judged as is' because you're 'right' but it adds nothing.
I don't know why people are so weird and can't look at anything objectively. He's 20. He'll take time. The club as a whole needs to achieve our targets short term and long term. He'll be the main 9 early because we have nobody else, but he's still a useful player with potential to be a top player. So right now can't we just judge him as that? What potential does he show, rather than expecting him to be a top player right away? Where is the sense in that? Everything we do should be aimed towards can we challenge for the top trophies in 2024/2025/2026. Not right now.
I never said judge him by 'Utd standards' of old or a world class striker. I said judge him as a first choice Man Utd striker not a trainee or a kid that needs time. Rooney was a kid that needed time but he was first and foremost judged as a first choice striker. That was his job. Yes Hojlund is not at that level but neither are we. But we should still expect us to have a 15+ goal striker that contributes massively to a successful season whatever that means - top 4 + cup? Why? Because our manager and CEO and recruitment team said so. Unless we think they spent 70 mill on a kid and made him first choice but he needs time and its ok for him to netflix and chill for a few years.
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The problem with that is we are one of the biggest club sides in the world. We should never be in a situation where we do not have one of the world’s best strikers currently playing for us. Understandably, when we then play £70m for a striker, people will expect them to be top quality. It’s right to be critical of the club for only buying a player with potential.
That said, I agree that’s not fair on Højlund. He should have been brought in as an understudy to a top striker and we should be judging him to that standard (and making significant allowance for the fact he’s been thrown in the deep end). I’m not happy he is our main striker, as I don’t think he is currently good enough, but I am happy with his performances judged against what we should be expecting from him.
Who gives a feck if we are a big club or not. Big club means nothing. We have been a top 4 competitor at best and a Europa League level club for 10 years now. We need to build towards being better. You can't just say "we are bigger so must be more" when the reality says otherwise. Only way to get better is to properly build and let players develop properly.
People want a top striker. Great. We all do. They don't really exist and those that do, prioritize city, Madrid or Bayern. That's just the reality. No use in complaining about the situation, better to be smart about how you progress. Better to spend big on a player who could be what we need, than spend 100m on a player who will never be good enough for what we need.
He's a player who is ready for regular football, and he'll develop quickly. His goals per 90 stats at that age are pretty elite relative to other center forwards at that age over the past 30 or so years in top leagues, only surpassed by haaland, Lukaku, Torres, Aguero, Eto'o, van Persie and Rooney (basically the same as him). Ahead of Cavani, Suarez, makaay, Henry, Benzema... Vast majority of top strikers over the years haven't done anything at all before 21 or 22. Most elite strikers don't make the step up to be top players until 22/23. And given that his career has progressed very quickly and his physical style of play, it's only reasonable to give him time to get used to the prem which is by far the most physical league, just like it took him half a season to get going in Serie A.
Personally, I don't think we were anywhere near competing for the title. So I wasn't bothered about Kane and thought he'd be a dumb signing. I think Hojlund is enough to get CL football next season (so long as we don't have injury crisis and chaos around, Kane wouldn't change much there either). And we have a better chance at making the step up in future seasons with hojlund developing and turning into a top player, because our squad still needs development. No sense in spending 100m on a player approaching the cliff, when his remaining peak most likely won't overlap with our win window.
I really hope he bags a goal or two against Palace just to relieve that pressure of getting a goal in the league. But I'm still a little worried for him because we haven't really created many clear cut chances for him in the games he's played so far and with the possibility of Antony coming back and having him and an out of form Rashford on the wings doesn't bode well for Højlund because
Man Utd 0:1 Crystal Palace
Wegnorse.
Abysmal. 70m for this...
We should get a full firing striker for 70m. Not some trainee
We should get a full firing striker for 70m. Not some trainee
Not sure where his first league goal is going to come from. These sorts of games are the ones where he is expected to score.
Four games in and already writing him off I see.
We are still in "shinning new toy must be praised" phase? Well, his pressing is good. Worth every cent.
Can he shoot or does he only score scrappy goals like Hernandez?
Bit of a Weghorst performance unfortunately.
Well I think he shows what we already knew - he's not finished article and will probably be only in 3 years or so.
Six years of excuses for Martial.
Won't even give the new signing six games
Won't even give the new signing six games
Same as Mount
I know everyone would like to flay his guts but at the very least Anthony Martial is the only attacker we have who can control a football
Pretty tough school for him at the moment. Against a very deep defence today there wasn't much room to move into which would suit his physical attributes and there wasn't a whole lot of creativity or great opportunity. The few moments he did get didn't happen for him. Going to need plenty of time to develop.
On what evidence. One goal in the carling cup proceeded by 5 years of nothing.
The fact that we have a 20 year old, who scored less than 10 league goals in Seria A starting for Manchester United, speaks volumes of where we are as a club right now.
He can barely control a football. He looks like he's about to fall over when he's running with the ball at speed. He's big but has zero strength to go with it. That attempt at holding off the defender and spinning in the box only to land on his arse was embarrassing.
Our scouting and recruitment team should be shot with balls of their own shit.
Our scouting and recruitment team should be shot with balls of their own shit.
Worrying
What did we pay for him? £60m? £70m? Scandalous. Erik Ten Hag should hang his head in shame
Don't think anyone is writing him off, but as a signing he was clearly a guy for the future when we really need someone right now.
just look at our goal totals and goal difference in the past few seasons: it's fecking terrible for a big club.
After a few games it was obvious that Sancho and Antony werent good enough. This guy is even worse. Totally out of his depth. Not even a midtable strike. Ollie Watkins is better. 74m pissed away on a player with no real abilty who just throws himself to the ground in the hope of winning a pen when he loses the ball.
If he had scored when it was cleared off the line we would have gone on to win comfortably I reckon. At the moment we are needing luck to go for us and fine margins, which isn’t the good basis for a football team. Seems our luck is finely balanced.
I'd take just 'an article' right now.
And it is starting, already talking shit about 20 yo kid expecting him to score loads straight away only after few games, this place is predictable as hell. 
Stinker of a post .
Unluckiest striker I've seen in years, really sad performance from him.
Its obvious he isnt a top class player. He is so far from being anyway near good enough
He's absolutely rapid but really needs to work on his balance, falls over as much as Weghorst when trying to shoot.
Again feeding off absolute scraps and turned him into a player that has to play with his back to goal. Thats not why we bought him....
His hold up play is not yet refined as some on here believed before we signed him, against physical opposition he needs to use his body better. Unfortunately we don't even play to his strengths, he should be allowed to drift onto the wings/drop deep with a fluid attack around him, likes of Bruno, Rashford moving into areas vacated by him. Rashford being crap doesnt help either, there is no one to combine play with him
We are a laughing stock replying on this lad up front. He’s shite.
At 20 years old, Watkins was on loan at Weston Super Mare in the Conference South.
You know we've paid for a young striker with raw physical attributes and potential. Stop being such a drama queen because he isn't prime Van Nistelrooy yet.