Why is it posters like you need to tar and feather the fanbase as one entity to make yourself seem morally superior?
The lad is not elite level, but that doesn't mean we all hate him for it.
9
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 52
- Goals
- 10
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 2
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Nik (@Rood), Jamie (@Vault Dweller) and Ed (@That'sHernandez) give their end of season awards out! They celebrate the best players, goals and moments of the season (there were some, honestly) and also give out awards for the worst and most disappointing players/moments of the season.
They then discuss all the latest transfer rumours and get into the potential ins and outs this summer at Old Trafford.
The lad is not elite level, but that doesn't mean we all hate him for it.
Annoying how? Because he tries to tussle with defenders? Most defenders love players who try and tussle, especially ones like Hojlund who lose the vast majority of tussles. The only strikers that defenders don't want to tussle with are absolute tanks who know how to use their body like Drogba. As a defender it is more of a nightmare marking someone who you never know where they will be, someone who drops into areas you don't feel comfortable following them. When a defender is occupied, most of them like it because they're doing something tangible.
Hojlund does nothing to test defenders reactions or decision making, he doesn't play passes in behind players, he doesn't hold a defender off, touch to a team mate and spin off, he doesn't make good decoy runs to take them out of zone, he doesn't make the correct runs across defenders or across goal, he doesn't make darting runs one way then the other or keep them on their toes. He is very predictable and offers literally nothing in the air so that is comfortable to deal with whenever the ball goes long or high, he is never able to create that little gap to take a shot anywhere on the pitch. He is one of the easiest people to mark that I have seen, hence why he never gets a shot attempts and rarely scores.
These are all things decent strikers do, let alone a top striker, even the simple ability to receive the ball under pressure, keep it and lay it off would be mega useful, but when it goes up to Hojlund the majority of the time he ends up on the floor and he never knows how to evade CBs.
All of the things you stated there as absolutes that he does not do he actually did in the game against West Ham. Got shots away, hit the target twice, held the ball up, played in team mates, made decoy runs, made himself available. There is no argument that he has not been good enough or that he has not done the basics frequently enough but posts claiming he never does these things are no different than those that say he scored 16 goals last year so must be good enough.
He has been poor all season, very poor for much of it. This does not absolve 80% plus of his teammates who have been just as poor but just not as heavily scrutinized. The West Ham game was this is a nutshell, most of the team were objectively worse than Rasmus but he has garnered far more comments in his performance thread and has again been the subject of some apalling abuse on social media. I genuinely hope he gets a move away in the summer for the sake of his own mental health.
It wasn't my intention to generalize. My apologies. I'll try to remember to use the word 'some' instead of 'we' next time. The amount of hate and toxicity in this place does make it easy to feel morally superior though.
No worries, i just don't like to generalize the fanbase in negative or positive terms. There are those who wish injury on our own players, which i can never understand. Frustration should not lead to hate...Something something dark side.
Agree with this except he should stay here and prove himself. He has been improved in the last 7-8 games or so. He has been made the scapegoat.
The way he can potentially be useful in the final is if Spurs play a high line, and he can make runs in the channels. Then he just needs to keep it simple and bring others into play. This would be a lot better than trying to play hold-up centrally, which he generally can't do well. If I remember right, he actually did this a bit in the away game against Spurs this season.
I knew someone would bring up one of the rare occasions he does some of these things. Who cares if he does it once in a while, he should be doing this every single match or in the vast majority of matches - this is Manchester United and he cost an absurd amount of money, we shouldn't only be able to point to a handful of matches where your forward did the basics of good forward play. When we are chasing a goal desperately everyone else manages to get on the end of chances or score goals but it is very rarely him and that is not because teammates don't pass to him or create for him, that is on him and his ability to affect the game.
We played against one of the worst sides in the league in West Ham and he did some of the basics, that's great but what matters is doing it regularly and consistently. Memphis Depay looked like Ronaldo in the Europa League but he wasn't good enough generally and the same is the case for Hojlund. He is a non-entity in the vast majority of the matches he plays, I did not say he NEVER does but he VERY RARELY does any of those things. In order to get away with being so invisible you have to have a special ability like Haaland, who knows how to get into positions and despite rarely touching the ball outside of the box, is one of the most prolific in terms of getting touches inside the opposition box due to his movement and desire. Even then in the big matches Haaland gets seen as a negative to the side because of the things he lacks.
There is not a player on this team that has not been scrutinised heavily, the only reason Hojlund may have gotten worse after the previous match is because he has been abject for a long period so people have less patience with his lack of impact, whereas others have shown they can be dangerous. He also gets praised for some of the most average at best performances because he has been so bad that it looks good in comparison to his own level as opposed to actually good. He is Manchester United's number one striker and he will be highly scrutinised, that is something he just has to deal with. None of this is his fault, but it was clear from day one that signing him as our starting 9 was an incredibly stupid decision and we are paying for it. If he played for any other side, not a single person on here would be wanting us to sign him or fearing playing against him it would be seen as an easy day for our CBs, just like there is not a single Spurs fan who is scared that they will be facing him. He may score or do something good in the final and I really hope he does, but that would be an exception and not the rule with him, whereas we should be demanding strikers who affect the vast majority of games.
Some day he may become great, but it would take a massive turnaround and he is currently far from an acceptable level to be playing so many minutes for us and where we wish to be, so there is no reason why that shouldn't be stated. Abuse is different and unacceptable but we shouldn't give credence to twitter fans or whatever in this discussion because none of us here are abusing him, but strictly speaking on his football contributions.
He seems to have bulked up, to his detriment ala Lukaku during his time with us.
Putting sentimentality aside, as unlike the kid, he isn't suited to us. Overall he has been very poor. Sure he has good moments and the style of football generally has changed for the classic number 9. I don't think it's a case of no one passing to him but simply no one plays that way any more and he hasn't adapted very well.
His role needs him to win more headers, hole the ball better and give a headache to defenders but generally he fails in that and makes life easy for defenders.
He needs to go on loan to even a championship side, lose some of his bull and learn of A N other striker. UTD simply don't hav anyone he can look at to bring his game up.
Putting sentimentality aside, as unlike the kid, he isn't suited to us. Overall he has been very poor. Sure he has good moments and the style of football generally has changed for the classic number 9. I don't think it's a case of no one passing to him but simply no one plays that way any more and he hasn't adapted very well.
His role needs him to win more headers, hole the ball better and give a headache to defenders but generally he fails in that and makes life easy for defenders.
He needs to go on loan to even a championship side, lose some of his bull and learn of A N other striker. UTD simply don't hav anyone he can look at to bring his game up.
His value is in the bottom, no one will come close to sign him, our only hope he finds some form on a loan and we wish him good luck.
This isn’t true at all. Hojlund has been far and away our worst performer of all regular players this season. You cannot go through our first XI-15 players and credibly claim anyone has been anywhere near as individually terrible as him. The closest would probably be Onana. But there is no outfield player who cannot look himself in the mirror and say that they have personally been less crap than Hojlund. Certainly nowhere near close to 80% of our players. In fact, a large amount of them have been let down by playing in a team with no centre forward.
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I believe Hojlund has unfortunately been the weakest performer among our regular starters. This isn't based on just the Cafe. Across multiple football websites, he consistently receives the lowest ratings compared to his starting teammates and holds the lowest average rating.
Agree. If your main ability is to tussle and hold it up you’d better be like duncan Ferguson or Fellaini and actually have the ability to do so.
The ball bounces back off hoijlund almost every single time.
Despite having the frame to be a right handful, he’s just not.
It’s a shame as he does genuinely try he’s just not good enough.
Yes. In another of the recent games he did the same too - one of Wolves or Bournemouth games (can't recall which one).
I would love to tell you (Do not exaggerate) but I can't because he is really that bad
Problem with this is van de ven is one of their CB's and has crazy recovery pace.
Honestly i think holjund gets bullied by that tottenham CB pairing. I'd love to be wrong though.
He offers something but it's not enough, the striker needs to be a nightmare for the opposition defence. Rasmus is carrying very little threat now and the way we play does not suit him at all. He does bits and bobs for the team but it's needs to be more.
Look at the game against Bilbao, he wasn't good and had some really poor touches but he got a a goal so no one was really bothered, that's all we need.
Yeah, my expectations for Højlund in the final really couldn't be lower. But I hope he tries to be more mobile and seek out the wide spaces if their fullbacks are attacking, rather than fighting centrally with CBs, because we know how that will go.
He’s got a couple of matches to find himself before the big game. Will it be enough, or are the likes of Bruno, Amad and even Maguire going to have to fill his absence of goals?
Let’s hope he relishes a cup final, because Hojlund hasn’t been the player any of us points to when we need an important goal.
Let’s hope he relishes a cup final, because Hojlund hasn’t been the player any of us points to when we need an important goal.
Spurs could be the last game for him for a while at United- maybe ever!
It's just the one game actually. I doubt he's going to find much. We know what we'll get if he starts vs. Spurs.
Ohh yeah I just checked, thought we had another prem game after Chelsea before the final for some reason.
I think the best we can hope for is that one of spurs defenders finds a reason to chase him or keep close to him the whole game so he can free up some space around the box.
Yeah same.
It's sad to say but I genuinely expect nothing from him in the final. The only way I see him scoring is if Amad or Garnacho lay one on a plate for him like in the semi final.
Feels like he's completely lost his way.
Chelsea 1:0 Man Utd
Tragic disasterclass
Rubbish.
I'd rather play with 10 men.
Probably the worst striker I’ve ever seen play upfront for this club and Forlan was awful.. but my gosh. He’d be benched for my 5 a side team.
Just a profoundly untalented player. He shouldn't be in this position. We shouldn't be in this position. Incompetence all around. Shocking.
Pound for pound, probably the worst player in the club's history
The worst starting CF the club has ever had
I say it every week but wow he’s fecking shocking
Surely he can’t start the final
Surely he can’t start the final
We have played with 10 men all season.
If Football Manager ever decide to delve into negative stats he'd be up for a few of them.
Yeah he was rubbish today. I think he's done at the club. It'll be a miracle if he can save his United career at this point.
we have several shit players, but they are all obvious EPL players regardless. Hojlund on the other hand looks like he should be playing in Greece or Turkey.
Awful. Honestly I'd drop him for the final even though we have no striker. Felt like he didn't win a dual, couldn't keep the ball and offered no threat.
I know he is young and our only striker but that was horrific. We stand almost no chance of scoring while he is on the pitch.
Anyway I need to calm down a bit because I'm getting a bit angry
I know he is young and our only striker but that was horrific. We stand almost no chance of scoring while he is on the pitch.
Anyway I need to calm down a bit because I'm getting a bit angry
Genuinely the worst striker we've ever given regular minutes to in my lifetime.
Mods need to lock this thread. Hes terrible. We knoe. He knows. His mom knows as well. No need to harp on about the same thing over and over again.
A bit sad actually. He is a fun lad, but shouldve never been a starting striker for Man United and possible any PL team
A bit sad actually. He is a fun lad, but shouldve never been a starting striker for Man United and possible any PL team
The worst player in the league by a country mile. Its absolutely embarrassing. Half the caf would play better than him. It's actually worse than playing with 10 men because he ruins every single attempt of attacks. Him and Onana are mind blowingly bad.
What is Bellion up to?