Another thing to consider here is that Forlan etc were playing for Fergie's team and if you have the comparative between Ruud vs Forlan, that will show a massive gap. In the case of Rasmus, the other strikers such as Zirkzee, Garna and even Chido haven't done much better.
9
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 52
- Goals
- 10
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 2
-
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.
Another thing to consider here is that Forlan etc were playing for Fergie's team and if you have the comparative between Ruud vs Forlan, that will show a massive gap. In the case of Rasmus, the other strikers such as Zirkzee, Garna and even Chido haven't done much better.
Gernacho and Zirkzee aren't strikers, and anyway the pair of them are shit too. Our entire attack has been abysmal.
Either everyone is shit or there is some problem with our system which is not providing enough opportunity for our players to score?
We've bought players who aren't good enough, it's that simple. Hence why we're upgrading our attackers, don't blame the system for the absolute dogshit he's been serving up
The bet that I'm making is that all the good performances and potential from before joining United that made us spend €70million and the promising first season with us where he did, in fact, finish top scorers higher than Rashford and Bruno are more representative of his ceiling than this last horrid season.
So it's 2:1 promise versus hopeless.
It could go either way so next season is crucial. But I fear dumping him now may be hasty.
That's the thing right, if we go back and look at these matches there are things that XG can't capture but those of us that have been watching games in full and United for years will know it's slim pickings. Granted he missed and fluffed slim pickings this year, last year he didn't and topped our goal charts but it's nothing impressive.
So how much is it form and player versus team needing to develop as well. I think the latter because I don't see any single striker that gets us a ton more points this last season on their own.
Everyone up front has been sub standard by a country mile, but same goes for service and system, and for presence in the box. And before anyone yells Gyokeres. He is not alone in the box with Sporting. Other players get in there, creating havoc and space, and most of the defenders are mostly not exactly world beaters that would start in the PL. Sporting is also standing much higher and much more compact than we are. Gyokeres is brilliant, but he cannot do everything on his own either. He would probably have got 10 or so this season in the league. Better than Rasmus. Sure. We might have ended up 10th-12th. Not more.
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Ok I see, appreciate the response
Saw a clip tonight but have no idea how long ago it's from. Scholes has belief in him and we should stick with.
Out of all the people in punditry id never think Scholes would back him. Christ, he doesn't even praise the players that have been great.
Out of all the people in punditry id never think Scholes would back him. Christ, he doesn't even praise the players that have been great.
So chatGPT came up with the stat that Hojlund averaged the most off the ball runs for us last season with 35.22 per 90 mins. This makes him the top in the league for strikers with Solanke 2nd with 34.91
Mbeumo has 27.3 per 90 and obviously played on the wing so a bit different
Obviously this says nothing about him making good runs and doesnt excuse his low scoring. It just shows he's working hard and making runs of any amount of quality trying to get on the end of passes. It may explain why some Italian teams still see potential in him and give a little bit of hope for the future as someone who works hard and is determined might see it pay off eventually. I think like with Garnacho who had our most big chances missed with 14 (12th most in the league. But hey Salah mised 24) a young player getting into those positions, or in this case making that amount of runs to try and get on the end of passes is likely to result in better results moving forward with natural progression of players as they get older.
If we sign a new striker he will obviously have less minutes to show improvement even though at his current level he should only be a sub. Thats whats likely to happen and he may not be the first sub if Zirkzee is prefered.
Anyway just thought it was interesting because looking at him last season I wasn't really sure where his strengths are and where the potential is. Its good to know that he's among the top of something even if he's overall poor and not good enough... yet.
Mbeumo has 27.3 per 90 and obviously played on the wing so a bit different
Obviously this says nothing about him making good runs and doesnt excuse his low scoring. It just shows he's working hard and making runs of any amount of quality trying to get on the end of passes. It may explain why some Italian teams still see potential in him and give a little bit of hope for the future as someone who works hard and is determined might see it pay off eventually. I think like with Garnacho who had our most big chances missed with 14 (12th most in the league. But hey Salah mised 24) a young player getting into those positions, or in this case making that amount of runs to try and get on the end of passes is likely to result in better results moving forward with natural progression of players as they get older.
If we sign a new striker he will obviously have less minutes to show improvement even though at his current level he should only be a sub. Thats whats likely to happen and he may not be the first sub if Zirkzee is prefered.
Anyway just thought it was interesting because looking at him last season I wasn't really sure where his strengths are and where the potential is. Its good to know that he's among the top of something even if he's overall poor and not good enough... yet.
If he turns his career around at United after the season he had, it will be equal to a miracle.
That might be a signal that he is also wrong in this one
Can't believe that there are people who still think Hojlund can be groomed. If we aspire to be a midtable club, sure. Let's spend resources trying to groom him. If we aspire to be a top team, why are we wasting more resources on him? Free up this space and get someone better. Last season, I would cry out for a defender to take up his position. Anyone but him on the pitch.
Fresh afnew season.ter summer holidays.
Clear mind. Just run chanells and score.
Projection for Rasmus is 12-16 goals in new season.
Clear mind. Just run chanells and score.
Projection for Rasmus is 12-16 goals in new season.
To play the way he is playing in PL he needs to use his strength more. I noticed falling over and begging for a foul not only ruin the attack because it stops it but also the refs usually dont give him the foul. Maybe he did it so blatantly that the refs arent giving it to him. He is a big lad, he should push defenders away than falling everytime they pressure him.
Unless it turns out that he has "just" had a difficult season he is not even going to be good enough for the Danish National Team. They have so many talented young attacking players; Osula (Newcastle), Obi (United), Harder (Sporting), Mika (Monaco) or even Kvistgaarden (Brøndby). I fear that Højlund will have another poor season for us and then end up in a midtable club in Italy.
We all know about Hojlund's tragic form of last season, but one aspect of his performances that has gone unnoticed is that he didn't look pacy at all. Part of the hype when we brought him in was that he a beast in a footrace, but I don't recall him beating a defender in a sprint once last season.
A few of us were saying earlier in the season he looks he did the tragic united thing of signing and putting on way too much upper body mass, this losing the very thing that helped make him good.
He's often on his feet fighting the defender. This leads to him losing concentration with the ball, having a poor first or second touch, being in touching distance of the defenders so they can hold him and stopping him getting to the ball etc.Sometimes he gets those fouls, more often than not he just ends up losing the ball as another player comes in and takes it while he and the defender are holding each other
This is pretty disingenuous just looking at "games". Also casually chugging in Dong - might as well include James Wilson, Maguire (he's played as a 9), Josh Harrop, Fraizer Campbell, Joshua King etc. if comparing a £70 mil. striker to literal canon fodder that everybody knew wouldn't make it.
I'd say minutes is largely more nuanced. In your post - Diego Forlan looks to have played almost a whole season worth more games than Rasmus - truth is, Rasmus has played 2.000 minutes more than Forlan (almost 22 full games). We'd be lucky if Rasmus gets to a G/A per 160 minute like Forlan, it's that critical.
You call Welbeck's numbers jarring, but he reached a G/A every 186 minute. Rasmus? Every 200 minute. Also Welbeck played loads of games as a winger.
I'm not even exaggerating - at some time in the spring I compared Rasmus' G/A-output to all sort of former players - from Owen, Macheda to Forlan and Ighalo. Rasmus makes the G/A-outcome of Ighalo and Macheda look like juggernauts of the game.
A good spot in real time. Rasmus doesn't look that bulky to me, but I may not have been paying close attention. Hopefully he's worked on his fitness over the last season to drop some of the extra muscle mass.
It's not disingenuous. It's the ability for stats to be twisted and contorted to suit any point of view.
There is only one definitive for me, stats or not. Paying £70 million or €100 million for Hoijlund was an atrocious mistake. Doing so along with 50 million on Onana deserves losing your job.
Even with that mostly being true, contortion of stats, I'd challenge anybody to find stats that Rasmus is actually leading in and will look good through. Not even in PL, but in our own team. Can't dribble, never scored a header as a senior, not technical, his movement is ball-repelling and I could go on. I would say I think he's got a nice and powerful shot on him, but when he averages less than a shot per game, that's rather meaningless...
I agree with charlatans deserving of a sacking - and same goes for those, who green-lit acquiring Mount for a wage structure of £65 mil. over the course of his contract oh and also gifted £55 mil. to Chelsea ... and for handing Casemiro the fecking defense budget of a smaller nation in wages... and for basically every minuscule little thing that the club's done the past 20 years.
Give Man. United a choice of two outcomes and watch us pick the wrong one 990/1.000 times. So sick of it all
So him and Zirkzee this season are going to be lit this season
Actually this is the same thing I think happened with Mainoo. Mainoo looked like he added too much muscle last season and he looked sluggish compared with his debut season. Whoever is helping these young guys get stronger is doing it wrong, they're adding too much muscle mass and losing pace, you shouldn't be losing pace at their ages they should if anything get faster
He’s 21, lets see how he does this season with a bolstered attack around him. He has all the physical attributes to play the system.
Give him a clean slate and some service
Give him a clean slate and some service
Much of a center forward's play is instinct. IQ can only take you so far. Hojlund doesn't have that instinct.
Yes, let's give Rasmus some service, but in truth top strikers make their own chances. Rasmus has to be able to beat a defender when he's got the ball and how to find those spaces between defenders where chances will present themselves. His sense of anticipation of virtually nonexistent and that's got to be addressed, but one aspect of his game that gives me hope for him is that he is a clean striker of the ball.
He's 22 coming up 23. His physical attributes involve getting manhandled and beat in a race by every defender in the league. A clean slate for the worst forward in the premier league, strikers at this level need a lot more than what he's got. He will be at a midtable bundesliga side by the time he's 25
I wouldn’t sell him this season. If we can secure a ST then send him on loan. He is 21 and had a horrific season. But so did most of our players.
He had shown glimpse of his talent in first season. A loan might enable us to get more money next season or a good backup
He had shown glimpse of his talent in first season. A loan might enable us to get more money next season or a good backup
One major issue it's that he is very incosistent regarding his age, one day he is 21, the other almost 23, others plain 22, that might explain his lack of maturity at times.
He'll be our starting striker, anyone thinking different is deluded. We've been talking to brentford for the last 2 months to sort out one transfer. There isn't a hope in hell we can find/afford a decent striker if we somehow pull off this shit show of the mbuemo transfer.
I honestly believe Zirkzee was about to make that position his when he was injured. And I’m almost certain Zirkzee will be our first choice next year.
This is what I want personally. We aren't getting close to challenging for the league this season and the strikers we're linked with aren't exactly filling me with confidence, we should persist with Rasmus and General Xerxes. Next summer we go all out for someone truly elite like Isak or similar + also hope the values of each has risen to give us a stronger hand if we still want to sell. Both are young for strikers.
I mostly want this because we need a some kind of comparison to assess Amorim, if we sign Cunha, Mbuemo and, for argument's sake, let's say we pick up Watkins, how much of any improvement is down to Amorim and how much is down to simply having 3 vastly better players in 3 key positions? What then becomes the expectation because that attack would surely be one of the best in the league? I want to see if the same issues remain with an elite pair of 10's and CFs who struggled lasdt season because if we're still struggling to create then you have to look hard at what the coach's ideas and hope they try something a bit different.
The guy who scored on his debut and then only managed to score in 1 other league game all season, yes that is the guy who should be first choice for us next year.
«Should» is not the question.
But Zirkzee will probably be first choice when the season start. Personally, I think he will be alot better than Hojlund too.
Maybe, but we need people who can perform. Two seasons is enough time. If he turns it on for another club, good for him. But he's not right for us.
I very much doubt we will go into the season without a new signing up top. I have doubts that it is going to be anyone that will get your pulse racing but the media are still briefing that Amorim wants another option and is expecting to move Hojlund on before the start of the season.
Sure. We will buy someone. But I dont think it will be a first choice striker. It will be an alternative and an impact striker. Someone who we can bring on instead of putting Maguire up top towards the end of a game.