He's playing in a mid table team though. He looks like he's got all the right assets to succeed in the Prem at a top club.
Rasmus Højlund | Signed for United
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You may well be right and that's what i'm afraid of. Rashford is several times better coming off the left than playing centrally. With Rashford up top, there's only one way to play to make him effective. The ball over the top to maximise his speed advantage vs CBs. Other than that, Rashford is basically anonymous down the middle because he has minimal hold up ability and is not physical enough to play back to goal with CBs. It would be near impossible to play possession-based football or relieve pressure with Rashford up top because nothing would stick. It would be a big mistake to once again shift Rashford central. It has been tried before and it simply does not work. Not because Rashford is not great, but because he simply is not a centre forward and will never be a centre forward.
I can, we told every man and their dog we want Kane and willing to pay £100m for him, then announced we've changed our minds on Kane and here we are.
It's a stupid suggestion from any selling club unless they have a talent who is basically the same as Kane. We will walk and go for other targets if we need to.
I can believe they've quoted it, but the reason we've walked away from Kane is because we won't pay the £100m. It's weird that Atalanta would think we'll pay a similar amount for a player nowhere near as good as him.
We are a club historically known for overpaying for players, we are clearly absolutely desperate for a striker and the options are thin. They will try and rinse us, as will anyone we try and sign a striker from at the moment.
They know they won't get 100m but they will be hoping they can negotiate down to 70-75. God I hope we don't pay that for someone so totally unproven but that will be their hope.
Time for that Weghorst* topic again soon.
Or maybe that’s just a feck off price
Well we can do that. But then Hoijlund makes sense as Martial will play enough games to ensure this kid gets the right development and minutes. Kane for free in 2024.
Which is how I see it. You sign any other CF we’ve been linked to and you close the door to Kane. Not the case with this transfer.
This will probably get done with a fee similar to that of Mount (if at all). If the player and agent pushes for the move, which is likely, then Atalanta will relent.
For sure. It will be next to impossible to offload martial after last season.
Get this done we need a fecking striker. Well really we need two considering I doubt we keep MG
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That’s what he should cost you cheeky bastards.
If it’s a choice between him and Onana who we going for? We desperately need a GK and a ST.
Nobody's even reported we've made a 1st bid
Keep up old timer. Yes they have.Nobody's even reported we've made a 1st bid
Hojlund all day. We don't have a striker just sitting there waiting for us to unleash. We have a starting calibre PL level goalkeeper on the books in Henderson. Either sell Henderson and use the proceeds to get a keeper or force Henderson to honor his contract. Never know what a season as the starting GK can do to the relationship between him and the club.
Not saying any of this is true as it is silly season and journos will post anything for clicks but:Nobody's even reported we've made a 1st bid
A Mo Salah trajectory has written over him.
Striker and take a punt on a cheaper goalkeeper.
But either way with sales we should definitely be able to sign more than two players.
If we don't we are fecking over ETH
40m seems about right to me. More than that and we could end up being massively dissappointed with him imo. Still lacks quite a lot.
So finally got round to watching some highlight videos for him (you can tell a lot from these - e.g. watching Antony's goals and assists from last seasons showed how he almost never took players on, and most of his goals and assists were cutting in and having a shot against poor defences / goalies - not very replicable in the PL).
The bad:
- Not a particularly good finisher. A lot of his shots were straight at the keeper. And these are the ones that went in. Can only assume there were many more that didn't. Has a strong shot but the accuracy is lacking.
- Not particularly physical in the box
- Decently fast but not blisteringly
The good
- Has good close control and can turn players outside the box.
- A lot of his goals come from making runs off the defender shoulder for balls passed across the box. With Bruno, Sancho, Rashford and Antony capable of balls across the box, you'd think he could benefit from more goals of this sort.
In summary - not bad, but a risk for any price above £40m. He's not elite in anything the way say Osimhen is (finishing, physicality in the box, hell Osimhen's all-round play is underrated too). He's not any better than the likes of Toney, Watkings who are more proven in the PL. If the price gets too high we should find alternatives, to be honest going after Osimhen for £90m would probably be better business than Hojlund at £50m. I'd even consider Lookman at Atlanta too, who I think had a more impressive season and brings more all round ability than Hojlund does, but if they're pricing Hojlund high than they're probably pricing Lookman high too.
The bad:
- Not a particularly good finisher. A lot of his shots were straight at the keeper. And these are the ones that went in. Can only assume there were many more that didn't. Has a strong shot but the accuracy is lacking.
- Not particularly physical in the box
- Decently fast but not blisteringly
The good
- Has good close control and can turn players outside the box.
- A lot of his goals come from making runs off the defender shoulder for balls passed across the box. With Bruno, Sancho, Rashford and Antony capable of balls across the box, you'd think he could benefit from more goals of this sort.
In summary - not bad, but a risk for any price above £40m. He's not elite in anything the way say Osimhen is (finishing, physicality in the box, hell Osimhen's all-round play is underrated too). He's not any better than the likes of Toney, Watkings who are more proven in the PL. If the price gets too high we should find alternatives, to be honest going after Osimhen for £90m would probably be better business than Hojlund at £50m. I'd even consider Lookman at Atlanta too, who I think had a more impressive season and brings more all round ability than Hojlund does, but if they're pricing Hojlund high than they're probably pricing Lookman high too.
To be fair it has been reported that EtH wants an elite striker (possibly Kane and I still think we'll get him closer to deadline day) and a striker for the future which by the sounds of things is Hojlund
Don’t see any reliable sources.
They'll probably get by with Martial, Rashford and Hojlund until Qatar is in. I think Mount, Onana and Hojlund will be the business for the summer unless we can raise money with outgoings (Fred 15m ish, McT 25m ish should get us a backup for Casemiro)
LW: Sancho / Garnacho
CF: Rashford / Martial / Hojlund
RW: Antony / Sancho?
#10: Bruno / Eriksen
#8: Mount / Fred / Eriksen
#6: Case / McT
Neil Custis is a broken clock in terms of reliability and accuracy for transfers. Gets a ton of stuff wrong but once in a while gets it spot on while being the only person reporting it (i.e. Lukaku in 2017).
The only thing Osimhen is elite at is heading and as you already pointed out, physicality and he has excellent work rate too.
His finishing is incredibly inconsistent. He's capable of getting some absolutely crazy shots off, but also capable of clowning with his shots like Lukaku. Far from elite.
I also struggle to understand how his all around play is underrated. It is literally what he struggles with and as Luciano Spalletti already said; Osimhen needs to learn how to involve himself more in general play and learn to play with his team mates.
As of right now, he's just a menace in the box, particularly on crosses and set-pieces but he doesn't offer much else apart from work rate.
£90m for him would be horrible business.
Really hope we sell both Fred and McTominay. The latter is an absolutely awful option as a 6 and pretty much below par anywhere else on the field. At least one must go so that will more likely be Fred unfortunately.
Ronaldo really struggled to score goals as a striker
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I await tomorrows news of us moving on and sounding out alternatives, as we won't pay more than x.
Oh well, on to other players then
£50m is perfectly acceptable.
Every day's a new price for this unproven player. No thanks.
Who though? Which CF is going to be available for less than the quoted figures?
If we can't reach a compromise for Hojlund then I certainly don't see us being able to bag any CF, be they a young hot prospect or an established elite marksman. Because we're definitely not going to be in for Kane/Osimhen or even a Ramos.
I worry we'll be starting the season with an out of position Rashford or sicknote Martial as our only viable options up front if we can't even do a deal for a Hojlund type signing.
Either it's all BS and we're not even in for him, or the reported transfer fees are just nonsense. You'd have to hope there's no way we'd be going back with a slightly improved offer if he's gonna cost a bucket load more.
I mean, objectively it is very funny that this random promising no mark is being priced at higher than City got Haaland for because we’re such a shambles of a club it makes no business sense for any clubs not to try and fleece us like the comical rubes we are… like the last gullible celebrities still on the NFT train… I’d almost have less respect for Atlanta if they didn’t try and pull it
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