I presume he won’t feature against Lens on Saturday?!
Also any idea how ETH will split the squad for the back to back games over the weekend?
Also any idea how ETH will split the squad for the back to back games over the weekend?
Rasmus Højlund | Signed for United
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Hope he's in the squad for the match in Dublin on Sunday 
Medical Tuesday, sign the contracts and presumably join training on Wednesday. Why would he not feature against Lens? Of course the squads will be split but I fully expect him to link up with whichever squad contains the most starters and get some minutes.
Still a bit baffled by this signing and can't say I'm all that excited about it. If Martial gets fit again he starts over this kid.
And so this kid starts
Yes but my point is he's not as good as a fit Martial and the money we've spent on him is mental.
He is better than a fit Martial
Martial is useless, even when fit. Most easy striker to defend in the league.
Apparently the team will be split in two.
Saturday: team A 80 mins, team B 10 mins.
Sunday: team B 80 mins, team A 10 mins.
No he doesn't.
Martial is almost always injured and on the rare occasions he's not he's poor anyway.
Did we just go back in time?
In the alternative Blood Mage reality where Martial is fit & in form for any length of time, this signing becomes even better with the pressure taken off whilst Martial shares the burden.
In reality though, the pressure will be piled on his young shoulders because it’s been years since Martial was fit and in form for any sustained period and it looks likely he will remain as unreliable as ever.
A lot of money are spent on him, but he is here for many years to come and is a young player. He is not 26 years old and expected to become our most scoring player next season.
But it’s still theoretically possible - this is not something unheard of when a striker becomes team’s top scorer
Don't see it happening in a million years but would people take Vardy for a season or dare I say it City reject Iheanacho if fee was reasonable
Thank you, really needed that.
I am buzzing for this kid, wants to be here and is a brilliant talent.
Pretty sure of that. ETH will drip him in slowly into the team
Won't surprise me that he only gets his first start in October/November 2023 ... Unless martial is injured by then which is very likely.
That's an interesting idea
I hear you, but it's a different proposition coming into United and the football we play. Sure there's more pressure, but he'll be playing with much better players.
Also, I think Scamacca could still go on to be a very good player, somewhere. Moyes just doesn't know how to use him. He thought he was getting a young Antonio, but that's not Scamacca's game at all.
Another experienced option would be great though. Welbeck would be a good fit to be honest, although his injury record is even worse than Martial's.
Has anyone ever failed a transfer medical due to acne?
Please do not post Howard Nurse tweet when he says "so .... then"
11 goals doesn't seem like much in the league but its not easy to get at all, especially if you don't take penalties and don't start every game as is likely to be the case for Hojlund.
For reference Martial has only scored more than 11 league goals once for us and its twice for Rashford.
Wilson, Watkins, Toney and Mitrovic are unfair barometers because outside of the traditional top 6 these are the best strikers. They are at their peaks and are PL established strikers whose teams play through them.
If he gets double figures in the league this season he's a massive success in my opinion. Rooney only got 11 in his first season and I remember him going through droughts in the PL. Hojlund might get to the 15+ range but I don't see it in his first two seasons.
Wouldn’t surprise me if he disn’t get his first start in October, as long as Martial stays free from injury which would really surprise me. Nay, shock.
You laugh at that but the poster is right. ETH would almost certainly play Martial if fit and he's still a better player than the kid.
No he doesn't.
Martial is almost always injured and on the rare occasions he's not he's poor anyway.
But that's a moot point since Martial will probably remain injury prone throughout this season as well.
Martial won't get renewed and will leave June 2024 he has no future at the club
So what? He’s not better than a non-suspended Greenwood either. Does that mean we should go into another season without a reliable striking option in the squad?
Antony was touch and go, had to pop a few nasty ones.
Saudi late in the window hopefully.
What's there to be baffled at? He's an elite CF prospect. Top CF prospects are very rare. Bayern are signing a 30 year old after they went a year without a striker because their mid 30s striker left to go to Barca. Madrid lost their mid 30s striker and are using a striker less formation now, waiting to sign Mbappe who is a wide forward anyway. City have Haaland who along with Osimhen are literally the only under 30 year old strikers who are ready for top teams. Before getting Haaland, City went a year without a striker too. Liverpool don't really have a striker, just a bunch of wide forwards. Arsenal have Jesus who is a CF and works hard but doesn't score much.
The CF market is shit is what it is. Football stopped developing strikers so when you get the chance to sign a top prospect, you simply pay up if you want him.
You have Haaland, Kane, Lewandowski, Osimhen, Benzema who are the top level strikers currently. 3 of them are 30+, 1 is at City and the other is getting quoted at 150m+, and was bought by Napoli before he did much for 70m anyway.
You have a bunch of wide forwards who teams try to adapt to make do at CF, to varying degrees, like Jota/Gakpo, Isak, Kolo Muani, even Mbappe, who aren't proper #9's and don't really do that hold up play and being a focal point (or to varying levels).
You have mid tier players like Lautaro, Vlahović, Toney, Ramos, Watkins, Mitrovic who are being quoted absurd fees without having top level potential, so you would pay elite level prices for Europa League production out of them as their ceiling.
Then you have a few youngsters with big potential, like Hojlund and Sesko. And of them, Hojlund is the one of the very few on this entire list who is a proper #9 with all the tools to be a top center forward. Think of it like paying to get a CF in the mold of Dzeko, Lewandowski, Ibra, Kane, Drogba, Cavani, etc at the age of 20. None of these guys did anything at that age, most broke out at 22/23 (Kane at 21). The second these guys break through, they are over 100m and pretty much unobtainable if you didn't get them beforehand (unless you are Haaland who puts a clause in). It's securing a rare profile, elite talent that we happen to be in dire need of as well, and a player who may not be all that far away from stepping up either.
As for who starts... Martial doesn't have the pace or strength or movement in the box that Hojlund has, despite the age. Yeah Martial will get his gametime when fit which is good. Hojlund is barely 20. By the time Martials contract is out, Hojlund might just be ready to be the full time guy. He gives us that threat in behind that only Rashford offers in our squad, he gives us proper #9 movement in the box, he gives us a focal point.
Your blood is not flowing to the right places mate, you wanna get yourself checked out, Martial and fit don't belong in the same sentence in any language
TBH it doesn't really matter how many he does or doesn't score this coming season, as long as he can be the focal point of the attack that allows others to score more frequently that is enough in the short term
great post
Some of you guys could write for the Sun
such creative talents are wasted on a forumYou don't spend a potential 85m on a player with the intention he is a backup.
Maguire
A QPR fan's perspective. Interesting projected playing setups available with a bedded-in Hojlund -- basically, 'pick your poison' scenarios for the opposition:
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Tbf Young Ronaldo suffered from the same problem around the same age. And look at him now, adorning the bedroom walls of so many young/older men and women.
Top post!
That’s a good analysis of the whole striker situations in current market.
‘Teenage faced assassin’ doesn’t quite sound as good as Ole’s old moniker.
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