Manchester United must address the elephant in the room with Rasmus Hojlund

It was this time last year that Rasmus Hojlund enjoyed a purple patch for Manchester United.

Hojlund scored seven goals in six Premier League games and fired United to an unbeaten start to 2024. He was one of the most in-form strikers in the topflight and begun to look like the goalscorer the club hoped they were signing when they agreed a hefty £72million deal with Atalanta.

On his 21st birthday, Hojlund became the youngest United player to score in four consecutive Premier League appearances and supporters were excited to see how he could develop.

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Hojlund will turn 22-years-old on February 4 and will look back on his last birthday with envy because he was on an upward trajectory. Fast forward to this campaign and Hojlund has scored just two goals in the Premier League, so the difference has been chalk and cheese.

Ruben Amorim recalled Hojlund to the starting line-up against Fulham and the young striker’s woes continued, as he looked lost at Craven Cottage and managed 17 touches of the ball.

Hojlund has gone from scoring for fun to struggling to do basics in the space of 12 months, and supporters have grown tired of the little value he provides when he’s not on the ball.

You can ignore Hojlund’s failure to bring others into play and inability to make it stick when he’s finding the back of the net, but the goals have dried up and his displays are concerning.

Amorim was asked about Hojlund at his post-match press conference on Sunday and told reporters: “He works really hard and you can see sometimes without training there is a disconnection.

“We can explain but without training sometimes it goes away when it should be near. Sometimes he goes near when he should make a run. We don’t have time to create that connection, we don’t train these kind of things, we just talk about these things and he has a lot to improve like the teammates. Sometimes you have a good game, and another day you cannot have a good performance.

“The important thing is I see every day he wants [it] really badly, he wants to train a little bit more at the end of training and that is the best thing to improve. But as a footballer – and he is a young guy – sometimes you have to understand that you have a bad game but you have to continue to go to the next.”

Amorim is a savvy communicator and provided valuable insight into Hojlund’s form by highlighting his failure to ‘connect’ with his teammates. It’s undoubtedly an area that Hojlund must improve and he won’t become a top striker in the next few years without developing his hold-up play.

Hojlund is underperforming and going through a bad period, although there isn’t a member of the dressing room who hasn’t suffered this term and there is wider context to the situation.

You can’t analyse Hojlund without considering his age. He is still just 21 and he operates in the most important position on the pitch for the most scrutinised club in the county, and United’s failure to sign an experienced striker in the summer of 2023 has brought the spotlight on him.

Nobody wants to keep harping back to that transfer window, but not signing a proven goalscorer alongside a young Hojlund was asking for trouble and United continue to pay the price.

It was predictable that United would lack firepower because Hojlund signed after scoring 16 goals for Atalanta – he was the unfinished article and required time to develop at United.

It’s true that Hojlund should be doing more, but United are responsible for the situation and supporters need to stick with him because he was always bound to encounter a rough patch.

That is part and parcel of being a young player and Hojlund is essentially learning on a job at a club that needs a proven goalscorer. He is currently not that player and it’s been obvious since Hojlund signed that United need to sign someone who can alleviate the pressure on his shoulders.

United signed an inadequate Joshua Zirkzee for that job instead and have egg on their face again.