We remember well the first two seasons, where the English and Norwegian press screamed out with “Goal drought for Haaland!”. At that time, the City striker had not scored in “all” three games in a row. Rasmus Højlund does not remember the last time he only had three games in a row without scoring, on Thursday came the 19th in a row. It has been loudly debated why United’s £72 million investment is not successful. On Thursday, we could draw some kind of conclusion.
In the Premier League, 141 players at the Premier League’s 20 clubs are more productive in front of the opponents’ goal than Højlund. One of the best centre-backs in Premier League history, Rio Ferdinand gets frustrated time and time again by seeing Hojlund make the wrong choice against defenders.
On the other hand, Rasmus Højlund is very frustrated by not getting the passes he thinks he is positioned to score on. Amorim has also – like Ten Hag – stated the team is not good enough at involving the 22-year-old at the top.
In the FA Cup match against Fulham last week, Rasmus Hojlund was substituted and replaced by Obi-Martin, the 17-year-old with a previous 21 minutes of first-team appearance. In the space of 52 minutes, the teenager had produced 3 great scoring chances.
On Thursday against Real Sociedad, Hojlund stood on the pitch the entire game without finding the back of the net, the other striker, Zirkzee, saved the draw with his elegant goal after 57 minutes.
It was a really angry Hojlund who scolded Diogo Dalot after the Portuguese didn’t give the Dane the ball, 19 minutes into the game. Højlund had run free inside the Sociedad box, Dalot chose not to pass the ball on.
Ruben Amorim was asked after the game what had happened.
“It’s hard to say, but I imagine that Diogo didn’t quite know that Rasmus had the upper hand and that he felt he had enough time to decide what to do,” Amorim begins at the press conference.
“One thing that is certain is that they are very anxious about scoring goals and winning games, so they do everything they can. They want to do the best possible when they get into a position like that, but sometimes the decision is not the best. It was an obvious position, Rasmus did very well, Dalot did very well, but the decision was not the best, Amorim concludes.
Our conclusion is that Rasmus Højlund’s teammates do not trust the 22-year-old in the latter part of the attack. If this attitude has taken hold, this will be very difficult for Amorim to change. Every single United player is sick and tired of losing games and doesn’t choose Hojlund as a finisher. 19 games in a row without scoring has a self-reinforcing negative effect.
