It was at the end of a 21-second period against Fulham that Rasmus Hojlund let out a howl into the night sky that seemed to express his difficulties at Manchester United.
Ruben Amorim’s side emerged victorious at Craven Cottage but Hojlund endured another tough game leading the line, failing to have a shot (for the seventh time in 13 Premier League starts this season) and getting only one touch in the opposition box.
A passage of play in the 29th minute, closer to his own area, encapsulated his problems.
As United looked to build a quick attack, Amad passed around the corner to Hojlund, who, with Calvin Bassey approaching behind him, took a heavy touch, giving the ball to Sasa Lukic. The Fulham midfielder’s first-time pass went to Alejandro Garnacho, who then handed possession to Joachim Andersen when trying to find Amad.
United regained the ball as Manuel Ugarte snapped into Emile Smith-Rowe and found Bruno Fernandes. Still deep, Hojlund was in space behind Lukic and Sander Berge but United’s captain, perhaps mindful of his team-mate’s mis-control seconds earlier, hesitated.
He surveyed Hojlund was still the best option and threaded a pass through the gap.
But another bad touch allowed Andersen to steal in.
To rub salt in Hojlund’s wounds, Antonee Robinson quickly shuffled the ball out of his reach when he tried to press and gave it back to Andersen to murmurs of approval from the Fulham fans. Hojlund gave a contrasting response, tipping his head back and slapping his arms by his side.
It was the kind of situation that Alexander Isak has been exploiting for Newcastle: turning with the ball in midfield, driving on, giving it to wide players, and getting into the box for the return.
For Hojlund, the confidence to do that does not appear to be there. Nor the understanding with his team-mates.
There was an example of that disconnect in the 21st minute, on one of the rare occasions United constructed an attacking move. Matthijs de Ligt sprayed a pass to the wing for Garnacho, whose touch was too quick for Harry Wilson. Noussair Mazraoui sprinted on the overlap and when he got the ball Hojlund darted to the near post and was open for the cutback.
Instead, Mazraoui tried to chip a cross to Diogo Dalot, moving into the centre of the box, but Robinson got across to head clear.
It was a similar scenario to when Fernandes had the ball on the left at Anfield this month, only for him to get irritated at Hojlund drifting to the middle of the goal, making the cross harder. Hojlund adjusted at Fulham but was overlooked by Mazraoui.
In fairness, Hojlund was not giving off the vibe of a player convinced he would bring a threat. The tone was set inside five minutes when he lost possession in the channel, resulting in a Fulham attack from which Alex Iwobi drew a save from Andre Onana. Shortly after, the ball ricocheted off Hojlund’s feet when Dalot fired it in his direction. Andersen, typically, was breathing down Hojlund’s neck, but referee Anthony Taylor waved away appeals for a foul.
Hojlund often gets into these physical contests but is best when running onto forward passes in the channels, as he did in the sixth minute. Having lost an aerial duel to Andersen, Hojlund acted disinterested when Lisandro Martinez got on the ball before bursting behind Andersen and being found by a pass from Martinez. He gave the ball to Garnacho, whose cross was blocked.
Hojlund came off on 58 minutes for Joshua Zirkzee, continuing a theme of rotation since Amorim took charge, with the head coach saying his form is due to training time.
“He wants really, really hard,” said Amorim. “Then you can see that sometimes without training there is a disconnection. Without training sometimes he goes away when he should be near, sometimes go near when it 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 team-mates. Sometimes you have a good game and other days you can have a not good performance.”
Fulham was one of those “not good” days. Hojlund had 21 total touches, the lowest of anybody who started, and completed six of only eight passes, with none into the final third (illustrated below in his player dashboard).
That has been the story of his season, though. He has had only 33 touches in the opposition boxes in total in the Premier League (to put that into perspective, Mohamed Salah leads the way on 248, with Amad having the most for United with 113).
Hojlund’s figure of 12 shots this Premier League campaign is the same as Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Nathan Collins and Konstantinos Mavropanos, all defenders. At the top end, Erling Haaland has registered 91 shots while Fernandes (62) has the highest figure for United.
That trajectory for Hojlund makes it hard to see how he will greatly increase his tally of two Premier League goals in 18 games (0.2 goals per 90 minutes), even if he has been more effective in the Europa League, scoring five times in seven games (1.3 per 90). He hit 10 goals in 30 Premier League games (0.4 per 90) in his debut campaign, a respectable total, but, having signed from Atalanta in a deal worth £72million ($90m), United need continued improvement rather than regression.
Rasmus Hojlund is not suited to intense physical battles (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
Hojlund turns 22 next week and fluctuations in form are expected of a player his age, which is why former manager Erik ten Hag ideally wanted Harry Kane as a fully formed centre-forward option to lessen the burden.
Kane’s emergence is worth consideration. He had four loans of varying degrees of success before he exploded onto the scene in the season he turned 22, scoring 31 goals in 51 games.
Amorim helped turn Viktor Gyokeres into one of Europe’s best strikers at Sporting CP. But when Gyokeres was 22 he had a loan at Swansea City where he failed to score in 11 Championship appearances. Now 26, his neat hold-up play, aggressive attitude to running the channels, and desire to get in the box to finish are key aspects Amorim wants in a striker.
“Hojlund wants to train a little bit more at the end of training,” Amorim said. “That is the best thing to improve. But as a footballer, he has to understand that sometimes you have a bad game, but you have to continue to go to the next.”
Amorim’s tone could not be more different on Marcus Rashford, who has the same number of goals as Hojlund in all competitions (seven) despite missing the last 11 games. Amorim said he would rather name Jorge Vital, his 63-year-old goalkeeper coach, on the bench than a player who fails to give his maximum every day when asked about Rashford’s absence. It seems all parties are pushing for a loan to Barcelona, but the deal is complicated financially.
Rashford leaving would invite an arrival, and United are weighing up the prospect of going for Christopher Nkunku, who might be available on loan from Chelsea. Nothing is advanced, however.
In the meantime, Amorim will hope Hojlund’s next howl is one of celebration.
(Top photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
