Alan Shearer not impressed with Rasmus Hojlund as Man United keep stumbling in the Premier League after Wolves defeat.
Alan Shearer told Match of the Day 2 that he feels Hojlund is a bit of a “damaged” player.
“I am looking at a damaged player in Hojlund. He wasn’t ready and isn’t ready to lead the attack at a club like Man Utd.
“I am seeing a guy who doesn’t want to get in there. There is no doubt a crisis in confidence. He has been put into a really difficult situation.
“He is not at the stage of his career to lead the line. I’m not saying there is not a good player there, I think there is, but with the pressure there is, he is not ready to lead the line yet.”
On this particular instance, when United only managed two shots on goal, the 22-year-old came closest when he missed a low Alejandro Garnacho cross at the far post by an inch. Given that he was less than a yard out, a touch would have undoubtedly diverted the ball in.
Apart from that, it was Hojlund’s typical mix of physical will and industry.
The claim is that all he needs is a goal to boost his self-esteem and get him fired. In actuality, Hojlund hasn’t shown himself to be a strong line-leader except from a stretch of five goals in four games early in Amorim’s tenure and eight goals in eight games in the middle of last season.
Amorim is unable to provide an unbiased assessment on Hojlund. Dropping the Dane is not part of the plan, so all he can do is promise to continue working with him.
“The only way I know is to work on him and show him the videos,” added the United boss. “He needs to score a goal and he won’t score if he is out [of the team] so I try to manage that during games.”
“If you look at the games we have several players that miss big chances, not just Rasmus,” said Amorim. “Of course, for Rasmus, the game is to score goals because he’s a striker, but it’s a team thing. Our team should score more goals, it’s not just Rasmus missing chances.”