Before his move to the Premier League, Rasmus Hojlund had built a reputation as a complete striker. Someone who can score goals, be a counter attacking threat and also excel at dropping deeper to combine with teammates. But all of that had not come together for him so far in Manchester.
Despite scoring five goals in six Champions League group stage matches, it was his winner in the comeback victory over Aston Villa at the end of December, his first goal in the Premier League, that seems to have triggered an uptick in form for the Dane.
Hojlund followed that up with a goal and an assist in Sunday’s draw against Tottenham Hotspur, earning a WhoScored rating of 7.97, his highest rated performance in the league this season.
But it was more than just his goal contributions that impressed. The 20-year-old looked more confident and was able to cause problems for one of the best centre-back pairings in the Premier League in Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven.
His link up play also looked much better, showing great progress in his partnership with Marcus Rashford. Can this be the turning point that Manchester United fans have been waiting for?
Rasmus Hojlund’s Transfer Value - how much is he worth?
As per FootballTransfer’s Player Valuation Model, Hojlund has a current Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) of €63.6m.
His impressive on-pitch performances followed by a big money move to United has led to an exponential rise in his value. The Danish international's value has risen from just €13.8m at the start of 2023 and is slowly edging closer to the initial €75m figure that it took to bring him to Old Trafford.
Can Hojlund sustain his goal scoring form?
Very few strikers can win games all by themselves, and most thrive off the chances created for them. Hojlund’s Expected Goals (xG) figure of just 0.26 per 90 is well short of the 0.47 per 90 that he had at Atalanta. This means that his new teammates are simply not creating enough high quality goalscoring chances for him.
Even the likes of Dominic Solanke and Bryan Mbeumo get better quality chances in a game than Hojlund. This has been a major issue for United this season, and one that Erik ten Hag is yet to find a solution for.
In the recent games against Spurs and Villa where Hojlund hit the mark, he still had xG game figures of just 0.06 and 0.10 per 90, respectively. The fact that he was able to convert those low quality chances into goals is a testament to his finishing, but is something that is difficult to sustain over a long period.
This is the biggest concern with United’s number 11 continuing his good form. He cannot only be fed scrappy half chances all game and be expected to deliver. At some point his teammates will need to regularly deliver the ball where he wants it.
But there is some improvement in Hoijlund’s underlying data that is promising.
The FC Copenhagen youth product is getting more involved in the action and attempted more passes in the games against Aston Villa and Tottenham than he had on average in the previous league games.
Hojlund is also getting on the ball in dangerous areas with more touches in the attacking third and penalty area than he was getting in the past. His assist for Rashford against Tottenham was the result of taking up a good position in the box, where he could expertly lay it off for the Englishman.
Things are slowly coming together for Hojlund. What he needs to turn into an elite striker is more time, but playing in a high pressure environment means that he won’t be afforded too much time. Although his recent performances have shown enough promise for fans to remain patient and excited for bigger and better things to come.
The article was provided by FootballTransfers
