Manchester United’s under-fire loanee striker Rasmus Hojlund enjoyed the perfect start to life in Italy.
Summer move
Outside of a winter purple patch at the start of 2024, the Dane’s time at United has been charactersied by poor finishing and a lack of involvement.
Ruben Amorim made the decision to omit the Danish international from the squad and sanctioned a deal for Benjamin Sesko in the summer.
As a result, Hojlund finally had to accept he needed to move on from Old Trafford and joined SSC Napoli on loan.
Perfect debut
Full of confidence from his international break goal for Denmark, Hojlund opened his Napoli account inside the first 14 minutes of their 3-1 away victory over Fiorentina.
He showed pace and strength to run onto a pass behind the defence before shrugging off the defender and coolly slotting the ball past former United keeper David de Gea in the Fiorentina goal.
Hojlund could have had a second goal as well but got his feet mixed up near to the line and could not convert from close range.
The young striker almost grabbed an assist after a good run in the box but Kevin De Bruyne could not finish the move as his effort was parried away.
Hojlund played 73 minutes and had two shots on target.
He also completed 100% of his dribble attempts and 82% of his passes found their target.
One of the biggest issues Hojlund had in England was winning duels but he impressed once again while back in Serie A.
He made both his headers and a magnificent five of his seven ground duels were won against the Fiorentina defence.
Hojlund will be back in very familiar territory for his next game as Napoli travel to the Etihad to face Manchester City in the Champions League on Thursday night.
Featured image Gabriele Maltinti via Getty Images
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
