Roy Keane ripped into Manchester United striker Rasmus Hojlund after he plumbed new depths in tonight’s 1-0 defeat to Chelsea, saying he “looked like he’d just come out of the academy.”
United managed only one shot on target, and while that can’t all be blamed on the misfiring Dane the fact that he offered next to nothing whenever the ball came near him wore thin with Keane.
Speaking on Sky Sports after the match the former United captain pulled no punches in his assessment of the 22-year-old, suggesting that with him in the team United are “up against it all the time.”
Discussing the Red Devils’ defeat, Keane said: “They’ve got no striker. Hojlund tonight looked like a young kid, he looked like he’d just come out of the academy. His runs weren’t right, his timing, his hold up play”.
Hojlund’s stats make grim reading – he managed no shots, won just one of ten duels he contested and lost possession 13 times.
When asked if he would be better with more quality around him, Keane was blunt: “We keep making excuses for him, we’ve talked about confidence, but you still think when you’re a striker up there you’ve got to make something happen sometimes.
“What the big clubs have, and what United have always had, is strikers who can produce something by themselves.
“Even if they’re not getting great service, they produce something because they’ve got quality, they’ve got a bit of desire, determination, a bit of experience, football intelligence – you don’t see that with Hojlund so United are up against it all the time.”
Ruben Amorim came out in support of the young forward after the game, claiming that he is “improving”, but it has to be an effort to protect the player rather than an honest assessment of the situation.
Keane continued: “Obviously he needs a little bit of support but my goodness, sometimes you’ve just got to do a bit better.
“I think he got a ball in the first half on the edge of the box and he wasn’t even in the right body position to take a shot. He knocks it back, he should be getting it on goal.”
Hojlund isn’t helped by Amorim’s complete lack of alternative options at centre-forward, with Joshua Zirkzee sidelined through injury and Chido Obi still being eased very gently into first-team action.
As such the Dane will doubtless start the Europa League final next week, and will be desperate to continue his decent run of goalscoring form in that competition which is in stark contrast to his shocking Premier League numbers.
Featured image by Shaun Botterill via Getty Images
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Joe Ponting
Joe has spent more than half his life writing about football and all of it following United. As a child he told a doctor his name was ‘Paul Scholes’, but could never pick a pass like him no matter how much he tried.
