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It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Manchester United’s season, its success or failure, relied upon Rasmus Hojlund adapting to his new club.
It has proven to be true, with United struggling when Hojlund couldn’t buy a goal in the league, then thriving when he started scoring, then went back to struggling after his injury.
Still, considering the full picture, the Dane has blown past expectations as a 20-year-old playing only his second season in a European top-five league.
As a similarly precocious teenager who burst into the scene in thrilling fashion, Owen’s endorsement of Hojlund’s performance will come as music to his ears.
In an exclusive interview with The Peoples Person hosted by Betideas, Owen said that Hojlund got thrown into the deep end in less-than-ideal circumstances, but has navigated well.
He said: “With the state of affairs at Manchester United, Hojlund has come in and played all the time. He’s expected to be the superstar and score all the time.
“He’s still a young player learning the game and he’s not a full package. It’s not easy at Manchester United at the moment for any player at any position.”
A huge criticism levelled at United after the summer was the same, that Hojlund as the first-choice might be contentious, but him as the only choice was extremely poor planning. Owen subscribes to that point of view, recalling the peak United teams that had an embarrassment of riches up front.
He said: “I suggested in the past that you should have a great striker and then you would bring Hojlund in to complement him, to learn from him and play a little bit for a season or two.
“Currently, you’re playing a player who doesn’t even want to be playing there (Rashford as a striker). You look at the great Manchester United teams, the likes of Yorke, Cole, Sheringham, and Solskjaer, and you’ve got four amazing players, all of whom offer something different.”
While Owen acknowledged the fact that football has changed, and teams rarely play with two strikers anymore, having only one option going into the season was not a wise move, as can be seen in Rashford’s struggles up front this season, something which Owen went into in detail here.
Ultimately, Ten Hag also technically acknowledged this error when he revealed that the club tried hard to get a striking reinforcement in the winter window.
However, the January window is even tougher than the summer and the club had to hedge all their best in Hojlund’s favour.
It might be a gamble that ends up costing Ten Hag his job, turning another Michael Owen statement prophetic.
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