Erik ten Hag has praised Rasmus Hojlund’s “resilience and calmness” after lauding his £72millon striker for starting to live up to the expectations he has set himself at Manchester United.
The 20-year-old endured a difficult start to his Old Trafford career in a team that was losing its way, but although the goals didn’t flow for Hojlund, his attitude never changed and he never went missing.
Ten Hag revealed the striker was getting “angry and mad” as he went 14 Premier League games without a goal since his summer switch from Atalanta, but after breaking his duck against Aston Villa he has now scored in three successive top-flight games, taking his tally in all competitions to nine this season.
Hojlund has played more often than United expected this season, playing 66% of available minutes and only Andre Onana, Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot have played more minutes than Hojlund’s 1,911 in all competitions.
There is a feeling he has been thrown in at the deep end at United, with Anthony Martial suffering from injury and inconsistency and Hojlund taking on the mantle of starting striker when he remained relatively inexperienced, having had a rapid rise in the 18 months since FC Copenhagen sold him to Sturm Graz.
But Ten Hag is beginning to see the traits that convinced him Hojlund was the right man this summer and they are mental attributes as much as physical ones.
“I can tell you it’s not easy for a striker when you have high expectations from yourself, also the outside world has high expectations, to fulfil that when it’s not working,” explained Ten Hag.
“That is the character every striker needs, he gets angry, he gets mad when he’s not scoring, but that’s why we selected him, he has the resilience and the calmness to perform under that stress.
“He doesn’t have any moment that he wants to give up, he keeps going every time to put himself in the right position. I’m happy he now starts to score, but it counts for many young players there is a lot of space for improvement, but he’s still now on very good levels.”
Hojlund has scored in Premier League games against Aston Villa, Tottenham and Wolves, as well as finding the net in the FA Cup fourth-round win at Newport County. He also teed up Marcus Rashford for his redemptive opener at Molineux on Thursday and Ten Hag believes there is a partnership forming between his attacking stars.
“He is a great character, he always keeps going, always wants to improve,” he said. “You see now the team is better and more stable, now we serve the front line better and he starts scoring.
“You see there is something growing with Rashy, with Garnacho, with Bruno, also other players from the second and the third line. He is coming more in a position to score.”