Members of Ruben Amorim’s coaching staff at Manchester United are losing patience with goal-shy striker Rasmus Hojlund.
Hojlund, who United paid an eye-watering £72million to sign from Atalanta in 2023, has only scored twice in the Premier League season. What’s more, the 22-year-old hasn’t hit the back of the net in 16 games, a barren run stretching back to his brace against Viktoria Plzen on December 12.
The Denmark international’s blank away to Everton on Saturday as the Red Devils drew 2-2 prompted more criticism. With United 2-0 down in the 70th minute, Hojlund was brought off in place of 17-year-old Chido Obi, who was making only his second appearance for the club.
Amorim’s patience wearing thin against Everton doesn’t appear to be isolated incident among the coaching team. According to the Manchester Evening News, one coach was especially critical of the 22-year-old’s toothless performance during the Red Devils’ drab 1-0 defeat away to Tottenham eight days ago.
That may explain Amorim’s desire for United to sign a striker in the summer transfer window. A damning statistic shows that Hojlund has failed to score in 27 of the 33 games which he’s played for United this season.
For now, the alternative is Joshua Zirkzee, but he hasn’t fared much better, scoring one goal in 2025. Zirkzee has started alongside Hojlund for the Red Devils’ past two games, with the Dutch forward, signed for £34m in July, operating in a deeper role.
Former Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart believes that it’s a lack of service to blame, saying on Match of the Day 2: “He’s on his own, all the time. They’re asking a recently-turned 22 guy who’s out of form, it looks like they’re just lumping the ball up to him and saying ‘can you score us a goal’. As you say, confidence is low, he’s not offering a lot.”
Ex-Rangers striker Ally McCoist echoed Hart’s thoughts and believes that Hojlund’s struggles are becoming a ‘bigger and bigger problem’ for Amorim. “Not only is he not looking the part and he’s not looking like not scoring, he looks isolated,” McCoist told talkSPORT. “I was watching Everton for an hour and Beto was playing through the middle.
“But [Abdoulaye] Doucoure was up next to him, [Jack] Harrison was getting forward, [Jasper] Lumdstram, they were getting support to him so he wasn’t a lone figure which was exactly what was Hojlund, I felt. Nobody near him. He hasn’t played particularly well himself but he needs to get people around him and he needs help.”
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