Manchester United needed a deflected strike from defender Lisandro Martinez to get past Fulham on Sunday night and Rio Ferdinand called out Rasmus Hojlund after the game
Rio Ferdinand predicted Rasmus Hojlund would be in for some stick from his Manchester United team-mates before they snatched a late win against Fulham.
The Danish striker, 21, endured a difficult first half at Craven Cottage as United struggled to get a in a game which they would go on to win 1-0 courtesy of a deflected long-range strike from defender Lisandro Martinez.
Hojlund was eventually withdrawn by Ruben Amorim just before the hour mark for Joshua Zirzkee. And Ferdinand, speaking on TNT Sports, singled out Hojlund during the half-time interval.
“I’d be surprised if he (Hojlund) is not getting a few fingers pointed at him in the dressing room,” Ferdinand said of the striker’s poor showing.
“He’s so loose in these situations, the amount of turnovers he’s had today. He’s got to make the run earlier. Slack and loose in possession giving it away. That bit of awareness, lay someone off. Man United most of their possession has been the three centre-backs.”
Hojlund joined United in a big-money deal from Atalanta in the summer of 2023. But the £72million Dane has struggled to live up to expectations at Old Trafford.
Despite finishing the 2023-24 campaign strongly after a long wait for a maiden Premier League goal, Hojlund has failed to pick up where he left off, netting just twice in the league this season.
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He has enjoyed more success in Europe, where he’s plundered five goals in seven Europa league games. But both he and Zirkzee have come under scrutiny this term given United’s struggles domestically.
Amorim defended Hojlund in his post-match press conference, saying that the young striker is suffering from a lack of training time.
“He wants really, really hard. Then you can see it that sometimes without training there is a disconnection. Without training sometimes he goes away when he should be near, sometimes go near when it should make a run.
“We don’t have time to create that connection. We don’t train these kind of things. We just talk about these things and of course he has a lot to improve, like the teammates. Sometimes you have a good game and other days you can have a not good performance.”
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