“Bad habits…” – Champions League club analyst delivers brutal assessment on Manchester United star

Rasmus Højlund has been struggling for Manchester United this season and fans are beginning to lose their patience with him.

Manchester United are sitting 12th in the Premier League table and have scored just 28 goals in their opening 23 games.

Only two of those goals have come from £72 million striker Rasmus Højlund, who is still struggling to find his feet in the Premier League.

The Dane has had strong spells of form in European competition and after Christmas in 2023 but his consistency is becoming a concern.

Champions League analyst highlights Højlund’s bad habits

Højlund joined the club as an extremely exciting prospect with lightening speed and has somehow turned into a poor hold-up striker less than two years later.

The 21-year-old seems to constantly tussle and battle with defenders, almost always coming out of the duels poorly.

Carl Anka, a reporter for The Athletic, has revealed what an analyst of a Champions League club has said about Højlund’s problems at Old Trafford.

“I spoke to a club analyst club that isn’t in the Premier League but is currently competing in the Champions League, about Hojlund,” he began, while speaking on the Talk of the Devils podcast.

“They basically said they believe he’s picking up some bad habits now.

“In that, he has spent however long not being played to his strengths and trying to do this target man role that he’s becoming fixated in this physical duel and trying to battle with these six-foot defenders instead of running the channels, which is what he’s best at.”

Anka added: “This is a six foot two, six foot three striker who can run 100 meters in under 11 seconds; why is he so stationery?

“Højlund used to be very good at running near post and very good at running back post and creating separation from defenders by getting against a broken defence and he’s not gambling in the way that he used to.”

Højlund has to change his approach to succeed at United

It feels like we are all banging the same drum with Højlund. Everyone can see that he isn’t this hold-up striker and is much better whenever he looks to spin defenders or move into space.

Yet, it remains to be seen whether the penny will drop for the young striker at United. Amorim helped develop Viktor Gyökeres at Sporting but has not yet had the time on the training pitch to properly work with Højlund.

Right now, confidence is at an all-time low for the Dane and the only way he can get out of this rut is to do the things which makes him a good player and not sink even further into these bad habits.

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An improved team would certainly help the cause, but Højlund also needs to look at his own performance and focus on improving without the help of his teammates.

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