Dimitar Berbatov blames three Man United players for Rasmus Højlund’s struggles

Dimitar Berbatov believes three players are to blame for Rasmus Højlund’s struggles in front of goal at Manchester United this season.

Rasmus Højlund is currently Manchester United‘s top scorer across all competitions, joint with Scott McTominay on six goals each.

However, five of these have come in the Champions League, with the 20-year-old Danish striker only scoring once in the Premier League, against Aston Villa in his 15th game of the competition.

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While some have looked at his lack of goals as a fault of his own, many believe that is it actually the lack of service around him that is causing the main issue, with Højlund unable to score because he does not get enough chances.

One former player who thinks this is Dimitar Berbatov, who blames three United players for Højlund’s struggles in front of goal.

“Right now, at this moment, Højlund has Rashford, Garnacho and Antony around him, but unfortunately, all of them are not producing what people expect: goals, assists, runs and penetration,” he told the Manchester Evening News.

“The team suffers because there are not enough goals, but you need assists, and it’s all connected in a way. If we’re talking about the strikers, Rasmus needs to stay strong in the mind first and foremost.

“I think Rashford, who has the most experience among those players, needs to take charge and be more mature, he needs to lead. And Garnacho, who is very young, needs to be in and around them because he’s playing football in his pursuit way.

“He loves to attack, to try to beat the opponent and dribble past them, without thinking much about tactics. They all need to up their game.”

Berbatov explained that he has sympathy for Højlund because the Bulgarian went through his own scoring drought.

“I sympathise with him because before I scored five against Blackburn, I didn’t score for quite a lot of games, so I know what it feels like,” Berbatov said.

“I know what he’s thinking and going through, thinking to himself, ‘What is going on? Am I good enough, am I going to score, or are people disappointed after paying a lot of money for me?’ and this is negative thinking.

“You can have it from time to time, but he can’t think like that, and he must stay strong, concentrate in training sessions and be even more concentrated in games. You need to be ready for a chance.

“When he scored his first Premier League goal, you could see the pressure coming out of him and emotion. Now it’s so important for him to score in the next game and, if not, then the next game. If he repeats the run of games of not scoring again, he’ll have problems because after your first goal, you want more to follow, and if they don’t, more questions will come.”