Man United player happy to “shut people up” with winning goal after slow season

Rasmus Højlund has explained how he is very happy to be scoring for Manchester United after many brought up his lack of goals during the first half of this season.

Rasmus Højlund made his return to football after missing Manchester United’s last four games as Erik ten Hag’s men defeated Liverpool 4-3 in the FA Cup quarter-final at Old Trafford.

Højlund is the current top scorer for the club this season with 13 goals, but he struggled to score in any of his first 14 Premier League appearances, despite scoring five goals in six Champions League games.

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However, the tide turned in late December when he netted his first domestic goal in England, scoring the winning goal in a fantastic 3-2 victory over Aston Villa. He has scored in every single Premier League game he has played in since.

“There I thought: ‘Finally!’ It was great to shut people up,” he told TV2 Sport in an interview ahead of the Liverpool win when asked about what it felt like to score that goal against Villa.

“Of course, it bothered me a bit that people kept talking about this Premier League goal that hadn’t been scored, whereas not many people were talking about the fact that I was the top scorer in the Champions League at the same time. I couldn’t quite get my head around that, so it was even nicer to change that 0 to 1,” Højlund explained.

The Dane suggested that initially, he let the criticism directed at him, particularly from social media, affect him. However, he emphasized that this is no longer the situation.

“I could feel the support from day one, but it’s clear that there are many who want to see you down because you’ve reached the level you’ve reached, and there are many who may be envious. There have been many positive comments, but there have also been some negative ones that I’ve had to sort through,” he said.

“At first, it was a bit difficult to distinguish between one and the other. I’m from a generation where mobile and social media are read an insane amount. I quickly realised that you rarely get anything out of either the good or the bad, so I quickly decided to put it away before a match.”