‘Hard to rate him’ – Denmark boss assesses Rasmus Hojlund performance against Spain

It has been a quiet start to the season for Rasmus Hojlund.

The Danish striker missed the start of the campaign with a hamstring injury he sustained during pre-season.

At the same time, goals have not exactly been flowing for Manchester United. The team has managed just 12 goals in 11 Premier League games; only three teams have scored fewer.

There was a lot of pressure on Hojlund’s shoulders when he returned from injury to instantly start providing goals, but it hasn’t worked out that way. He has one goal to show for seven Premier League appearances.

The pressure has only intensified by the arrival of Joshua Zirkzee because goals aren’t his forte, after scoring just once in 17 games across all competitions.

It will take Hojlund time to catch up with everyone else after missing the start of the season, but we can’t keep using that as an excuse.

In the game prior to the international break—a 3-0 win over Leicester City—Hojlund didn’t perform very well. Pundits can say he doesn’t get a lot of service, but his movement was second-best at times, and he looked more interested in fighting with centre-backs than holding up the ball.

Rasmus Hojlund vs Spain

Hojlund endured another quiet evening for Denmark against Spain on Friday night.

Denmark manager Brian Riemer has reflected on the striker’s display but feels it’s too difficult to rate his performance based on the fact he didn’t get many chances to score.

Riemer hopes he side can create more chances for Hojlund, or whoever is tasked with playing up front in the future.

“I think it’s hard to rate him on that match,” Riemer said, as quoted by United In Focus. “We met a strong team, and it is not so easy to create chances against them.

“I hope that we can help to serve Rasmus even better, because one of the criteria for scoring goals as a striker is also that you get some chances, and after all it has to come from both the wide and central points.

“We must all make ourselves better at helping Rasmus, Kasper Dolberg, Jonas Wind, Yussuf and whoever else can play forward to get chances in the Danish national team. It is one of the things I hope we can bring in when we meet teams that are perhaps at the level below Spain – that we create a lot more.”

Riemer knows he has an exciting prospect in Hojlund, but he is still hatching from his shell.

Hojlund only touched the ball 16 times (same he managed against PAOK in the Europa League) and lost the ball three times.

That is why Bold awarded the player with a rating of three out of five.

Even though chances were limited, Hojlund needs to do more off the ball to make his presence felt up front.