Man Utd greed takes over as Garnacho to Hojlund axis lasts 65 minutes

Manchester United were actually crossing the ball for Rasmus Hojlund, until he missed a couple, at which point they stopped and went back to shooting at any given opportunity. The striker’s too selfless and his teammates are too greedy. 

“This might be harsh, but he’s got to score,” said Ally McCoist on commentary, before claiming Hojlund had “done the hard bit” of getting in front of the defender, before crashing his header onto the crossbar. He probably should have scored that one, and probably should have taken another chance five minutes later, when he kneed a follow-up to Marcus Rashford’s rasping shot wide of the post. But the key takeaway from the first opportunity wasn’t that he missed it, but that he had it.

It felt like the first time Hojlund has ever got on the end of a cross from the byline at Manchester United. That’s in part down to him, but as he showed in that moment, Hojlund’s always looking for it, and it’s rarely his movement that’s found wanting. In the main it’s been the wingers who haven’t been doing their bit, invariably cutting in and taking shots rather than delivering for a striker built to get on the end of crosses.

With Alejandro Garnacho or Marcus Rashford on the left and Antony on the right, as has been the case more often than not this season, a shot is always going to be the more likely outcome, as they drop their shoulders towards goal and their strongest feet. Rashford continually did that from the left in the 2-0 win over Wigan.

It would be less of a problem if they had been cutting in and scoring, in which case Hojlund not scoring would also be less of a problem. But they’ve managed just eight goals between them in 4,383 minutes of action.

Alan Shearer highlighted Hojlund’s lack of service on Match of the Day last month.

“Antony into Hojlund – six passes in, what, five games all season. Garnacho [with] five passes . I mean that should be happening per game, never mind five or six games. We can see what’s drastically wrong, and they’re never going to score goals unless they improve on that.”

1.2 passes to Hojlund per 90mins from Antony and 1.0 from Garnacho, with Erik ten Hag and Manchester United’s modus operandi until recently being to play with inverted wingers.

Playing on the right as a right-footed winger on Monday, Garnacho delivered six crosses having averaged just 2.3 per 90mins in all competitions this season, with Rashford (1.70) and Antony (1.47) even more reticent.

It’s therefore a game that should provide Hojlund with hope despite further missed chances. His runs won’t always be in vain.

The irony is that while Hojlund’s patience has paid off, to the extent that he’s kept making those runs and the crosses have finally arrived, the wingers may not be so tolerant. How long will they keep crossing if he keeps missing? Garnacho, Rashford and Antony aren’t the sort of players to snub shooting opportunities for long.

This game was a microcasm of that apprehension. Garnacho delivered his last cross in the 65th minute, and had three of his five shots after that point. Hojlund had three shots in the first half and one in the second, in the 67th minute.

It was as though Hojlund’s teammates felt they had given him ample opportunity to get on the scoresheet and became more and more trigger happy as the game wore on.

If anything it was the opposite for Hojlund himself, who was involved in much of the good build-up play in the second half, often passing when he could have taken on a shot himself.

So while the change of tact from Ten Hag – perhaps more out of necessity than design – to put a right-sided player on the right wing, should provide more opportunities for Hojlund, the striker’s selflessness, allied to the greed of those around him, doesn’t provide any great confidence that the goals will come in their droves anytime soon.

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