Okay, the deal seems to be “hotting up” for Rasmus Hojlund to #MUFC What exactly should we expect out of him? He started his professional career at Kobenhavn in the 20-21 season after scoring 15 and assisting 3 in the u19 division which earned him a callup to the main team where at the age of 17 he went on to play 164 minutes across 4 games. Going into the next season he was scarcely involved in their Conference League play off matches having played just 107 minutes, scoring 3 goals in that time. Things didn’t change either going into the proper season which saw him play just 420 minutes across 20 games in the league and Conference League, scoring twice in that time. Kobenhavn saw him as surplus to requirements and moved him on to Sturm Graz for around £1m in January of last year. He was far more successful in this tenure. Which saw him play 1155 minutes across 13 games for the remainder of that season which saw him score 6 goals and get 1 assist, he was starting to settle, this became evident at the start of last season where he picked up 5 goals, 3 assists in the opening 6 games for Sturm Graz which resulted in Atalanta taking a punt on him for a fee of around £13m in which he scored 10 and got 4 assists across 1897 minutes in all comps, which is a goal contribution every 135.5 minutes. A lot has been said about him picking up just 9 goals in the Serie A last season, but very rarely do people look at that in context, he played 1833 minutes in the league which meant that he had a goal contribution every 166 minutes in the league, to put that into perspective, Rashford had a goal contribution every 144.4 minutes in the Premier League last season. The Premier League also see 0.29 goals per game more than the Serie A which is 11% than the Serie A. Using that Rashford and Hojlund’s league goal contributions per 90 were very similar last season. His numbers are incredibly impressive for someone so young and inexperienced. The likes of Haaland and Mbappe have desensitised everyone as to what numbers to expect from a young talent. To put it once again into perspective, at the age of 20 Harry Kane was just breaking through into Tottenham’s first team after multiple loans varying in success in which saw him score 17 goals in 71 games, Hojlund took 18 games less to reach that figure. So that being said, what exactly is his style and what are his strengths? His standout attributes are his athleticism, aggressive speed, ability to beat a man and his incredible movement in the box. His movement has allowed him to be in the top 1% of strikers when it comes to progressive passes received and in the top 7% for touches in the box. He is incredibly direct on the ball, only having eyes for goal which is shown by the fact that he is in the top 25% for progressive carries and top 40% for progressive passing, whilst being in the top 17% for successful takeons. One thing we haven’t seen much from him is his ability to be a high-volume passer, we’ve not seen much of his range with Atalanta making the 8th most passes in Serie A and having the 9th most possession. We are also yet to see his full pressing ability, with Atalanta ranking 12th in the league when it comes to pressing intensity. However, from what we’ve seen of his aggressiveness and physicality I don’t see it being an issue. His physicality and aggressiveness hasn’t gone unnoticed, it has resulted in his current manager Gasperini to compare him to fellow Scandinavian striker Haaland in which he says - “Hojlund has this spirit, energy, intensity, but also the technical quality that is just remarkable. He still has so much margin for improvement, too.” And added on that “He has very similar characteristics to Haaland, not just his face. He is so quick, he’s under 11 seconds over 100m and that’s not even trying very hard. Considering his height, he has a low centre of gravity and can move his legs very fast. I am convinced he’ll have a great career; he just gets stronger every day.” He has the directness, striking ability and intelligence in his attacking runs in which Haaland possesses. He has a similar running style to that of Erling, where he runs with his head down as he already has the image in his head as to what he wants to happen and uses his pace and physicality to force his way there. He is fairly 2 footed scoring 6 with his weaker right foot and 3 with his stronger left foot in the league last season. His elite movement allows for high xG chances and high quality chances but he also has a very good technique which allows him to strike the ball with very little lift on it and can keep it hard and low. Last season he scored 20 goals for club and country from an xG of 17.46, this disparity isn’t as high as the likes of the elite in Haaland and Kane but outperforming the xG is something only 4 United players managed last season. A massive attribute to his game that Man United and Bruno specifically will benefit from is Hojlund’s pace in behind coupled with his ability to hold off his defender and getting a shot away, with Bruno playing the most through balls in the league and creating the most chances in the league, along with Man United scoring the most goals off of quick transitions, it seems like a match made in heaven. *As this deal progresses I will write more about Hojlund, there is still so much more to cover, I've only scratched the surface*