Rasmus Hojlund was suspected of becoming the "new Weghorst" at MU, but coach Erik Ten Hag brought him back because he wanted to repeat the case of Sebastien Haller.
Rasmus Hojlund is about to reach the 1,000-minute mark in the Premier League without scoring a goal and MU fans must have talked about this issue a lot. Is the Danish striker hungry for the ball, poor at finishing, or is it both? Perhaps only coach Erik Ten Hag knows exactly why.
Speaking of Ten Hag, since he came to lead MU, none of the four strikers used by the Dutch head coach really played well. Needless to say, Anthony Martial, Cristiano Ronaldo lost his form and then successfully escaped from the club, Wout Weghorst played diligently but in the end did not score any goals in the Premier League.
Now, Rasmus Hojlund makes us ask: Does Ten Hag not know how to use a striker? Which strikers do you use and how effective are they?
Before coming to England, Ten Hag worked in the Netherlands and in lower leagues in Germany. The strikers he used in lower leagues were Tobias Schweinsteiger (brother of Bastian Schweinsteiger - 21 goals/54 matches), Marnix Kolder (19 goals/39 matches), Gerrit Wegkamp (15 goals/34 matches) and Kevin Friesenbichler (15 goals/24 matches) performed not bad.
Ten Hag led Tobias Schweinsteiger to the highest scoring season of his career, just 1 year before retiring
Tobias Schweinsteiger scored the most goals in his career in Ten Hag's first season leading the Bayern Munich reserve team with 14 goals/30 matches (the following season he was injured and only scored 7 goals/22 matches before hanging up his boots). Marnix Kolder played 1 season in 2012/13 for Ten Hag at Go Ahead Eagles, however his 16 goals in the Dutch 2nd Division was the best single-season achievement of his career, and also helped the Eagles promote to the Dutch National Championship. Lan.
We will now move on to the strikers Ten Hag used at Utrecht and Ajax, there are four strikers including Sebastien Haller, Klaas Jan Huntelaar, Kasper Dolberg and Brian Brobbey. Among these, Haller stands out the most and is his favorite student, having played for Ten Hag at both clubs, and is the striker who scores the most goals for Ten Hag with 87 goals in 147 matches. Of the remaining strikers, Huntelaar scored 47 goals/103 matches, Dolberg scored 14 goals/46 matches and Brobbey scored 13 goals/32 matches.
Among these strikers, Haller is considered the most similar to Hojlund because his height is almost the same (1m90 & 1m91), their playing style depends on the strength of speed and the ability to run away from the marker. Huntelaar and Dolberg are often brought on by Ten Hag from the bench and their playing style rarely touches the ball, while Brobbey is a wide striker who sometimes drifts to the wing like Timo Werner.
Haller is the most successful center forward among the center forwards ever used by Ten Hag
Handling and kicking with both feet, Haller in both Utrecht and Ajax was allowed by Ten Hag to hang around about 10-20 meters from the opponent's penalty area and wait for the opportunity to break the offside trap. Therefore, wing strikers, when passing to him at the other end of the field, often drop the ball into space for Haller to run down, instead of passing straight to his feet.
At Ajax, Haller often plays with two wing strikers and Tadic, Berghuis, Neres or Antony can pass to Haller depending on the situation. Tadic often runs without the ball into the inner corridor, receives the ball in the middle of the opponent's line and goes down to the touchline before returning the ball or passing it to Haller, who will then come from the second line to finish.
Meanwhile, Berghuis, Neres and Antony all have the same style of cutting from the right to shoot with the left foot, so if they pass to Haller they will often drop the ball into the armpit of the penalty area for Haller to run into before handling it again. If these three players do not pass to right-back Noussair Mazraoui to advance and cross/cross, Haller will come in from the second line in the same way as he combines with Tadic.
How Haller works at Ajax: Mazraoui comes in from the right wing and Haller takes advantage of the opponent's center back to lose focus to break the offside trap and escape.
Gravenberch dropped the ball into the left armpit space and Haller was between the two center backs accelerating towards the ball
Even though Haller at West Ham was not used properly, he still had moments of good play. In this phase, he dropped down near the middle of the field to handle the ball and help Felipe Anderson escape
The way of crossing is also arranged by Ten Hag depending on the wing. If from the right wing the cross must be delivered early and with the left foot for Haller to run in, and from the left wing Tadic will come down near the touchline and hang with his left foot. With this type of ball, Haller will not have to run but catch it in the right position. more fixed.
Ten Hag likes to use Haller the most, Not one of the strikers, so he sought out Hojlund last summer so that MU could have a striker similar to his former student. Weghorst is just a temporary solution brought in by Ten Hag midway through last season and does not have the speed of Haller and Hojlund. Hojlund may be as successful as Haller, but MU's attack machine will need time to be built as smoothly as Ajax.
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