Hojlund scored two goals, one either side of the interval, in United's victory
He was on bench on Sunday but inspired his side to win in Europe on Thursday
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By LEWIS BROWNING
Published: 17:59 EST, 28 November 2024 | Updated: 17:59 EST, 28 November 2024
Rasmus Hojlund has revealed what Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim told him at half-time of his side's 3-2 Europa League win over Bod/Glimt on Thursday night.
Amorim got his home United career off to the perfect start at Old Trafford, but his side had to come from behind to defeat their Norwegian opponents and continue to climb the Europa League table.
It was Hojlund who Amorim had to thank for the comeback, too, with the United No 9 scoring twice either side of half-time to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 win.
Hojlund had been left out of Amorim's first Premier League starting line-up at the weekend as the Red Devils scraped a 1-1 draw with strugglers Ipswich, with Marcus Rashford preferred in the No 9 role in Amorim's first game.
But he took his chance with both hands on Thursday, and may now have put his hand up to start this weekend when it's back to league action with United versus Everton.
Speaking to TNT Sports after the game, Hojlund gave an insight into the half-time team talk from Amorim, who gave him some advice before he went onto score his second goal of the game.
Rasmus Hojlund (pictured) has revealed what Ruben Amorim told him at half-time of Man United's Europa League win
Hojlujnd scored United's winner in second half of the game at Old Trafford - his second of game
He also gave his verdict on why he is a fan of the 3-4-3 system favoured by Amorim (pictured)
'I always try to stay inside the 16-yard box,' the forward said. 'Quick corner and we've worked on these sort of things.
'The manager told me at half-time to stick to running to the first post and we saw how it worked out.' Hojlund's winners came after he had made a near-post run to get on the end of a cross from Manuel Ugarte.
The forward has had a stop-start to his career at United so far, scoring a total of 18 goals in 56 games since joining the club for £72million in the summer of 2023.
It was unclear if he would be first choice under Amorim once Erik ten Hag had departed as manager, and that remains the case, but he did himself no harm on Thursday evening.
There is room for one striker in Amorim's preferred 3-4-3 system, with two other attacking players in support. They were Bruno Fernandes and Alejandro Garnacho on Sunday, and Garnacho and Mason Mount on Thursday.
That puts Hojlund in direct competition with the likes of Rashford, Joshua Zirkzee and potentially some wide players for a starting place, and the Dane spoke on getting used to the new system after the match.
'It's going to take time but today already we saw patterns and it's getting better,' the said. 'Now it's for us to build on it.
'For me, this system reminds me of how I played at Atalanta with 3-4-3 and it suits me very well.'