One Manchester United insider has suggested that Ruben Amorim wants to replace an underperforming star at Old Trafford.
Manchester United have endured a disappointing season, with Rasmus Højlund emerging as one of the biggest underperformers.
The Danish striker arrived at Old Trafford in the summer of 2023, signing from Atalanta for £73 million. Despite a challenging debut campaign, he still managed to find the net 16 times across all competitions.
Following a promising first season, expectations were high for Højlund to push on, but the reality has been quite different under Ruben Amorim.
This season, he has managed just seven goals in all competitions, with only two coming in the Premier League. After 36 appearances, he is currently enduring a 19-game goal drought and calls are being made for him to be dropped for 17-year-old Chido Obi.
United insider says Amorim wants to replace Højlund
Manchester United’s former chief scout Mick Brown, who spent over a decade at Old Trafford, cannot believe Højlund’s lack of progression since arriving at the club.
Brown describes the 22-year-old’s situation as “alarming” and says that he has heard United want to replace him with a summer signing.
However, the ex-scout also believes that it would be difficult to sell Højlund when the season ends due to the high price United paid Atalanta in 2023.
“Since Amorim came in, he hasn’t shown any improvement to his game where you can think they’re clearly working with him on these issues,” Brown told Football Insider.
“He looks the same player he did when he came in two years ago, and that’s not good. It’s quite alarming, actually, because you expect to see some improvement from him.
“From what I hear, United are going to go out and sign a new striker in the summer because they don’t see Hojlund as somebody who is going to be up there long-term.
“The issue then, like I said, is the money they spent on him which means it’s unlikely they’ll be able to move him on if that’s what they wanted to do.”
Amorim’s system relies on in-form striker
On Thursday evening, and for a lot of the season, we have seen the negative effects on Amorim’s system when the striker is in poor form.
Diogo Dalot opted against squaring a simple ball for Højlund against Real Sociedad in Spain and the only explanation for his decision is that he doesn’t trust his Danish teammate right now.
It was certainly a poor mistake from Dalot but it is a trend we have seen at Old Trafford this term during Højlund’s poor form.
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Teammates are not instantly looking for Højlund and that is a problem. Amorim’s entire Sporting team were geared around making chances for Viktor Gyökeres.
Højlund will likely not be the man leading the line at United next season, but whoever it is at the front, United’s players need to start obsessing over creating chances for that player.
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